Widely recognized as one of the greatest sports painters today, Otterstad creates artworks which capture the most significant milestones in a professional baseball player’s career. Among the rewards bestowed on World Series championship teams are the congratulatory presidential phone call and White House visit, a hometown parade, coveted World Series rings, and limited edition Otterstad prints immortalizing their lifelong dreams of winning the World Series.
For the last 15 years, Opie Otterstad has created World Series “celebration paintings” for the Chicago Cubs (2016), Kansas City Royals (2015), Boston Red Sox (2004/2007/2013), San Francisco Giants (2010/2012/2014), New York Yankees (2009), Philadelphia Phillies (2008), St. Louis Cardinals (2006/2011), Chicago White Sox (2005), Florida Marlins (2003) and Anaheim Angels (2002), as well as many other Major League Baseball’s most historic moments.
Opie Otterstad has stood in the sporting world’s spotlight for many years. He is best known for his ability to paint the spirit of the athletes, the fans, the teams and their victories. This ability comes from something beyond the brush. He is as much a part of the athletic world as those who wear the numbers. Otterstad describes the indescribable through his signature style of painting “the game.” Lauded as a “Sport Art’s Troubadour,” in addition to baseball, Otterstad has also been commissioned to create masterpieces for the NBA, NCAA, NFL organizations, and professional sports players in the world of golf, boxing, tennis, and hockey. He has become the artist of choice to paint some of the most defining moments in sports history. There is no other artist whose works are in more professional athletes’ collections, with over 150 commissions to date.
“I have been working with sports as my primary subject for the past 20 years. Most of my work has been private commissions from inside the professional sporting community. It has been a great honor and blessing to work as a small part of a world that young kids dream about.
I am trying to show the world of sports that art can take some thought without being incomprehensible. With a love of the spirit of the athlete and telling the story of sports in our time, I am trying to show the world of art that sometimes depth of character and thought can be expressed with tangible imagery.”
—Opie Otterstad
