Pinetop Perkins
- Pinetop Perkins – by Miki
Some days ago I thought it was now time to render homage to Pinetop Perkins in form of a painting. I had seen him live , even sat next to him in Austin in march 2010, and was then extremely shocked bu the announcement of his death. I did not dare to paint him. But now I had to…
Here is what Kev Moore, my partner, has to say:
“… Our trip to the States has been full of amazing happenstance – being in the right place at the right time on an amazing number of occasions. (Or in the case of this morning, the wrong place, as a plane crashed into a building here in Austin a few blocks away!!!)
But last night, we wandered into Nuno’s on the famous 6th. street, and found ourselves sitting next to Pinetop Perkins who, at 96 years young, is pretty much the oldest living bona fide Delta bluesman. I introduced myself, and shook his hand. It was akin to touching history. Here was a man who was there at the beginning, played Piano for Muddy Waters, Sonny boy Williamson, BB King, the list is endless. I bought a CD, Pinetop Perkins and friends, recorded with the likes of Eric Clapton, and amnazingly, recorded when Pinetop was 94! – and he kindly signed it for me.
But more amazing than that, he took to the stage last night. That grand old man of the blues, joined the house band and proceeded to take us back in time with half a dozen classics, such as Down in Mississippi, and Pinetop Boogie. I leaned over to Miki and whispered, “We are so privileged to witness this.”
My respect and affection for this man knew no bounds. The term ‘living legend’ is bandied about with vulgar regularity in this shallow era, but here was a man who embodied it.
Who would have thought, when I signed the guitar in Helena at the studios of King Biscuit time, and noticed Pinetop’s signature, that I would meet him some weeks later? Life, as I had often suspected, is amazing….”
By the way: Kev has also doen an artwork featuring Pinetop, as he remembered him at Nuno’s
- Pinetop Perkins – by Kev Moore
These two paintings are available directly online as prints on paper or canvas and in many different sizes. Also as greeting cards. Just click on the widgets below if you are interested
To finish on a deep emotional note, here is a photo of Pinetop as we saw him…
Pinetop Perkins at Nuno's in Austin in March 2010 - Photo by Kev Moore
Keith Richards 02
Keith Richards 02 - by Miki
I always wanted to see him (and his mates) live.. and always missed him!
But this won;t happen again, next time the Rolling Stones are on stage, I go there, wherever it is!
Let’s see what the Wikipedia has tp say about him
“Keith Richards (born 18 December 1943) is an English musician, songwriter and founding member of The Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created “rock’s greatest single body of riffs” and, placed him as the “10th greatest guitarist of all time.” Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting partner and band vocalist Mick Jagger are listed among Rolling Stone Magazine’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.[1][2][3] Richards’ notoriety for illicit drug use has stemmed in part from several drug busts in the late 1960s and the 1970s…”
If you want to read more about that extraordinary guy, go yourself to the Wikipedia.
If you are a fan of him and want to purchase a print (available in different sizes, on paper or canvas) or a greeting card, just click on the widget below
Together Old in Italy
- Together old in Italy – by Miki
Watercolour and ink travel sketch
I saw this old couple in Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy in April 2011, while I was on my 2 months painting trip through Tuscany. I found the scene extremely poignant, full of symbolic about life and death and age and love…It was a big challenge to try to capture this moment, I did as good as I could to hide and draw. I added the colours some hours later when we came back to our Boomobile, our tour bus… well, it is not exactly a bus, bit is a big a motorhome, but we use it for my paintings tours, so i guess the name is appropriate… it sound so much cooler than “motorhome”!!! 
Some years ago, I think it was in 2008, I did in Lisbon, Portugal a sketch of an old couple too, walking together in the street after shopping. That painting has received very much recognition since then, being featured in many places around the world, for example as magazine cover related to special themes about ageing , illnesses, etc…
- Old Couple in Portugal – by Miki
I hope that my painting of an Italian couple getting olf together will have the same success.
