In about 10 days I've completed John Henry- a large scale work with about 40 characters and 6 scenes. Here are a few close ups:

Here's the right side- John Henry with his shaker racing the steel drill.


The Steam Drill- with Colonel Dabney to the right of the operator.


John posing with the lyrics


Dying with Oak mountain Tunnel in background.

 

Finally finished Banks of the Ohio, another murder ballad, and I'm going to start on John Henry this week. It's difficult to portray the fight scene in a realistic way- I show him pulling a knife and forcing her to fall back into the water where she eventually drowns. I've used a pink pastel pallette to soften the image.

Here are a few close-ups:


Here's the villan sing the song 
 

I asked my love to take a walk...


He pulls a knife and plunges her into the Ohio River


Stood and watched as she floated down...


The lyrics
 

I just finished a commission of my painting of "Lincoln in Oquawka." Lincoln was in Oquawka, Illionois in Oct. 1958 to give a speech in his election campaign for the Illinois senate seat. Running against Lincoln was Douglas who didn't make the Oquawka stop. Here's the report:

Saturday, October 9, 1858.
Oquawka, IL and Burlington, IL.

Escort with brass band meets Lincoln at Oquawka Junction (now Gladstone) and takes him to home of S. S. Phelps. At 1 P.M. he is escorted to stand in business section, where he speaks for hours. After meeting he leaves for Burlington, Iowa, for evening speech at Grimes' Hall. Oquawka Spectator, 4 October 1858; Burlington Hawkeye, 11 October 1858; J. W. Grimes to Herndon, 28 October 1866, William H. Herndon Papers, Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
 

The site where Lincoln spoke was the Moir Bank in 1858 and is now the Oquawka Diner:

[Starting from the levee that was once the abandoned railroad bed we come to the Oquawka diner, owned and operated by George Olson, Jr. In 1952 George and Ida Olson along with their children, George Jr. and Donna, started this small riverside restaurant. Small, because at the time they opened, it was just a small place with very good food. About a year later they enlarged by moving what used to be an old city boat or warehouse and later the Jim and Harry McOlgan fish house, to the east side of the Diner, thus giving a much larger seating capacity for the patrons. George Jr. is still running the Diner today. In an earlier day yet, just east of the Diner was the Hodson Canning Factory. It has long since been gone. Just two years ago in 1984 the old brick structure that used to be the quarters of the Moir Bank that Abe Lincoln stood in front of and gave his part of the Lincoln-Douglas debate, had to be torn down because of deterioration. During its past useful years it was known as the Blue Goose Tavern.]

In 1827, Dr. Isaac Galland erected a log cabin and began trading with the Indians at the site now known as Oquawka. In 1828 Stephen Phelps of Lewistown, IL purchased the claim for his son, S.S., who made his home there. Oquawka was laid out by Alexis Phelps and his brother, Stephen Sumner Phelps on July 9, 1836."Oquawka" was derived from an Indian word Oquawkiek meaning "Yellow Banks".



This is what I came up with. Rosie Melvin, who helped commission the piece suggested I do a young Lincoln. In 1858 Lincoln had no beard. I thought that besides the protrait I'd need to have Lincoln giving the speech. So he's on a platform in front of the Moir Bank with the "Yellow Banks" and Mississippi River in the background. I figured it would appear something like this in 1858. It proved to be difficult to say the least. The front right spectators are loosley drawn and painted.

I used an earlier sketch I found on-line as the basis for the speech. I added S.S. Phelps and Barrack Obama. I'm sure S.S. Phelps was there and since Lincoln's speech directly influenced events that led to President Obama, I figured it would be fitting to include him also.

I'll have some close-ups next blog,

Richard 
 

If you've been following this blog you can look back and see the steps I took to paint, Pretty Polly. Here are the professionally digitized close-ups:

Here are the lyrics, with a vine and two black-eyed susans. You can see the grass sticks and leafy ground cover.


Here's the bottom right: it's a good shot of Pretty polly "a-pleadin' " in vain for her life.


This is good shot of Pretty Polly holding a rose in happier times and B.F. Shelton playing the banjo


This is the main scene on the upper right. To see the full painting go to my last blog.

I guess I'm finished. With this painting I could keep doing details, but I'm going to stop. Here's a rough pic (my camera isn't the best- the colors aren't same as the original) that I did today of the whole painting:


The painting is too big to see the details but at 30" by 40" many of the details too small and hard to paint.



Here's the main scene: Pretty Polly pleading for her life with Willie standing over her.



