Your Friendly Announcer
by Robert Peterson $22,000

My favorite song of Stevie Wonders is “Loves in Need of Love Today” from the 1976 album “Songs in the Key of Life” where he sings the words “here’s your friendly announcer”.

I decided to create a painting of the genius we all know, celebrate and love to listen to from an image captured of him around the time that he was creating this album as well as the time that he was considering quitting music to move to Ghana to aid children with disabilities. I feel like this was a pivotal moment in his career and life and so I wanted to try and capture that moment.

My paintings are known for the rich blues, greens, purples and various shades that I use to paint what is almost an iridescent like skin tone. This oil painting of Stevie Wonder on a round panel is no different. You can see the beautiful hues of blue throughout his face underneath his signature sunglasses and hat as he sits with his hands draped across his knees. I went with rich shades of red for his shirt because the color is usually associated with warmth, creativity, love and power while placing him on an old distressed cognac leather couch.

Audio enhanced for the visually impaired. Coming Soon.

00:00 / 01:10

About the Artist

'I believe that all visual artist go through various stages in their career overtime where they will explore not only different mediums and subjects but also themselves. It has always been important to my development as an artist to go through these stages of exploring myself and different ways of creating because they have pushed me to come out on the other side a better artist and person than I was.''

''Initially, the paintings that I created were based solely on stock images of celebrities that I found on the internet. As I grew as an artist so did my desire to become more creative and so I began photographing men, women, and children that I know. Over the past three years, my paintings began to evolve and focus more on the black experience as I know it through my life which is obviously projected onto each new work. My art is my truth and my voice, it reflects a softer side of black people often not portrayed in the media and yet it still finds a way to show our strength and resilience, something that I want to see more of in galleries and museums.''

@caleblee81