Mojo Workin' III

#3 and the last of this series within a series which was taken from a YouTube Video of Muddy Waters,Sonny Boy and the legendary bass player, writer, producer WiIlie Dixon doing the creamiest version of Got My Mojo Workin' ever.

This is Sonny Boy Williamson, my second favourite Bluesman after John Lee Hooker. A harmonica virtuoso and a voice that is traditional Delta Blues.
I first painted him in 2001;
That series of Bluesmen and women proved very popular and sold almost as fast as I painted them.
These paintings are specifically for a Blues festival here in Perth in January.

Ok who's next???

Has to be JLH, bless his purrdy socks.

Mojo Workin' II

The second of a new Blues Series, I think most of you missed the first one "Muddy Waters" (Mojo Workin' I)
It's posted before the Tools of the Trade post.
This is 114cmx76cm.
Displayed here in a stock frame.
Finished this one last week.
I've just completed another standard sheet of Sonny Boy Williamson which I'll post shortly.

Tools of the Trade

These photos pretty much sum up what have become essential tools over the last few years.
The palette is a combination of transparent and opaque pigments (something I don't take any notice of anymore),and a warm / cool layout with some random intuitive variances. It contains from left to right starting at top:
Prussian Blue, Indanthrene Blue, Ultramarine, Cobalt,Cerulean,Cobalt Green, Perm Magenta(random placement but always here) Viridian, Quin Gold, Aurolean, Cad Yellow pale, Raw Sienna, Raw Umber, Winsor Red, Cad Scarlet, Cad Red, Scarlet Lake, Perm Alizarin, Permanent Rose or Opera Rose(I squirt them both into this position and let them work themselves out), Burnt Sienna, Brown Madder, Burnt Umber,Indian Red, Diox Violet(Especially kept to remind me of Bruce MacEvoy's dislike of purple and that it should be always used as often as needed) It's actually very handy as a strong transparent darkener. They're all W&N which are not bad value in the 37ml tubes these days. The photo shows some fluid acrylics which i dabble with sometimes. I'll use whatever pigment suits the mix, either decided by volume required or pigment hue. I don't mind putting some gesso with the watercolours to make a gouashe as well.
The tilting table has a hydraulic foot pump and tilts between flat and vertical with the flick of the hand. Made in Sweden by Nike, cost me $40 out of the local rag(best 40 bucks I've ever spent)
The round bushes are kolinskys apart from 2 smaller ones on the right with the red handles which I use a heck of a lot for those cellular windows paintings etc.
The yellow handled big kolinsky mop is made by Rosemary http://www.rosemaryandco.com/
It's a #8 if you're interested in enquiring and want to compare sizes. It worth a fortune these days, when I got mine they were semi affordable.
I'm not a big fan of using flat brushes for applying shapes, never have been and doubt I ever will, much to my old mentor's chagrin.
An exception to that is the 2 inch Hake is not to be underestimated in flair and versatility, it's an exception to the "flat rule", I wouldn't be without it.
Beer is Hahn premium.

Mojo Workin' I

Last week i was invited to exhibit at the Perth Blues Club Mardi Gras in January.

I only had two small "Blues" related paintings left, both Billie Holiday ones I did a couple of years ago.

I thought it's worth having a crack at getting a few paintings together for this show which will be held in a well known Blues venue here in Perth.

Finding reference photos of the Blues legends is not as easy as it may sound without using over published ones or risking copyright infringement so I've tried grabbing frames off youtube video clips.

This is the first successful conversion, a couple of others have nosedived.