Our sons, Leif and Cedric, perform a repertoire fur trade era and other 19th century music. They dress in period-appropriate clothing and play on era-authentic guitar, banjo, bones, and other instruments. Between songs they give spoken historical explanations. They perform as Eric and Arty of the Upper Missouri. This takes them to a variety of venues where the history of those eras is being preserved and re-enacted. In one instance, western artist C. Michael Dudash was present for an informal evening around a campfire. He made Leif the subject of a new work of art, titled "Six Stringer." The work is oil on linen, 16" h x 12" w, dated 2/9/17. The March-April 2019 issue of Art of the West features it on the cover. Dudash says, page 9, As a lifelong musician -- guitar, piano, mandolin -- it's only natural that paintings of pickers and players would be of special interest to me. The banjo is one of the truly original American instruments and comes with either four, five, or six strings and is strummed and played in several different ways. The six string is probably the rarest. I've seen only a couple in my day, and I actually had one several years back. I tuned it like a guitar. Painting old timers by campfire light is always challenging, but loads of fun." The cover story by Sara Gilbert Frederick is about Dudash, titled "I’ll Never Retire; I’ll Always Paint."A painting of our son, Leif Eric Halvorson aka Eric of the Upper Missouri is the subject of the forthcoming cover of Art of the West magazine for March/April 2019. The cover reproduces an original painting by C. Michael Dudash titled, "Six Stringer." For this study, Dudash used his live observations of Eric rendering authentic Fur Trade Era and other early songs accompanied on period-appropriate banjo. The original is an oil on linen work 16" h x 12" w, completed on February 9, 2017. The magazine announced the forthcoming cover on Facebook here. You can see much more from Art of the West at its website here. |
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May 2020
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