Cigar Chomping Daddy with a Sarcastic Squint, Gray Beard and a Cap, 11x14 inches oil on canvas panel by Kenney Mencher (gay bear, cigars)
$375.00
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THIS WORK IS ORIGINAL (NOT A PRINT OR GICLEE)
Shipping takes 3-4 Weeks
This is one of those quick six- or seven-hour paintings that I made using the alla prima method. This method of painting which translates as “in the first,” kind of means “all at once,” or is synonymous with a method called, “wet into wet.”
The artist to popularize this started in the Baroque with painters like Velasquez, who would have a model sit for a very short time, sometimes as smalltime is three or four hours and then quickly snatch the painting onto a time to canvas that was oiled up either with linseed oil or walnut oil and using a soft brush with sketch the details and the anatomy directly into this soupy mixture. They would then often wipe out some of the lighter areas so that the lighter part of the canvas showed through and then build up the light areas with thicker “impastos” (which roughly translates as “thick paste.”) This method was then popularized in the 19th century by heroes such as John Singer Sargent. This was the method that I learned how to paint in high school when I went to Art and Design High School in New York City in the late 70s and early 80s.
Up until I had my heart attack almost 3 years ago, I love to smoke! I mean I smoked everything. I love the smell of pipe tobacco and cigar tobacco as well as cigarettes and pot. (Does anyone use that term anymore?) One of the things about bear and daddy culture that attracts me is the hyper masculine image and smell of a gruff powerful man chomping on a cigar. Probably my fetishizing of it started in the 1970s with comic books and characters in them like Nick Fury and the Wolverine smoking cigars. It wasn’t until the Internet came along that I really became aware that other people found it an attractive fetish as well. Look at this quote from a Tumblr blog:
"Cigars have been part of the gay fetish scene on a widespread level since the 1970s. In the U.S., gay men's magazine Drummer published an article about the appeal of cigars in 1978 and sparked a niche craze that quickly spread, especially among the leather and S&M communities.
Through generations of media portrayal – films, tv, photo spreads – society was used to the idea that watching someone smoke could be sexual. Though the mainstream’s love affair with smoking has ended, there’s a loyal following of fetish men who love to smoke and/or watch other men smoking - especially cigars. We’ve delved into this kink a little bit to find out more.
Cigars as a fetish
A cigar compliments a leather or uniform identity perfectly, reinforcing the masculinity of the gear. Like the gear itself, cigars have become a symbol of extreme masculinity and virility. There’s also the clear phallic appearance of a cigar, and to some, the ritual of smoking one has connotations of giving head.
Cigar smoking has its own mystique. Cigar smoke lingers and creates clouds that hang in the air, surrounding the smoker in their own enigmatic haze. For some cigar fetish men, the smell and look of the smoke can be a turn on in itself.
The fact that cigars are traditionally smoked by men together also adds to their fetish status. Homosocial environments and habits lend themselves well to becoming fetishized, where the chance of male bonding turning into something more physical is always a possibility. Many cigar fetish men like to smoke together, sharing cigars and swapping smoke before or during play.
Some men attribute their cigar fetish to experiences in earlier life, such as seeing older, often authoritarian men smoking them. For a number of cigar fetish men, cigars are part of power play; a status symbol for Doms to lord over their subs. Doms can restrict their sub’s access to the cigar, or use the cigar as a treat for good behavior."
https://lthrcigarbull.tumblr.com/post/172168506884/tawood61-cansmoker84-theirishcigarbear
Warning these are the only sites authorized to sell my art:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/kmencher
https://www.kenney-mencher.net/
http://kenney-mencher.com/
A Bit About Me
I was born in Brooklyn February of 1965. During much of my childhood I lived in Brooklyn, the Bronx, upstate NY, Sarasota, Florida and Manhattan. (Both my mother and father divorced and remarried.) The real hero of my childhood is my older brother Marc who literally changed my diapers, acted as my protector and as my role model.
I started to learn to paint and draw when I was six or seven years old and was convinced that I would be an artist from that age on.
As a teen at the High School of Art and Design I got my best training in Irwin Greenberg’s class where he taught me how to draw, oil paint and watercolor. I also attended classes at the Cooper Union and Art Students League.
