In designing every other poster in this series, I began by capturing and simplifying some racing scene or image. Whether the image was of a horse winning a race or a trainer saddling his runner in the paddock, it was an image which I captured and developed, not built out of whole cloth. This triple was different. It would be three posters in one, a seamless portrayal of the passage of time from Jim Dandy on a muddy track in 1930 to Alydar and Affirmed on a sparkling day in 1978 — events in time that I never experienced.
To accomplish this challenge, I decided to create a set emulating the famous “East Coast Joys” series of 1931 by the noted British poster artist, Tom Purvis for London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). Each individual poster was meant to work alone and as a continuous scene. Each scene had to be accurate in its details — weather, architecture, clothing and colors. Each panel’s action had to be commensurate with history. None of the images could dominate the others
Since the triple was a piece of commemorative art that was to embody my entire series, I wanted to sprinkle in elements from as many of the previous posters as feasible. Hundreds of hours later, here is the triple. I wish Tom Purvis were around to see it.
Production Details:
26" x 33" (66 cm x 83.8 cm) Limited Edition
(The Travers/Saratoga posters are never reprinted)
Paper: Strobe 80 lb. dull cover
Inks: Five colors plus off-line varnish
Typeface: Adobe Garamond
