By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Political paintings by Carthage artist Andy Thomas go on the block today in an auction that, in some ways, may seem like the presidential election.

Potential buyers can “vote” with their bids on paintings of Republican and Democratic presidents gathered around a poker table.

The Republican version, called “Grand Ol’ Gang,” features party founder Abraham Lincoln, with Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

“True Blues” depicts Thomas Jefferson, along with Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The paintings were completed in the spring of 2007. Thomas said the idea for the works came at the suggestion of Somerset Fine Arts, the Texas-based company that distributes his works to dealers.

The original paintings will be sold in an online auction by Greenhouse Gallery of Fine Art, San Antonio, Texas. Bidding will open at 11 a.m. today and end at 8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28.

Prints of the works have been on sale for a year, with the Republican version outselling the Democrats by a 3-to-1 margin, said Dina Thomas, the artist’s wife and business partner.

She said she’s not assigning any particular importance to that in trying to forecast the outcome of the November presidential election.

“I did ask the distributors if there were more galleries (selling the print) in Red states than Blue ones, and they said there was no difference,” she said.

“This whole process really made us a lot more interested in the election, and watching the primaries,” added Andy Thomas.

The paintings depict the presidents in a bipartisan way — those whose faces can be seen are all either smiling or laughing — though Thomas said it was difficult to find smiling images of some, especially former President Richard Nixon.

Thomas, already an historian by virtue of the research he puts into his paintings of the Civil War and other historic subjects, delved into the history of his presidential subjects by studying their backgrounds, backslides and accomplishments, and faces.

He compiled thick folders of research on each of the paintings, with much of the work drawn from online studies of presidential library compilations.