Inspiration for Painting Portraits of Famous Jazz Musicians

Video Transcript

"On behalf of ExpertVillage.com my name is Bob Copeland and I'm here to talk to you about why I chose jazz and blues artists as subject matter for my paintings. I did paintings of the, from the photographs of the three fire fighters, right after September eleventh because I'm a retired fire fighter. And then after that was completed I thought, what's the other thing that means so much to me and that's my music, and I decided to embark on a series of paintings. I've completed eight or nine paintings now in the series which could go on to include three dozen, I just don't know where I'm gonna stop at the moment. But I have a group of them behind me on the wall. Some of the paintings I have here, Jerry Mulligan on baritone sax, below him, Miles Davis on trumpet, and the great Louis Armstrong, trumpet player, and the very young Ella Fitzgerald. I was very fortunate to get a photograph of her at seventeen or eighteen years of age."