JOHN FULTON, MATADOR / ARTIST

- click on images to enlarge -

PODCASTS ABOUT COLLECTIONS & CONNECTIONS. PODCAST #88: THE ART OF MATADOR JOHN FULTON, WITH BRITT ZAIST

American bullfighter John Fulton (1932-1998) led a colorful life in and out of the bullrings of Spain — and distinguished himself as an artist, most notably through paintings colored with the blood of the bulls he killed in the ring. Friend and fellow artist Britt Zaist has held onto 80 of Fulton's works, while selling much of his work though Galeria Izamal in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. www.forkeepspodcast.com

Click onto the white arrow to hear the podcast.

John Fulton (1932-1998) was an outstanding painter, illustrator and jewelry designer. He was also the only American to rise to the rank of Matador de Toros in the prestigious Maestranza bullring in Seville, Spain, and to confirm that status in Las Ventas, Madrid. Before his 1994 farewell retirement fight in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico (where he began both his art and bullfighting careers), he exhibited his paintings at the Instituto Allende and at Galeria Izamal.

A wide selection of his drawings, prints, posters and reproductions of his paintings are still available, including an original oil painting: REBOLLERO. 

For information and purchases contact:

”Portion of book cover from OUR FRIEND JOHN FULTON QUIXOTE by Curro Camacho”. This serves only as an example of John Fulton´s Bull´s Blood Painting. None are available.

- BLOOD OF THE BULL PAINTINGS BY JOHN FULTON -

 

John Fulton, the young artist-matador, inspired by the prehistoric cave art of Altamira.

John Fulton, the young artist-matador, in the plaza.

From AMERICAN ARTIST MAGAZINE:

“The paintings- I do not know the technical name for the genre- are done on white illustration board, using bull´s blood as the sole pigment. (This means, at any rate, that they will never fade, for bull´s blood was used as moistening for mortar by the ancient Irish, and it is imperishable owing to its albumen: it grows hard as a stone and only a chisel will remove it).

They show the bulls in every sort of attitude, including a few in the moment of death from the sword.  They are marvelously “right”:  they are pure “bull-forms,” captured and set down by the artist in a way that no camera could ever achieve.  The delicacy and sureness of touch in these paintings, in which rectification by the artist is presumably impossible, are something truly unique.”

 

“Template”. Several templates used to make blood paintings are available.

JOHN FULTON´S TECHNIQUE:

John drew first on sheets of semi-transparent vellum paper with a soft pencil.  Next, he turned his drawing face down on the illustration board, lightly drawing over the drawing to transfer a faint line to the illustration board.  Then he painted with the bull´s blood. These drawings on transparent paper became templates to be used over and over again. We have a number of these beautiful templates used for his bull´s blood paintings which in themselves are a work of art.