When you put out a coffee table book for $250, you get evaluated as a professional, not an amateur. If he were submitting his paintings to the local county fair, he wouldn't win a ribbon, and they give about half the paintings a ribbon.
Here's a link to another artist's work (deviant art, so link only, portrait of young girl):
https://www.deviantart.com/dora-alis/art/Prosperity-Portrait-4-849075874
As a person who was an art major, I've spent the last forty years watching crap paintings get promoted while incredibly talented people labor in obscurity, so I'm a little touchy about the subject.
I hear what you’re saying, but even with this fancy book I don’t think he’s putting himself out there as a fine artist. He and everyone else knows that his paintings are only relevant because he was once POTUS, in my opinion.
Just curious Why you linked to that artist? I find that kind of portrait kinda cartoonish looking- Sure, the artist has some skill- but the result just looks kinda like a cartoon almost- a semi-realistic looking one- a weird mix of hyperealism-like work along with more basic handling of paint that makes it kinda look semi-realistic cartoony looking (Check out the heavy use of lines in the eyes- they look too ‘Drawn’ to me- like a colored pencil drawing almost- lines such as those need to be more artistically suggeted by brushwork than outright drawn out like that in my opinion on what makes good artistic art- the results is that it makes the eye look separate from the eye socket- and not like a part of the eye as it should be) to me- Her work is too technical to be artistic- (Note, there are some artistic elements in the whole of the painting- but to me, the hyper-realism detracts from it- and while hyper-realism-like works are a technical achievement, i much prefer artistic genius over technical results)
I mean it’s far better than Bush’s work- but not a style i like (Not that my opinion is the end all be all-)- it’s almost like a kincaid painting- kinda like ‘eye candy’- the ‘hyperrealism-like’ aspect is a type of eye candy- it’s an art form in itself- but I much prefer more impressionist art expression through brushwork and use of light, and tones etc- let the paint do the expressing, not the hyperrealistic-like drawing-
I do like drawings, but artistically done ones- with flair and style- I don’t much care for hyperealism that doesn’t have much style-
If you haven’t seen this guy before, Check out this ‘Autistic Savant’ Stephen Witshire- He is kinda like a ‘human camera’, but he has a flair to his drawing that is pretty cool looking- all the detail is cool too- but I like the artistic flair he has in his drawings- Whether he consciously employs it or not, i dunno-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqKRfZHpYBs