Silver Dollar Tavern
With a gallery opening this coming weekend, and another art festival running at the same time, I’m in a pinch to finish some paintings. This one I abandoned a few months back. Earlier photos of it have already been posted on the blog. I am the guitar player–a friend photographed me playing at an art festival several years back. The GMC pickup is from an abandoned site somewhere in New Mexico (I remember the summer but not the town). The abandoned tavern is in Old Appleton, Missouri, alongside old Highway 61, north of Cape Girardeau. My father frequented this joint when he was a young adult. He recalls that the bar was on the ground floor, and the dance floor on the second story. I haven’t visited the site since about the year 2000, and it was in bad shape. I fear that I will return one day to find it gone, like so many other derelict character-laden structures I have painted over the years.
Thanks for reading.
Tags: Americana, Andrew Wyeth, Blues, drybrush, Edward Hopper, juke joint, Midwest, Missouri, Music, nostalgia, Remembrance of Things Past, rural, Sherwood Anderson, small town, Thornton Wilder, watercolor, Wyeth
November 9, 2010 at 5:31 pm |
Lovely color and a painting that is full of memories and affection. Great!
November 15, 2010 at 8:53 am |
Thank you, Linda. My father told me plenty of stories about this place, and it’s haunted me for about 20 years now. I keep hoping to return to it a few more times. I have photos of it from all possible angles, close-ups, etc. I really should pursue it more. I painted it a long time ago, but was afraid of the pressed-tin panels, so I painted it as white framed building. But now that I’m getting the hang of the silver panels, I really want to see what else I can do with it.