I’ve been busy with things other than painting, like building my own guitar (which I’ll post about sooner or later), but recently got the itch to go back to a medium I haven’t used since school. Oils are a great medium, forgiving and gorgeous, but I had to abandon them after misusing them for too long. Just a whiff of linseed oil or turpentine would give me a headache. It’s been years since then, and the oil doesn’t elicit an immediate reaction, though the solvent still does. That’s ok, there are many alternatives when it comes to solvents. I decided to (re)start simple, using an old black and white photo (taken by Happy Traum) as reference.
John Hurt (often called ‘Mississippi’ John Hurt– as though he was the only bluesman from Mississippi– obviously the work of the recording company, to make him more ‘colorful’) was an amazing player. He had a complicated fingerstyle that sounded like 2 or 3 guitarists playing at once, and sounded very unique. Polyrhythmic. From the live recordings I’ve seen and heard it seems he was a very sweet man.
Art by Jim Pezzetti