Tom Lovell - Gifted Gallery

Tom Lovell, born 5 February 1909, was an American illustrator and painter. He was a creator of pulp fiction magazine covers and illustrations, and of visual art of the American West.

Lovell enrolled at Syracuse University in 1927, graduating in 1931. His college roommate Harry Anderson, classmate Elton Fax and teacher Hibbard V.B. Kline influenced his decision to become an illustrator. In his junior year at Syracuse, Lovell sold drawings to popular "pulp" Western, gangster and detective magazines.

In the early 1930s Lovell shared a studio space in New York with Harry Anderson and Al (Nick) Carter. He eventually moved to the artist colony of New Rochelle just outside New York City. New Rochelle was home to a number of other illustrators, including Norman Rockwell and Mead Schaeffer.

After 1936, Lovell progressed into providing illustrations for advertising agencies and slick magazines such as Redbook, Life, Collier's, The American, Woman's Home Companion, and Cosmopolitan. From 1940 onwards Lovell produced covers for several magazines including Ace-High Western, Clues, Complete, Detective Tales, Dime Detective, Rangeland Romances, Star Western, and Top-Notch.

He also drew pen and ink interior illustrations for The Shadow, Courtroom Stories, Popular Western, Triple Western, and Clues. Lovell said:

"I consider myself a storyteller with a brush. I try to place myself back in imagined situations that would make interesting and appealing pictures. I am intent on producing paintings that relate to the human experience."

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