I was lucky enough about a year ago to come into possession a large number of artwork from this artist from a family member of his. He was quite prolific and took great joy in painting every day if he was able I understand. He was renowned for creating "love notes" to family and friends but especially to his wife with whom he was very much in love with. I have a number of these "love notes" as well as paintings he has done on card stock, canvas and ever what I believe is paneling. Some have a bit of "foxing and some glue remnants and a few have the tape that was used to hold it into a card frame. Please keep this in mind when purchasing and please contact me if you have any questions BEFORE purchasing. Several of the larger pieces still have the price tag from when he lived in Florida years ago. A few of the pieces are still framed with glass and will be shipped protected with foam board.

Steven Gaston Dobson ~S Gaston Dobson ~ Boats at Anchor ~ 18" x 13" Framed Painting

(From the Chicago Tribune 1998)

Steven Dobson was so in love with painting and drawing that even mundane grocery lists, letters and phone messages became works of art.

Grocery lists were written in calligraphy and included little rhymes. Phone messages had cartoons or other prose, and letters arrived inside hand-painted cards.

"I don't know one day in my father's life when he didn't draw," said his daughter, Katie Cundiff. "He touched a lot of people with his art."

Mr. Dobson, an illustrator for more than 40 years in Chicago, died July 31 of a heart attack in his Englewood, Fla., home. A former resident of Chicago, Downers Grove and Romeoville, he was 76.

Mr. Dobson graduated from and later taught at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and spent many years as an illustrator for the now-defunct Swan Studios in Chicago. While there, he created illustrations for a wide variety of clients, from bakeries and car companies to paper-plate manufacturers looking for fancy designs.

The studio job helped pay the bills, but Mr. Dobson's first love was portraiture. As a member of the Palette & Chisel Club in Chicago, he once won the organization's gold medal in portraiture for an image of a pensive-looking woman in a silky, blue dress.

Friends and family described him as an eccentric with a sometimes childlike approach to life. He often looked at things as simple as an old barn along the side of the road as if he were seeing them for the first time.

Bernie Friedman, a Skokie graphic designer who worked with Mr. Dobson at Swan Studios, said he was generous with his talents.

"He was a tremendous talent, and for anybody who even looked at his paintings and said they liked them, he would turn around and give it to them," he said.

Mr. Dobson inspired an interest in art in his children and grandchildren. "He never stopped teaching," Cundiff said.

In addition to his daughter, Mr. Dobson is survived by his wife, Margaret; a son, Paul; a sister, Rose Ferrera; and three grandchildren. A memorial service was held in Florida.