Here's Pretty Polly "yonder she stands."  I decided to have her holding a red rose.

Here's the ghost of BF Shelton playing the song while the event is happening. On the right you can see part of the shovel.

Above are the lyrics; with two daisies and a vine growing up the right side.

I worked on the painting some and here's the full view now:


If you look at the painting in my last blog post- part 2, you can see I added in the some details in the left background and the trees to the left of the big oak (with the banjo picker inside):

You can see the ghost of banjo picker BF Shelton inside the tree and the cluster of trees behind the large oak. Drawing and painting the background and foreground has proven to be difficult and time-consumming.

I started the tree behind Pretty Polly, worked on the lyrics section, added a vine growing on the lyrics:

I roughed in a leafy vine with two black-eyed susan flowers growing on each side.

I'm on the home stretch now! There are still many details to do. My goal is to finish the basic painting tomorrow then add in the details of the main characters and the shovel. I'll also add some grass in the foreground at the end. The last thing I do is sign the painting: RLMJR-09, which will be in the right lower corner.

Here's where we were yeserday:
 
Full View: I started doing the bottom leafy plants and grass. The left side was not really done at all.

Here's where we are now:

Full View: Quite a difference! I roughly painted Pretty Polly in on the left side and added the grassy knoll background on the left. I added some shade under the trees. You can see the leafy foreground reaches all the way to the lyrics. Here are some close- ups:


The leafy plants in the foreground are taking shape (right side).

Here's the left side with lyrics- it's starting to take shape!

I just got my digitized close-ups back of Cripple Creek:

 
This is the bottom right with the the main scene. That's actually a cameo of me on the right. The difficult thing with Cripple Creek was the canvas was not very big 24 by 30. Painting the details is impossible so you just let the mind fill them in.

I like the shadows on the water and painting the creek.

Here are the lyrics: Bottom Left. I decided to darken them and make the sheet a shade close to the rock colors. You can see the banjo player's feet, but it sure doesn't look like a banjo player! Love that swirling water.

There's the banjo picker! He playing Cripple Creek! The vegetation and plants growing on the rock are bright.


Top right. I like the tree in the middle it really stands out!

Here's the full view (below)

I thought I'd show you the process of how I do my bluegrass paintings. First let me say there is nothing more difficult than painting for me- it is not easy. This painful process starts with the lyrics and an idea and slowly progresses to a finished work.

I've been working on Pretty Polly for a week now and it seems like a year. I deliberate over every tree, every plant, every blade of grass. Here's the main scene:

Pretty Polly is murder ballad. The scene takes place in a valley after Willie has "led her over mountains to the valley below." Polly is begging in vain for her life. Willie is standing over her with a knife. The spade (shovel) is pointing toward her. The far background is roughed in- it took forever. The open grave is behind them. As you can see the figures aren't complete nor is the foreground where grass and forest plants grow in the shade of a giant oak tree.

What is interesting is the shovel. It looks real and I haven't even painted it- I just painted around it!

In the foreground is grass and leafy ground cover that grows in the shade. I got some plants from under a tree and set them in cup of water. This is going to take a loooong time. There's a large foreground area, whew! I've made the plants larger near the viewer to add prespective, it's hard to make it look real- I'm struggling.

The banjo player is playing and singing Pretty Polly. The singer actually is based on B.F. Shelton. He's a ghostly figure emerging from the tree trunk. Crazy I know! The main difficulty was drawing the tree bark- it was hard. I've got to finish the background trees (sketched in) on the left behind the giant tree. Nothing is easy...

I got the profession digital pic back on Cripple Creek.

I'll have copies (or the original available next week). Please email me at richiematt@aol.com if you're interested.

Here are the painting lyrics:

Cripple Creek

I've got a gal and she loves me,
She's as sweet as she can be.
She's got eyes of baby blue,
Makes my gun shoot straight and true.

Goin’ up Cripple Creek, goin’ in a whirl,
Goin’ up Cripple Creek, to see my girl.
Goin' up Cripple Creek goin' in a run,
Goin' up Cripple Creek to have some fun.

My gal lives at the head of the creek,
I go up to see her ‘bout twice a week.
She’s got kisses sweet as any wine,
Wraps herself ‘round me like a sweet pertater vine.

Cripple Creek's wide and Cripple Creek's deep,
I'll wade old Cripple Creek before I sleep.
Roll my britches to my knees,
I'll wade old Cripple Creek when I please.

