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Mavis Staples

Pinetop Perkins

Andy Stokes

Linda Hornbuckle

Janice Scroggins

Gatemouth Brown

Isaac Hayes

Reggie Houston

Charmaine Neville

Bettye LaVette

Beth Hart

Paul deLay

Maceo Parker

Curtis Salgado

Charlie Musselwhite

Taj Mahal

Cedric Burnside

Obo Addy

Trombone Shorty

07/04/2020

Waterfront Blues Festival 2020: Paintings & Drawings from the past 20 years of performances

By DIANE RUSSELL // Painter Diane Russell, and also an OMN photographer, has been photographing and painting subjects from the Waterfront Blues Festival for 20 years. Here's a gallery of her WBF paintings.

Waterfront Blues Festival weekend is here, but unfortunately due to the Covid-19 virus, the festival won’t be taking place on Portland’s waterfront this year.

Photographers, musicians, and friends from all over the country usually gather once a year for the 4th of July weekend in Portland, and I’ll be missing my blues festival family this year.

I have been photographing the festival for about twenty years, and over ten years for Oregon Music News. What people may not know, however, is that I have used many of my photos to create paintings and drawings of the musicians who have performed over the years. Everyone from Pinetop Perkins to Taj Mahal to Gatemouth Brown to Mavis Staples… it has been a rich and wonderful chapter in my life, and I’m happy to have documented their performances with my artwork.

While I am very sad that I won’t be photographing this year, I decided to do something different and create a photo gallery of my paintings and drawings. Hopefully we will all be celebrating on the waterfront once again in 2021, so stay well everyone! And check out more of my artwork on my website.

Musicians pictured are, in order: Waterfront Blues Festival (with multiple musicians), Mavis Staples, Pinetop Perkins, Andy Stokes, Linda Hornbuckle, Janice Scroggins, Gatemouth Brown, Isaac Hayes, Reggie Houston, Charmaine Neville, Bettye Lavette, Beth Hart, Paul DeLay, Maceo Parker, Curtis Salgado, Charlie Musselwhite, Taj Mahal, Cedric Burnside, Obo Addy, and Trombone Shorty.

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