Big Chief David Montana

Hi all y’all!

It has been pretty fabulous at Gator Girl Art lately. I will tell you this one tale…

I was at my agent, Derrick Hemphill’s house. (Cool, huh?) He was having an open house to introduce his huge, new printer. While I was there, I asked Derrick if he could get permission for me to paint a Mardi Gras Indian. He knows a lot of people and he grew up in the Treme.

Right away, he asked his mother to go down stairs and get Big Chief David Montana. This threw me right out of my comfort zone. I never thought of painting a Big Chief. He came upstairs and he agreed to let me to paint him. I also, got to see his house, the suit he is working on, and lots of photos.

This is all so cool. Google him. He’s famous.

I chose to paint him in a pink suit. He let me borrow a reference photo.

So, I haven’t yet continued with my New Orleans Musician series. I still have several large canvases gessoed in black and ready to go.

I started on a 30 x 40 inch canvas. I painted the border in Golden Alizarin Crimson. Then I painted the entire canvas, including the border in Old Holland  Iridescent Carmine. It is a vivid crimson… a beautiful pink.

Here is the finished painting (as far as I know).

It is a little tilted on purpose. I was worried about all of the little feathers, but they turned out really fun to paint. I used a fan brush and loaded it with three colors of pink. I used The Chief as the light source. I am a little proud of that idea.

Here it is. I did my best. I feel lucky.

With all my heart,

Gator Girl