These pages contain photos of original artwork produced by Bill Mahan. Much of the following artwork is for sale as one of a kind originals. They will be sold on a first come first served basis. Inquiries are welcome via e-mail at wmahan@rcn.com. Please continue scrolling down to view the work.
This cover piece depicts a cranberry bog in Carlisle Massachusetts during harvest time. It was chosen to be included in the AARP 2009 calendar and will be sold at auction during the AARP 50+ convention in Washington DC.
CRANBERRY HARVEST, acrylic on canvas, 36x24, committed to AARP
An exploration of shapes, colors, and acrylic texture.
ABYX, acrylic on canvasboard, 22x28, $550 + shipping
You are laying in bed in hospital room 603. When you look at the ceiling you notice the curtain track that snakes around the beds. Add a little color and here is what you get.
BIDH 603, acrylic on canvas, 48x30, $750 + shipping
What do you do with all those acrylic paint chips you have peeled off your pallet? Turn them into an explosive collage.
BIG BANG, acrylic on canvasboard, 24x20, $550 + shipping
A bee works its way through the hydrangeas, doing her part to assure there will be more of both.
BEE WITH HYDRANGEAS, acrylic on canvas, 28x22, $550 + shipping
The Boston Public Garden in Spring-time is a riot of flowers from tulips to dogwood trees. Some of the blossoms even walk around.
BLOSSOMS, acrylic on canvas, 28x28, $850 +shipping
For most Americans in 1938 the war was confined to disturbing headlines and movie newsreels. Young adults set about enjoying their youth while they could, much like these Blue Point Riders.
BLUE POINT RIDERS, acrylic on canvas, 24x20, $750 + shipping
The colonials had been building defensive works all night in the dark. Sixty-five year old Colonel Richard Gridley, the first Chief Engineer of the Army, had directed the project. Only officers wore unifiorms that night, and his would be stained in blood when he was carried wounded from the field.
5:15 am came right around dawn. The British watch aboard the HMS Lively had just spotted the Colonials atop Breed's Hill. When Captain Thomas gave the order to open fire the Admiral sent a launch over to ask what the Captain thought he was doing.
This was how one of the most famous battles of all time began, and it was named after the wrong hill - Bunker Hill.
BREED'S HILL - 5:15 A.M., acrylic on canvas, 48x26, $1200 + shipping.
It's dinner time on Cape Cod and there is no better way of getting fresh fish than to go out and catch it.
CAPE COD EXCURSION, acrylic on canvas, 20x16, $550 + shipping
The summer sky can be a busy place, especially above a vibrant metropolis. This one over Boston is full of American pride.
CRANES AND CONTRAILS - acrylic on canvas, 28 x 22, $500
An elephant was put in front of a canvas with a few buckets of paint. His keeper stuck a paint brush in his trunk and let him slop away at it. They framed the finished product, and the zoo sold it at a fund raising auction for $10,000. Similar stories have been told about chimps and one of the news shows did an article on a 3 year old who did the same thing. The going prices were all about the same.
I have no objection to supporting a worthy cause, but I find it most galling that sub-humans and infants have succeeded where I have not. If their mindless drivel can fetch that kind of money so should mine. I have taken up the challenge. I have tried to imagine what the three might come up with if they collaborated on the same painting. Hence the title "Elephants, Prodigies, and Apes". The price is $10,000.
Now it's up to you.
ELEPHANTS, PRODIGIES, and APES, acrylic on canvas, 30x30, $10,000 + shipping
On vacation in Quebec, two ladies enjoy their ride.
EN VACANCES, acrylic on canvasboard, 15x11, $325 + shipping
Though visibility is clear inside the jetty, a fog bank has settled in beyond the channel marker. Only a swatch of blue sky is visible through the thin left edge of the misty gray wall.
FOGBANK, acrylic on canvas, 30x15, $750 + shipping
This is what the word "awesome" is meant to describe.
GRAND CANYON, acrylic on canvas, 24x18, $350 plus shipping
This piece was a recent winner of the Vortex contest, a Blue Man Group promotion. The theme of the contest was "interconnectivity". As a result it was put on display for a year at the Charles Playhouse in Boston.
HAPPY PIPES, acrylic on canvas, 30x24, $1150 plus shipping
Done as a project for Halloween, we see a Tarmuck dining on his kill. Others are seen in the background and who knows what lurks below the low lying fog. There is a light on in the house on the hill. Pray the Tarmucks don't notice it.
HARVEST OF THE TARMUCKS, acrylic on canvasboard, 28x22, $550 + shipping
Based on an 1898 studio photograph, it is the dog, not the human, who understands what is going on. The worried toddler seeks contact with the dog for self assurance, and the dog is happy to give it.
