Johnny Winter Art by Marc Potocsky
I am proud to present my painting of Great Rock Blues legend Johnny Winter. I had the privilege of drumming for Johnny Winter in the mid 80’s by way of my dear old, long time drumming buddy Bobby T. Torello. I Was a Johnny Winter fan since he hit the scene in the late 60’s. Me and Bobby would put on “Johnny Winter And” live at the Fillmore and play along with the record to build our stamina. Bobby would always say, I’m gonna play with Him some day and he did.
Playing for Johnny was one of the greatest experiences of my musical life. At the time I went under my stage/nick name, “Moe Potts” which I attained while playing with the Brooklyn based band “The Laughing Dogs” on CBS records 78-81.
This art portrait I did of Johnny Winter was a mixed media experiment. Hand painted acrylic paint, air brush and colored pencils 36 x 48 on Masonite.
Initially I started out planning to do a three person composite of Johnny Winter, but after preliminary sketches I thought I would go with a simpler two figure composite with a strong picture of Johnny playing guitar in color in the foreground and a sepia tone transparent figure behind him smiling.
Johnny Winter Art by CT Artist Marc Potocsky aka Moe Potts – (1) Detail
I wanted to catch the spirit of Johnny and his music in a way that his fans would like to remember him. I named the painting, “Prodigal Son” after a song on the first Johnny Winter And album.
Johnny Winter Art Johnny & Moe(Marc Potocsky)
After I left Johnny I had stayed in touch with him over the years, did some rehearsals with him and even went back out on the road with him for a few months here and there in 88-89, sitting in for Tom Compton whose wife was having a baby at the time.
Didn’t see Johnny for a long time after that, but thank God I got to hook up with him a few months before he passed away. I called him one morning about 9:30 in the morning to leave a message on his answering machine knowing he wouldn’t be up for a while, but he surprisingly answered the phone. “Hey Johnny, what are you doing up so early?” He said that he was getting up early every day, off of methadone, drinking and smoking. I was so happy for him.
Johnny Winter Art By Moe (Marc Potocsky)
I went to one of his gigs in New Haven Ct. We sat on the side of the stage reminisced and talked for awhile before he went on. So glad I got to see him one more time.
Miss you brother. See you again someday!
I will be having prints on canvas and paper soon. Visit my portrait page.
241 Branford Rd. # 254, North Branford, CT.
203 488 1265
https://www.facebook.com/marc.potocsky
https://www.facebook.com/decorativemurals/
Johnny Winter Art Print by Marc Potocsky