Catfish

5x7 inches, oil on paper

I still have quite a stack of 5x7 inch water color papers, all failed watercolors I decided to gesso over and use for acrylic or oil sketches.  

This one is of a street musician who has been playing his guitar on State Street in Madison since the 1960s.  He's a great musician, and he looks more and more craggy very year.  I drew his figure out on the gesso covered sheet, then did and under painting in yellow gold acrylic.  The oil was the last step, and went fairly quickly.  My biggest difficulty was making the decision to remove the background clutter, a lamp post, food cart, other people.  The thing was I wasn't interested in them, and in a very small painting they distracted from the figure.  At least that's what I finally decided.  I'm thinking that was a good call.

When I showed my husband the sketch he said, "Oh, that's Catfish."  I did the little internet searching and discovered that yes, he is Catfish Stephenson.  Next time I see him I'm going to stop and listen to a whole song, and drop some coin in his guitar case.