I've finished Cripple Creek and have a few rough pics. I thought Cripple Creek would be easy but it wasn't. Painting the creek took some time and I wanted to have a banjo picker in the painting but not distract from the main scene so he ended up being part of the rock wall.

This is the main scene: "Goin' up to Cripple Creek Goin' in  a whirl, goin' up to Cripple Creek to see my girl." My camera had a blue tint to it but you can see the painting. The colors are poor with this camera. Note the man: "Roll my  britches to my knees, wade ol' Cripple Creek when I please."

Here's the whole painting. It's smaller than most of my other bluegrass paintings 24" by 30."


Close-up of the banjo picker. This pic is taken from a picker in Louisville circa 1900. The perfect age for a song that dates certainly back to the 1800s.
 

The lyrics:

Sittin' on the corner with the lowdon blues, great big hole in the bottom of my shoes. The guitar is an old Silvertone. The girl eating the hot dog on a stick was supposed to be a sand sculpture, I decided to fade her out a bit so not to distract from the main images in that area.

The old maids are saying, "I wish we had a beach umbrella like the one in front of us." Miss California is the focal point of the painting. As usual my sense of humor tends to be ironic: God made woman, made her kinda funny..." I like the little girl lifting up the ocean to get her red ball. The wave she lifts up turns into a green field with a hog running across it. 


The close-up by itself could be an entire painting. I created my own meat grinder after looking at several on-line.

 

i just got the professional reproductions of my paitning Salty Dog. You can really see the blue sky and the low lying clouds. I tried to make the colors a bit over the top considering the subject matter. The sky needed to be  ultra-blue and the ocean was even darker as dark of a shade of blue as I could get.

I decided to make the sand bright yellow with some orange. I figured it would be a good contrast to the blue. Since I had several white colors (salt shaker) bikini, old maids bathing suit, plus I needed some contrast for the meat grinder. The whole painting is over-the-top.

The lyrics


The two old maids sitting in the sand are probably saying, "Next time we're going to get a beach umbrella like the one in front of us."

This was supposed to be a bizarre sand sculpture: A girl eating a hot dog on a stick

And of course no painting would be complete without a cameo by Miss California:

God made woman he made her kinda funny,
Lips 'round her mouth a sweet as any honey
Honey let me be your salty dog.

She lost her title but is forever immortalized in my painting- no one can take this away from you, not even Donald Trump!

This is a wild painting featuring a variety of scenes including a little girl lifting the ocean to get her ball- the ocean turning into a giant wave and then becoming a green pasture with a wild hog running on it. A hunter standing on a giant hot dog and lifting his gun, has a finger on his trigger and is eyeing the hog. Two old maids are sitting in the sand...each one is wishing the other was a man. It also features cameos of Miss California and Mel Gibson as well a hog running above a meat grinder! What did I leave out???

Entire crazy painting (shot at an angle but you can see everything)

Close up Two old maids; a giant hot dog on a stick; salt shaker and dog; Miss California; the girl lifting the ocean


Watch out for the meat grinder Mr. Hog!

Sitting on the corner with the lowdown blues. Great big hole in the bottom of my shoes!
 

Close-ups (both are upside down!):

The painting may be viewed upside down and you can see the purple horse and rider are part of a painting on an easel (the easel legs run off the frame. So from the upside down vantagepoint it’s a painting on an easel in front of a painting. 

She's being followed by the man with the umbrella who appears in two other scenes.

Here (below) is the actual location in England where she rode her horse.

Hi,

I just got the images for my painting Reflections:
 

 
Reflections. 54” by 54” Acrylic on canvas. Painted Frame C 2006. 

This complex painting is a series of reflections. A modern day setting of the fabled ride by Lady Godiva down a city street, there are nine different reflections and twelve different scenes. One of the scenes is the actual location in England where Lady Godiva rode her horse.

The experiment was to place the horse image reflections on the canvas and then make them make sense to the viewer. The painting also has to tell a story about an event that had relevance today. Quite a challenge!

The reflections come not only from the glass buildings on each side but also from the water puddles on the City Street. The background was based on an actual city street in downtown Winston Salem, NC.

The models for the onlookers and the man carrying the umbrella were my guitar students and families.

The painting may be viewed upside down and you can see the purple horse and rider are part of a painting on an easel (the easel legs run off the frame. So from the upside down vantagepoint it’s a painting on an easel in front of a painting. 

Each scene has a different theme with a mysterious meaning. For me the painting is essentially a statement about nudity and art; about censorship, and about the essential role art plays in the betterment of humanity.