Robert Jr Whitall with his paintings of Elvis Presley - Jimi Hendrix
- Sugar's Monarch Garden #1
Joni Mitchell - Bonnie Raitt - Louis Armstrong - Zulu Rules
Art
In The Sleeping Bear Dunes!
Artwork
by Robert Jr. Whitall
Over eight
years ago, I began drawing and painting as I began my journey with chronic
illnesses and spent many weeks being hospitalized. To my surprise, I found
that my view from my hospital window was the same scenery in the same
hospital (Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital) that Frida Kahlo once was.
Kahlo has been an inspiration in my art because despite her chronic illness
and severe pain, she never stopped creating.
I use pencil to sketch out my portraits and then transfer my ideas to
canvas with pencil, acrylic, ink and liquid marker. I have created hundreds
of “Muse-Ick Heads” – portraits of musicians who have
inspired me. Last summer 2019 I was thrilled to be commissioned by the
National Blues Museum in St. Louis to create three portraits of St. Louis
musicians and exhibited my work there from June 14, 2019 through September
2019.
“We’re very excited to show our guests from around the world
and around St. Louis some of the brilliant personalities that make blues
in America today so exciting,” National Blues Museum deputy director
Erin Mahony said. “Robert Jr. Whitall has been capturing stories
of the blues as a journalist for decades. It’s only natural that
his understanding of these brilliant figures should translate into such
vibrant pieces of art.”
--
Joni Mitchell -------- Sugar's Monarch Garden #1
--
Louis Armstrong---------- Zulu Rules
--
Elvis------Bonnie Raitt
--
Jimi---------John Lee Hooker
Janis
“At
Big City Rhythm & Blues, Whitall leads a team which crosses the country
to cover major blues events, from theississippi Delta to New York, LA,
Chicago, Memphis and beyond. Since founding the magazine in 1995, Whitall
has interviewed some of the blues’ most important figures. As an
artist, he has captured the personalities of many great musicians, as
well as legendary figures from the past, in a folk/outsider art style
that has been compared to Basquiat and Grandma Moses.”
— Gazelle Magazine, June 2019, St. Louis, Missouri.
Robert Jr. Whitall is the publisher and photographer for Big City Rhythm
& Blues Magazine, an independent music magazine that is subscription
based and distributed around the world celebrating its 25th anniversary
of publishing in 2020.
Whitall has been painting at his “Helms Deep” music barn and
studio by the Sleeping Bear Dunes every summer for the past five years.
Twenty-one years ago he married Sugar at the Pierce Stocking Drive lookout
#11 on September 11, 1999. Their wedding reception held at the Empire
Twp. Hall is coincidentally across the street from the Sleeping Bear Gallery!
“I am blessed and honored to live in a resort town right next to
a National Park–The Sleeping Bear Dunes. I am equally blessed and
honored to have my artwork at the Sleeping Bear Gallery.” —
Robert Jr. Whitall
SLEEPING
BEAR GALLERY
www.sleepingbeargallery.com
info@sleepingbeargallery.com
10085 W. Front Street
P.O. Box 277
Empire, MI 49630
(231) 326-2278
(248) 521-0976
Monday – by appointment
Tuesday - Saturday 11 – 5
Sunday – Noon-3
Meet the artist reception: Robert Jr. Whitall
Friday, September 11, 2020
2 pm - 5 pm
For more information:
blues@bigcitybluesmag.com
www.bigcitybluesmag.com
248-582-1544
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