Pete Escovedo is a Grammy-winning jazz percussionist and painter, whose art featured in The California Art Tour exhibit at The Grand Gallery in Oakland. The exhibit, showcasing through the end of the month, highlights abstract portraits, predominantly of women, using striking colors. Escovedo's work is inspired by the freedom he felt in his early art education. Attendees included family and friends, celebrating both his art and his recent 90th birthday. Escovedo's connection to Oakland remains significant as he performed here and celebrated personal milestones.
"I was very fortunate that I had a nice art teacher. She would let me go in the back room and use the oils, but she didn't let all the kids use them. I'd be back there painting and doing my thing. She would tell me to paint whatever I feel," Escovedo said.
"That's the majority of my paintings. I never, in a sense, try to vision something at first and then put it on canvas. Sometimes I just look at the canvas, and then I start painting, and then it starts to happen, the figures come alive, the faces come alive, and I just keep working."
"This is where it all started to take place. I was married here. All my kids were born here. So Oakland is very significant for me. I wanted people who haven't seen my art, who are from Oakland, to come and look."
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