Al Buell

Al Buell (1920-1996):  A paperback cover artist, magazine illustrator, and Coca Cola artist who worked with Gil Elvgren in the Sundblom shop in Chicago. Although his existing originals (on board, not canvas) are much smaller than those of Elvgren, Ballantyne and Ekman that perhaps explains a certain delicacy in his work; Buell's pretty girls really are "pretty." These girls-next-door are captured in such typically innocent pursuits as sewing, playing tennis, or riding a swing. Underclad as they are, Buell's girls have a wholesomeness, an ingenuousness, rare in the pin-up form.