My parents threw me out in my senior year of high school, so I earned my GED and worked construction on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It was a rough time but my older brother and his partner Kirk rescued me by inviting me to move with them to Cincinnati, Ohio to live and study. While a college student, I worked in restaurants and painted as much as I could. After a year at the University of Cincinnati, I went back to the Bronx where I finished college at CUNY Lehman. Lehman is a fantastic college.
After completing my undergraduate studies, I lived in California and then Ohio completing my two masters’ degrees in Art History and Studio Art. After school I was lucky enough to have dual careers as an exhibiting artist and tenured professor.
In 2014 I began to work on paintings with a strong homoerotic content. Despite excellent sales and well received shows, the galleries I worked with wouldn’t show my new queer work, so I’ve been successfully working mainly directly with my collectors. This change has freed me and allowed me to focus on themes and subjects that, in the past, were rejected or resulted in censorship.
Things are going great! In 2016, after eighteen years of teaching art history and studio courses, I resigned a tenured professorship to pursue painting full time.
____________________________________________________________
Ratings and Reviews
Michael
Rated 5 out of 5
Thank you for the beautiful drawing !!!! You are a great talent and a wonderful man . God bless and many thanks !
JoeyL06
Rated 5 out of 5
Absolute amazing piece! I love the art and the artist. I will be definitively purchasing more art pieces.
RJ
Rated 5 out of 5
Wow. I've admired Kenney's work for a while, and decided to purchase this work as a gift for a friend. Seeing his work in person is totally different from seeing the photos online... the textures and colors are beautiful. Too bad for my friend, I'm keeping this one for myself! It was packed very very well and arrived in perfect shape. Highly recommended!
PoojiDung
Rated 5 out of 5
Another fantastic piece of art from Mr. Mencher. Speedy shipping and well packaged. Thanks!
Rodolfo
Rated 5 out of 5
I have admired this artist work for quite some time now and always wanted to acquire one of his pieces. I was lucky enough to find this one available and the seller was extremely helpful throughout the whole transaction. Upon receiving this item I was beyond astonished at the care given to how the item was shipped. Talk about professionalism to a T!!! I looked at this piece through strong light and very strong magnification and needless to say, I was totally overwhelmed by just the sheer technique and artistry of his work! My Lord, what an amazing talent he possesses!!! I’ll be purchasing many more items from him as soon as I possibly can. This is definitely going to be A focal point in my vast art collection!!! Beyond over the moon thrilled!!!
THIS WORK IS ORIGINAL (NOT A PRINT OR GICLEE)
Shipping takes 3-4 Weeks
This is one of those quick six- or seven-hour paintings that I made using the alla prima method. This method of painting which translates as “in the first,” kind of means “all at once,” or is synonymous with a method called, “wet into wet.”
The artist to popularize this started in the Baroque with painters like Velasquez, who would have a model sit for a very short time, sometimes as smalltime is three or four hours and then quickly snatch the painting onto a time to canvas that was oiled up either with linseed oil or walnut oil and using a soft brush with sketch the details and the anatomy directly into this soupy mixture. They would then often wipe out some of the lighter areas so that the lighter part of the canvas showed through and then build up the light areas with thicker “impastos” (which roughly translates as “thick paste.”) This method was then popularized in the 19th century by heroes such as John Singer Sargent. This was the method that I learned how to paint in high school when I went to Art and Design High School in New York City in the late 70s and early 80s.
Up until I had my heart attack almost 3 years ago, I love to smoke! I mean I smoked everything. I love the smell of pipe tobacco and cigar tobacco as well as cigarettes and pot. (Does anyone use that term anymore?) One of the things about bear and daddy culture that attracts me is the hyper masculine image and smell of a gruff powerful man chomping on a cigar. Probably my fetishizing of it started in the 1970s with comic books and characters in them like Nick Fury and the Wolverine smoking cigars. It wasn’t until the Internet came along that I really became aware that other people found it an attractive fetish as well. Look at this quote from a Tumblr blog:
"Cigars have been part of the gay fetish scene on a widespread level since the 1970s. In the U.S., gay men's magazine Drummer published an article about the appeal of cigars in 1978 and sparked a niche craze that quickly spread, especially among the leather and S&M communities.
Through generations of media portrayal – films, tv, photo spreads – society was used to the idea that watching someone smoke could be sexual. Though the mainstream’s love affair with smoking has ended, there’s a loyal following of fetish men who love to smoke and/or watch other men smoking - especially cigars. We’ve delved into this kink a little bit to find out more.
