These musicians became a part of a series of figurative portraits I did, choosing the people by the story their work told. Several musicians became a part of the series. The technique I use for the figures is a pencil drawing directly on the raw canvas, then I paint white Gesso up to and around the figure. Fixing the drawing with varnish, I then add colorful elements that pertain to their lives. In this case, the music they play is a traditional "old style" mountain-music. The scenery around them is what you would see driving through the country past hills, valleys, birds, farms, animals and flowers.

I have been experimenting with this style of leaving a portion of the raw canvas exposed, painting and drawing around that for many years. As the painting progressed, I thought the color-story would be the first thing you see, instead I am surprised each time that the simple canvas drawing is the predominant image.