To purchase a print (available in many different sizes and on paper or canvas) or a greeting card, please click on the widget below
Rafael Nadal
Spanish Tennis Champion Rafael Nadal - by Miki
Acrylics on canvas – 60 x 80 cm – 2011
A while ago, as a follow-up to some cycling paintings on commission, I decided to start a series of sport paintings in acrylics on canvas. Having often attended the Tour de France in the Pyrenees in my childhood, and enjoying a bike ride myself very much, cycling is to me a very inspiring sport. I love the feeling of natural freedom and peace which one has riding under the sun in the countryside. And of course in the professional races, I love the movement, the fight and the colours!
Anyway, after the commission work, I started my sports series with some more cyclists paintings which you can see in my sports gallery here.
Then, having such great tennis players in Spain, I thought I should pay homage to that sport, which I personally practiced too in the past with much pleasure. In fact I learned to play tennis in Africa, in Congo! My parents were living there at that time, and when I visited them there, they gave me tennis classes as a gift, which I took with a fantastic black teacher. It was just a basic course, but I learned and enjoyed much. Later on I went on practicing, first in Germany, then in Spain. Some years ago, I had some classes by a Spanish teacher, trying to learn how to make a proper service… Well, I still can’t!
I found in the net a wonderful photo of Rafael Nadal, from which I strongly inspired myself for that first tennis painting. I would have loved to ask for permission to use the photo, but I had no chance to contact the photographer. It is really a wonderful photo, great colors and great composition, I could really not resist to reproduce it!
The original painting is currently for sale. If you are interested, contact me.
And if you want a print (on paper or canvas and many different sizes available) just click on the widget below
By the way, if the author of the photo reads this post, and does not want me to use this painting commercially, please contact me.
Son House
- Son House – by Miki
“…Eddie James “Son” House, Jr. (March 21, 1902 (?)[1][2] – October 19, 1988) was an American blues singer and guitarist. House pioneered an innovative style featuring strong, repetitive rhythms, often played with the aid of slide guitar, and his singing often incorporated elements of southern gospel and spiritual music….”
If you want to purchase a print (on paper or canvas, and in different sizes) or a Greeting card, please click on the widget below
Robert Plant 01
Robert Plant 01 - by Miki
After having seen Robert Plant a6 different occasions on the English TV, and listened to him, singing anyway, but also been interviewed, I decided that he seems to be a kind, quite simple and humble guy, so here we are, he is worth my time and I will make some portraits of him. I already painted him in the past, in fact quite at the beginning when I started painting the rockers,. Kevin had said I should do him and Jimmy Page, and I obeyed the music boss in the house, and it was a good idea as that painting has become a big sales hit. But now, i know him much better, and feel more comfortable portraying him. In this first portrait I was especially attracted by the hip movement and, of course, the golden hair…
As for the facts, you better check the Wikipedia:
“… Robert Anthony Plant, CBE (born 20 August 1948), is an English rock singer and songwriter, best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career. In 2007, Plant released Raising Sand, an album produced by T-Bone Burnett with American bluegrass soprano Alison Krauss, which won the 2009 Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 51st Grammy Awards.[1]
A career spanning more than 40 years, Plant is regarded as one of the most significant singers in the history of rock music, and influenced contempories such as Freddie Mercury and Axl Rose. In 2006, heavy metal magazine Hit Parader named Plant the “Greatest Metal Vocalist of All-Time”. In 2009, Plant was voted “the greatest voice in rock” ahead of Freddie Mercury, in a poll conducted by Planet Rock ...”
If you want to purchase a print (on paper or canvas, and in different sizes) or a Greeting card, please click on the widget below
The Children from Tahiti 05 – Tahitian Boy with Knife
Tahitian Boy with Knife - by Miki
Pastel chalk painting on Fine Art Paper
One of my favourites from my “Children from Tahiti” series…
Last year as I was making some designs for a greeting cards company, I remember having chosen this painting for a Father’s Day card with the title:
“Life is a long thread from YOU to ME…”
It would have been perhaps more appropriate for a Mother’s Day card, keeping in mind the umbilical cord … and in fact, thinking about it, it was rather a bad choice for Father’s Day as the boy is about to cut the thread with the knife!
