Finally got around to the minutiae of all the patches... Actually, while photographing for this post, the painting took a tumble and broke a reinforcement strut on the canvas stretcher, along with a very minor scrape in the stripes of the background flag... Art is fragile!
Harkens back to a painting I was doing for a cowboy when I was a 19-year-old student that fell victim to a very large speaker attached to a wall. Apparently, loud music can cause speakers to come lose from their moorings, and well, suffice to say, my cowboy friend really didn't believe my story of the 10-inch rip right through the center of the half-finished canvas!
So here's the final, awaiting curing for varnish. If you know this guy (Papa Bear?), give him a holler for me. I can imagine somehow raising a few bucks for veterans with a cameo appearance of him and his best friend! I'd even spring for a giclée reproduction as model compensation!
UPDATE: I found Papa Bear! Jack B. had friends in the Tampa Bay area that knew him from church.
