Nellie and Billy

I originally planned just to paint Billy but Nellie practically begged me to let her pose. She wasn’t too happy about sitting on the ground, and then became concerned when I said it would take about two hours. I said I’d paint her first. When I was about three quarters done I said “Wait a minute, haven’t I painted you before?” She took her ten dollars (luckily I’d grabbed a little extra cash before I left that morning) and was off like a shot.

I’ve seen Billy around and obviously he’s quite the character. I don’t know if I’ve done justice to his outfit or to his waxed mustache tips. His hands seemed to be cramping up as he played the guitar, but he said it was because he’d intervened in a fight between his then-roommate and the roommate’s girlfriend, and ended up at the hospital.

Cowboy (Jason)

Cowboy was extremely intoxicated. Nevertheless, he collected quite a bit of money just sitting there and nodding off. He’s apparently quite well known and liked on the street–a dozen people stopped off to say hi or hang out for a while.

Angel and Sincere

I started out painting Angel. Sincere and another young panhandler came along shortly. Since I painted a little bit of Sincere, I gave her five dollars as well. If I had waited five minutes longer the painting would have been about her–she spent the whole time watching me and I would have gotten in a better portrait. Oh well…

Gary and Whitney came by and informed me that Colleen, whom I had painted back in 2011, had died of exposure and a drug overdose the night before. Sad news indeed.