She Loves Lucy: Love of classic TV draws artist Koast to ‘I Love Lucy’

Wednesday, July 24, 2002 | 8:25 a.m.

Call it a whim, call it intuition.

For Linda Koast, an anxious feeling was brewing within. It was telling her something in her life was about to change.

Last spring, with Koast's 40th birthday approaching, the feeling presented itself: She would paint. And painting would become her new profession.

Upon this calling, the cellular phone dealer sold her business, headed to an art supply store, turned her dining room into a studio and said, "OK, here I go."

NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt was the subject of Koast's first painting, chosen simply because, she said, "His face had character."

Photo-realistic paintings of athletes and episodes of the "I Love Lucy" television show would follow.

"For some reason, I knew this would work," Koast said from her Laytensville, Md., home.

And it did.

Koast's ultra-realistic paintings have managed to grab the attention of collectors and gallery owners throughout the country.

Three of Koast's limited edition "I Love Lucy" prints are being sold and are on display at Art Encounter at the Fashion Show mall. Collectors have already commissioned her to work on other projects.

Koast was given licensing rights from Unforgettable Licencing to create the "I Love Lucy" giclee prints.

She is planning to seek licensing rights to paint scenes from other classic television shows as "The Honeymooners," "The Carol Burnett Show," "Lost in Space" and "The Brady Bunch." Koast also paints landscapes and still-life portraits.

More a savvy businesswoman than a starving artist, Koast says that her paintings are selected because of their popularity among collectors and other buyers.

"I'm doing what people want," she said.

But after hearing Koast rattle off her favorite scenes from "I Love Lucy" episodes, it's evident her interest in the paintings is deeper than making a sale.

"I'm always drawn to the past," Koast said. "Classic TV, classic movies ... I came home from school every day and watched 'Lost in Space.' I'm not going to lie."

Koast said she decided to launch her television paintings with scenes from "I Love Lucy" episodes because of the show's broad appeal and the late Lucille Ball's unforgettable humor.

"There's so much material," Koast said. "Her face is such a classic. When she's standing on the ledge (as) Superman in the rain with the helmet on, it's hysterical.

" 'Paris At Last' is just hysterically funny when she puts that escargot holder on her nose," she said, referring to one of her paintings from a show that was aired in "Lucy's" fifth season.

"It just takes people right back."

Evoking the past

Strolling past the second-floor gallery, it's difficult to miss Koast's painting of the "I Love Lucy" 1955 episode, "California Here We Come"

The Ricardos and Mertzes merrily singing behind the convertible's giant steering wheel on their road trip out West is rife with nostalgia.

Lucy's red hair is neatly pinned. Pearls are wrapped around her neck. The gloves that Lucy is wearing match her well-tailored suit and the men are donned in the trademark hats and overcoats of the era. Everyone seems elated.

Another painting features a classic scene from a 1952 episode, in which Lucy stars in a television commercial for Vitameatavegamin Vitamins.

In the painting titled "Chocolate Factory," Lucy and Ethel are stuffing their mouths with chocolates plucked from a conveyor belt. The scene is taken from the 1952 episode "Job Switching."

"There's a lot of nostalgia with it," Rod Maly, director of Art Encounter said, referring to Koast's "I Love Lucy" prints. "That was all from a simpler, better time.

"Besides," Maly added. "It's very funny."

Newcomer

In her brief and unique journey into the art world, Koast said she has had to prove herself among some of the artists' gallery representatives, where art is something that is learned and studied, rather than a sudden life decision.

Aside from two drawings of Bay City Rollers members Eric Faulkner and Derek Longmuir that Koast had pencil-sketched some 26 years ago -- and a drawing of Martina Navratilova that she started when she was 32 -- Koast had no former experience as an artist. Legendary American painter Norman Rockwell is her inspiration.

"I love not having any preconceived notion of what art is," Koast said. "It's fun to see where I'm going to go next.

Koast associates the intuition that led to her career switch with the last words her mother (who died from cancer when Koast was a teenager) shared with her.

"She said that if she could come back, she would," Koast said, referring to her mother. "That was my first (notion) that my mother did come back."

Maly, who first saw Koast's work last March at a contemporary art show, has had Koast's work at the gallery less than a month and said her work is selling so well that he has had trouble keeping the gallery supplied.

The "Vitameatavegamin" print at Art Encounter is only the third painting Koast attempted. Expressive and lifelike, a 30-by-40 inch print sells for $1,100."

"It's always exciting to get something fresh, and her work is fresh," Maly said.

"I think she's on to something."

Currently Koast is painting the Sept. 11 scene of three fireman raising the flag at ground zero and a scene from the "I Love Lucy" episode, in which Lucy is telling husband Ricky that she is pregnant.

"I feel like I've been doing this for a very long time," Koast said. "It's been a nice ride so far."