JUST DO WHAT I DO KID, acrylic on canvas, 14x18, $550 + shipping
Laney on top of Cannon Mountain, New Hampshire in1940. Behind her is the Presidential Mountain Range.
LANEY, acrylic on canvas, 50x33, $1800 + shipping
After the apocalypse corporations become everything to everyone. People live and work in airtight office buildings. It is the buildings, not the people, that are mobile. They are shaped like wheels and have a revolving tread around their circumference which enables them to travel on a network of gigantic grooved rails. This one has gone to the end of the line to have its company picnic beside the last remaining tree. Another wheeled building can be seen leaving the area in the background. When this tree is gone, there will be no more picnics.
THE LAST CORPORATE PICNIC, acrylic on canvasboard, 22x28, $550
As the lady commuter awaits her train, she checks out the would-be Yankee in her compact mirror. All the while the headlines scream out her secret desires.
LIMITED, acrylic on canvas, 30x19, $350 + shipping
Even our parents can be lovers.
THE LOVERS, acrylic on canvasboard, 11x14, $250 + shipping
This lobster shack is in Cape Neddick, Maine. Enter, and pick out a few live ones from the tank to bring home for supper.
MAINE LOBSTER SHACK, acrylic on canvas, 28x18, $650 + shipping
Lake Chocura at the foot of Mt Chocura in New Hampshire. This has a 3-D look to it because it is done on three layers of glass.
MOUNTAINVIEW, acrylic on layered glass, 15x11, $325 + shipping
A barn after the harvest, just outside Omaha, Nebraska.
NEBRASKA BARN, acrylic on canvas, 40x26, $750 + shipping
A squirrel on the north end of a log at sunset.
NORTHERN SUN, acrylic on canvasboard, 22x28, $450 + shipping
A squirrel on the south end of a log at sunset.
SOUTHERN SUN, acrylic on canvasboard, 22x28, $450 + shipping
Brookline Reservoir is a great place for a stroll. That's a piece of the Boston skyline in the distance.
PROMENADE, acrylic on canvas, 16x12, $550 + shipping
Just beyond the swanboats, Boston's monolithic buildings loom over the idyllic Public Garden. It all comes together in the center of the city where it is just one of many fascinating contrasts.
PUBLIC GARDEN, acrylic on canvas, 46x32, $1150 + shipping
This Arkansas back road crosses the railroad tracks and goes up over the interstate. Down the other side, perhaps many miles away, is home.
ROAD HOME, THE, acrylic on canvasboard, 30x20, $450 + shipping
Fenway Park is a great place to see a ballgame, but this little girl is more interested in what's in her cup than in what's on the field.
RILEY, acrylic on canvas, 24x20, $850 + shipping
This is what it looked like near Jackson Square before Katrina. Back then a tourist could be counted on to drop a dollar in a street entertainer's fishbowl.
STREET CLOWNS, acrylic on canvas, 36x27, $950 + shipping
A not so distant summer storm is whipping up a wind as it gains the Florida shore.
SUMMER STORM, acrylic on canvasboard, 16x20, $675 + shipping
A sunny day on a warm beach has been known to leave tan lines.
SUMMER THOUGHTS, acrylic on canvas, 18x24, $650 + shipping
Learning about teamwork
THANKSGIVING DAY GAME, acrylic on canvas, 30x20, $750 + shipping
Once a textile mill, now a condominium, still a great view from Lowell, Massachusetts.
WANNALANCET, acrylic on canvasboard, 9x11, $100 + shipping
The artist's father was a camera buff in 1944 and snapped his own photo. He left me many other great things.
(Not For Sale) WHEN COKE TRUCKS WERE YELLOW, acrylic on canvas, 18x24
The referees are conferring. Everyone waits to see who should be going in. Whatever their decision, the advantage is ours.
(Sold) AWAITING THE CALL, acrylic on canvas, 48x24
Sometimes the tools can look as good as the lawn.
(Sold) BARROW, acrylic on canvasboard, 9x12
Boston Public Garden in winter is no less wondrous than it is in Summer
(Sold) COMMON SNOW, acrylic on canvas, 43x24
Barnstable Bay on Cape Cod is enclosed by a lengthy dune called Sandy Neck. Without any roads the cottages at its tip are accessible only by boat or by a mile and a half swim. Most think either is worth it.
(Sold) COTTAGES AT SANDY NECK, acrylic on canvas, 20x8
Waves tumbling onto the rocks bounce back in many directions on this Scituate, Massachusetts beach.
(Sold) ECHOES IN THE SURF, acrylic on canvas, 18x24
A sailboat heads towards the horizon from Cape Cod's Barnstable Bay.
(Sold) HORIZONS, acrylic on canvas, 10x14
Rake a few New England leaves together on the right day and this is what you get.
