Donald Moss

For thirty years, Donald Moss was the premier artist for Sports Illustrated, painting more covers and editorial illustrations than any American painter. For his accomplishments in the sport art field, the American Sport Art Museum and Archives (ASAMA) awarded Moss with the 1985 Sport Artist of the Year Award.

After serving in the Marines during World War II, fighting in the first major battle of the Pacific ground war, "The Battle of the Tenaru" on Guadalcanal and a second campaign battle, Moss returned home and worked in New York as a free-lance designer and artist for national magazines and agencies.

Clearly, Moss' specialty lies in the world of sports. Moss is skillful in a broad range of painting styles such as realism, pointillism, pop art and surrealism. An avid 50+ year skier, he has designed logos for AMF/Head, Olin Skis, Stratton Mountain and many mountain aerials. He has also designed logos for ABC-TV and Mercedes-Benz.

Although his may not be a household name, his work is everywhere. Skiers would recognize his ski paintings, tennis players would know his slick trademark for Head racquets. Golf enthusiasts easily recognize the "The Best Eighteen Golf Holes In America," and in 1978, six million Super Bowl posters bearing his signature were distributed as the official poster. One of the most interesting was his design of "Ronnie, the Racoon," the official mascot of the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, also skiing and painting the Olympic Downhill Run.

Don's fine art prints have been commissioned by Sports Illustrated, Arnold Palmer Enterprises, Golf Digest and more. His sports paintings are included in 200 Years of Sport in America, The Best of Sports Illustrated, and his paintings of Ted Williams and Jack Nicklaus are included in the Smithsonian's book, Champions of America Sport.

His sentimental favorite from his thirty years with Sports Illustrated was his first cover, created `for the Kentucky Derby, May 4, 1964. Dick Gangel, Sports Illustrated art director, liked his artist-reporters to experience their assignments. Thus, Don skied the trails he painted from a racer's point of view, holed out many a putt on famous golf courses after an eight iron shot to the green, photographed tennis players like Jimmy Connors, and had drinks with National Hockey League stars after motor-drive camera shots of their action on ice for a series of acrylics of famous hockey players.

Former Senior Vice President of the Society of Illustrators and Chair of the U.S.A.F. Art Program, Moss flew around the world to paint Air Force activities, app. two dozen in their art collection. He designed a dozen U.S. Postal stamps and 48 First Day Covers. Don is a Life Member of the Society of Illustrators, The First Marine Division Association, a board member of the National Art Museum of Sport and a member of the Low Illustration Comittee of the New Britain Museum of American Art. His sports art is now in the collections of museums and many of the American Sports Halls of Fame.

Today, Donald Moss and his wife Sally live in Farmington, Connecticut, where he continues to work on paint.