Beverly Guitar Watkins

Original Oil on canvas
Size: 15" x 30"

Beverly (Guitar) Watkins, born in Atlanta Georgia in 1940, is a noted Blues guitar player and passed away in 2019. It is rumored that if she had been a man, she would have had the status of B.B. King by this time of her life. This painting was inspired by an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution paper regarding the annual Jazz and Blues Festival. She was the only female guitar player in the whole bunch. She describes her style as "real Lightnin' Hopkins lowdown blues". I wanted to paint this great woman as an example of the unequal attention and promotion given to men over women with comparable talents in the arts. I painted her as my personal bid to equalize her talents to the “Great” status of the legendary B.B. King. I met her at a club in Atlanta where she signed this original painting.