(Sold) LEAVES, acrylic on canvas, 24x20
This soaring eagle is an illusion created by varying the shape of many lines.
(Sold) LINES, acrylic on canvasboard, 24x18
A summer night's view of lake-side reflections. If you listen hard enough you might hear the crickets.
(Sold) NIGHTDRFIT, acrylic on canvasboard, 28x22
The view from my window seat during a cloudy night's descent into Logan Airport.
(Sold) NIGHT FLIGHT, acrylic on canvasboard, 48x60
Wakiki Beach with an outrigger on it. The background consists of some surfboards, bathers, a few hotels and a volcano.
(Sold) OUTRIGGER, pastel on paper, 24x14.5
Boston's Haymarket Square has operated as an open market for decades. Over the years this man and woman have been relying on each other as Partners in many things. Today it happens to be selling dandelions in the market.
(Sold) PARTNERS, acrylic on canvas, 20x24
If you were sitting in "Section 31" at Fenway Park you'd see something like this. The Orioles are in the field and the Redsox are up. Be careful not to get beaned by those Cracker Jacks you ordered.
(Sold) SECTION 31, acrylic on wood, 37x24
The window is closed so he can't come in, but he sure is curious
(Sold) CHICKADEE HELLO, acrlic on gessobord, 4x4
Just fruit.
(Sold) GRAPEFRUIT, acrylic on gessobord, 4x4
Long Island lies off the tip of Squantum in Boston Harbor. At its far end sits a fortress in disrepair that used to guard the city. Beyond that, built to protect mariners, stands the lighthouse.
(Sold) SQUANTUM LIGHT acrylic on canvas paper, 9x12
If it is foolhardy after the battle to look for some sign of a downed friend when there is still risk from the ground - so be it.
(Sold) BUDDY SEARCH, acrylic on canvas, 24x18
A cash crop in the winter can be hard to find. Under the thin harbor ice the mudflats will still yield enough clams to be worth digging. You just have to get them past those thieving seagulls
(Sold) THE CLAMDIGGER
The textile industry relocated from the northeast to the south in the early 1900s. Nevertheless, these mills still dot the landscape and have been adapted to other purposes. This is the Talbot Mill on the Concord River in Billerica Massachusetts.
(Sold) CONCORD RIVER MILL, acrylic on canvas, 24x18
Mother, daughter, wife - advantage everyone.
(Sold) DEE, acrylic on canvas, 33x27
Under the railroad bridge spanning the Cape Cod Canal is an Army field office. The US Army Corps of Engineers built, maintains, and controls the canal. They use the tug Manomet and the patrol boat Onset to help them do it.
(Sold) THE MANOMET AND THE ONSET, acrylic on canvas, 30x22
Is a beautiful fall day in New England right for a wedding? How could you make a better choice?
(Sold) MARY, acrylic on canvas, 18x24
Standing on the edge of Lake Ontario.
(Sold) ONTARIO, acrylic on gessobord, 4x4
Starkly beautiful during the day, Pocasset Light performs a critcal function at night.
(Sold) POCASSET LIGHT, acrylic on gessobord, 4x4
They need lunch too.
(Sold) STEERS GRAZING, acrylic on canvas, 18x24
One of the best places to fish for migrating stripers is from the shores of the Cape Cod Canal. When a school passes through, the water boils with excitement.
(Sold) CANAL FISHERMAN, acrylic on canvasboard, 8x10
Roadside ice cream stands are a frequent New England delight. This one in Carlisle Massachusetts has captured the full attention of this little girl who, despite all the options, has settled on "A Small Vanilla".
(Sold) A SMALL VANILLA, acrylic on canvas, 16x20
Despite a room full of guests, this couple sees only each other as they begin their wedding dance.
(Sold) THE WEDDING DANCE, acrylic on canvas, 22x23
Bill Mahan won his first art contest at the age of twelve. It was a Father’s Day promotion by Sears and Roebuck and the prize was a power drill for Dad. Art seemed like too much fun to pursue for a living. Blue collar values called for something less pleasant to merit a successful career, so formal art training was never a consideration. For better or worse he is totally self taught in that discipline, though he does hold unrelated degrees from Quincy College, Suffolk University, and Suffolk Law School. His day jobs with the Army and Air Force have allowed him to paint recreationally for thirty years. His work has taken him all over the country which is reflected to some extent in his subject matter. He is a member of the Concord Art Association and the West Roxbury Art Association. He frequently competes his paintings in juried shows throughout eastern Massachusetts and has won numerous awards. He has had one-man shows in Chelmsford, Concord, West Roxbury, and Roslindale Massachusetts, and at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He has been shown at Boston City Hall and Logan Airport and has appeared as a guest on the BNN TV show “It’s All About Arts". He can be reached by e-mail at
wmahan@rcn.com .
ABOUT THE ARTIST