But in any case, yes, life is a long thread connecting us to our parents, whether we want it or not. Almost every child, once in his life, mostly in his/her youth, is tempted to cut this thread, and sometimes he/she does it, but the consequences are often dramatic, at least from a psychological point of view, for the child as well as for the parents. I know very well what I am speaking about, and I wish any child or parent actually denying the other would stop this awful nonsense at once!!!
If you wish to purchase a print (on paper or canvas, in different sizes) or a greeting card, please click on the widget below
Bob Marley and The i-Threes
Bob Marley and The i-Threes - by Miki
When I did my series of Bob Marley;s portraits, I wanted to do painting of the i-Threes too, but well, I got stuck somewhere else, probably in some other music!
Well, in some weeks Kev Moore will do a small Reggae concert in The Pasty Shack in our town Turre, in Andalusia, Spain, and this brought back to my memory my debt to the i-Threes. Well here they are, in my usual mixed technique of pastel and digital art.
Wikipedia:
“… The I Threes were a Jamaican reggae singing group made up of 3 women, that was formed in 1974 to support Bob Marley & The Wailers after Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer — the original Wailer backing vocalists — left the band. The 3 members were Marley’s wife Rita Marley, Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths. Their name is intended as a spin on the Rastafarian “I and I” concept of the Godhead within each person…”
I did not know the roots of the name “i-Threes”, quite interesting!
And if you want to purchase a Giclee print of this painting (on paper, on canvas, framed, etc.) or a greeting card please click on the widget below
Gary Moore, an Impression
Has been a while since I haven’t published a new portrait.. well, I was busy with some other art. To do portraits, i need to be in a very special mood, somehow ready to enter the soul of my subject…
Well, yesterday, some hours down the coast from us, Gary Moore died in an hotel . We heard the news as Kevin came back from a gig in the middle of the night… it was about 3 in the morning, the worst time ever to hear this kind of news. Everything around seems to break down and the whole life reduced to a giant black hole.
Kevin writes
“Last night I returned home on cloud nine after gigging down on the Playa in Mojacar. It had been a while since I’d been on stage and I’d missed it. Arriving home, I was in great spirits after getting that ‘fix’ again. A mere four hours down the coast, something had happened that was to hit me like a sucker punch.
On Friday, sitting in our local at lunchtime, I’d met one of Gary Moore’s backstage technicians, taking a short break from touring. We were discussing how Gary achieved his wonderful tone, partly through the heavy gauge strings that he used – incredibly hard to bend, but rich sounding.
Now, as I fired up the Mac upon returning home late Sunday night, I discovered that Gary had passed away in a hotel in Estepona. He was just 58. I was dumbfounded. Gary Moore has always been one of my guitar heroes. He was the real deal, and the complete package, not only a genius guitarist, but a great singer and writer. There were few if any, that could touch him. As if that weren’t enough, he was equally at home playing fusion, blues, jazz and metal….“
I felt the need to make a first portrait of Gary, but really it is only an impression. I just hope this impression is good enough… I could not do more right now, I am still under shock, having his music on continuoius loop in the house…
Gary Moore, an Impression - by Miki
If you wish to purchase a print or a greeting card of this painting, please click on the widget below
The Children from Tahiti 04 – Very Young Maori Warrior
Very Young Maori Warrior from Tahiti - by Miki
Pastel and Colour Pencils
One more beautiful child from Tahiti.
What fascinated me in this face and inspired me to paint it is the combative expression.
So young and such a warrior already!
This painting is available as well as original, but also as Giclee print, in different sizes and different formats, and also as greeting card in my FAA Gallery:
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Contact me at miki@goodaboom.com
