Jimi Hendrix

Like midnight lightning Jimi Hendrix came on the scene as a comet entering the atmosphere. Every person that was fortunate enough to see him in person experienced his spiritual devotion to music and his guitar.

Now: over 30 years after his death his music plays in every corner of the planet. You can still see his lightning licks and his touching lyrics anywhere you go in the world. His stamp as the greatest guitar player ever is undisputable.

Before he was a rock God he was just a high school kid in Renton, WA that had a love for sports and hydroplane racing. We are now able to have a look back in time to the world of Jimi Hendrix before he became a rock icon.

As with most artists Jimi used elements in his immediate environment as models for his artwork. The body of work contains pictures and portraits of events and activities that Jimi attended in the Peugeot Sound area while in high school in the late 1950’s.The majority of these images are of boat races, football players and army scenes. Lake Washington was the location for the unlimited hydroplane races for the 50’s and 60’s Jimi attended the races and over time painted almost all of the boats in the races. It is in some of these pieces that he began to expand and paint wonderful watercolor backgrounds primarily using the cascade mountain range and Mt Rainier.

As a teenager Jimi was fascinated with the port of Seattle and did several images containing pictures of the Seattle waterfront and skyline in the late 50’s. His watercolor portraits of buildings explode with color and geometric shapes as one might imagine from Hendrix. As his work evolved he began to do abstract art that was very detailed and intense. He wove stories into complex grid and color patterns so intricately the viewer is drawn deeper into Jimi’s world, if they want to take the trip.

Much like in Jimi’s’ music, there is often more than meets the eye when you delve a little deeper into his artwork. Jimi had the ability to weave magical backgrounds and create ethereal scenes that existed within his mind in the same way he was able to achieve the impossible while playing the guitar. Some of the artwork contains a spiritual quality not unlike some of his music.

One dominant theme in Jimi’s life was the cascade mountain chain in particularly Mt Rainier, which was literally out his backdoor. We are extremely fortunate to be able to look back and see an aspect of Jimi that has been hidden for all of these years.

Truly a multi talented individual that was with us for a short time but that will stay with us forever through his music and now with his art. The Jimi Hendrix collection in association with Experience Hendrix have restored and catalogued Jimi’s visual art legacy and are now presenting it to the public for the first time. Along with estate signed limited editions of his paintings and drawings we will also be unveiling limited edition manuscripts of Jimi’s songs.

Jimi Hendrix