Blues For Life Your place for blues reviews and news.

When I sent out the call for collaborators I figured there was someone I should have probably have asked first and as luck would have it he was the first person to apply. Now it is my pleasure to introduce  the newest member of Team Blues, Mr. Paul Lachine. Frequent readers might recognize Paul as one of the few frequent commenters on this site. But even if you're not a frequent reader you should be able to see that banner for his own website thats been sitting in the top right corner of the several months now. Paul is in fact the artist, owner and operator of 12barart.com.

Here's a biography for Paul that I've lifted from his own website.

Paul Lachine’s acrylic and scratchboard paintings of blues pioneers are a unique and compelling homage to some of the greatest musicians of all time.

Lachine, a 42-year-old illustrator and artist who lives near Windsor, Ontario, has been drawing and painting since he was a small boy. By his teen years, his cartoons had become the bane of his teachers. In his early twenties, completely self-taught, he began drawing and painting professionally.

“It’s just something I’ve always loved to do,” he said. “I have never imagined myself doing anything else.”

Since those early years Lachine has built a thriving career as a newspaper and magazine illustrator, with publishing credits in the Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, and Toronto Star, among many others.

This series of blues paintings grew out of his passion for the music. A musician himself, Lachine some years ago fell in love with the cadences, rhythms and resonance of the blues. His growing interest in the lives and stories of the form’s great masters naturally led him to want to express this visually.

“I just want to share my love of the music and its creators with others, and connect with them on some level,” he said.

Having read his bio it's not really surprising  with me being the youngest person at most of the shows I go to that I've just teamed up with someone twice my age. Anyways good to have you on board Paul!