Cigars as a fetish
A cigar compliments a leather or uniform identity perfectly, reinforcing the masculinity of the gear. Like the gear itself, cigars have become a symbol of extreme masculinity and virility. There’s also the clear phallic appearance of a cigar, and to some, the ritual of smoking one has connotations of giving head.
Cigar smoking has its own mystique. Cigar smoke lingers and creates clouds that hang in the air, surrounding the smoker in their own enigmatic haze. For some cigar fetish men, the smell and look of the smoke can be a turn on in itself.
The fact that cigars are traditionally smoked by men together also adds to their fetish status. Homosocial environments and habits lend themselves well to becoming fetishized, where the chance of male bonding turning into something more physical is always a possibility. Many cigar fetish men like to smoke together, sharing cigars and swapping smoke before or during play.
Some men attribute their cigar fetish to experiences in earlier life, such as seeing older, often authoritarian men smoking them. For a number of cigar fetish men, cigars are part of power play; a status symbol for Doms to lord over their subs. Doms can restrict their sub’s access to the cigar, or use the cigar as a treat for good behavior."
https://lthrcigarbull.tumblr.com/post/172168506884/tawood61-cansmoker84-theirishcigarbear
Warning these are the only sites authorized to sell my art:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/kmencher
https://www.kenney-mencher.net/
http://kenney-mencher.com/
A Bit About Me
I was born in Brooklyn February of 1965. During much of my childhood I lived in Brooklyn, the Bronx, upstate NY, Sarasota, Florida and Manhattan. (Both my mother and father divorced and remarried.) The real hero of my childhood is my older brother Marc who literally changed my diapers, acted as my protector and as my role model.
I started to learn to paint and draw when I was six or seven years old and was convinced that I would be an artist from that age on.
As a teen at the High School of Art and Design I got my best training in Irwin Greenberg’s class where he taught me how to draw, oil paint and watercolor. I also attended classes at the Cooper Union and Art Students League.
My parents threw me out in my senior year of high school, so I earned my GED and worked construction on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. It was a rough time but my older brother and his partner Kirk rescued me by inviting me to move with them to Cincinnati, Ohio to live and study. While a college student, I worked in restaurants and painted as much as I could. After a year at the University of Cincinnati, I went back to the Bronx where I finished college at CUNY Lehman. Lehman is a fantastic college.
After completing my undergraduate studies, I lived in California and then Ohio completing my two masters’ degrees in Art History and Studio Art. After school I was lucky enough to have dual careers as an exhibiting artist and tenured professor.
In 2014 I began to work on paintings with a strong homoerotic content. Despite excellent sales and well received shows, the galleries I worked with wouldn’t show my new queer work, so I’ve been successfully working mainly directly with my collectors. This change has freed me and allowed me to focus on themes and subjects that, in the past, were rejected or resulted in censorship.
Things are going great! In 2016, after eighteen years of teaching art history and studio courses, I resigned a tenured professorship to pursue painting full time.
____________________________________________________________
Ratings and Reviews
Michael
Rated 5 out of 5
Thank you for the beautiful drawing !!!! You are a great talent and a wonderful man . God bless and many thanks !
JoeyL06
Rated 5 out of 5
Absolute amazing piece! I love the art and the artist. I will be definitively purchasing more art pieces.
RJ
Rated 5 out of 5
Wow. I've admired Kenney's work for a while, and decided to purchase this work as a gift for a friend. Seeing his work in person is totally different from seeing the photos online... the textures and colors are beautiful. Too bad for my friend, I'm keeping this one for myself! It was packed very very well and arrived in perfect shape. Highly recommended!
PoojiDung
Rated 5 out of 5
Another fantastic piece of art from Mr. Mencher. Speedy shipping and well packaged. Thanks!
Rodolfo
Rated 5 out of 5
I have admired this artist work for quite some time now and always wanted to acquire one of his pieces. I was lucky enough to find this one available and the seller was extremely helpful throughout the whole transaction. Upon receiving this item I was beyond astonished at the care given to how the item was shipped. Talk about professionalism to a T!!! I looked at this piece through strong light and very strong magnification and needless to say, I was totally overwhelmed by just the sheer technique and artistry of his work! My Lord, what an amazing talent he possesses!!! I’ll be purchasing many more items from him as soon as I possibly can. This is definitely going to be A focal point in my vast art collection!!! Beyond over the moon thrilled!!!
