Poster for Bradenton Blues Festival unveiled

Last year's poster for the Bradenton Blues Festival was pretty laid-back. It shows a bluesman sitting in a chair, barefoot in ankle-deep turquoise water, strumming a Fender Telecaster as tiny fish swim around his feet.

For this year's poster, blues festival officials and artist Don Brandes tweaked the concept.

"We liked the tropical feel with the palm trees and the sailboat," said Johnette Isham, executive director of Realize Bradenton, the organization behind the festival. "We wanted something more high energy this year. And we wanted to get the railroad tracks in."

The poster art was unveiled Thursday.

"I kind of like this one," Brandes said. "We were talking about how last year we had a laid-back feel, that kind of blues. We wanted something with more energy. I attempted to get sound out of the image, like he was wailing."

This year's poster again shows a lone bluesman standing on railroad tracks with water all around and palm trees in the background. He's leaning back and playing a high note on a red Gibson.

The railroad tracks, Isham said, "run right next to the festival, and at least two times during the festival the Tropicana train goes by very noisily."

The central image in this poster, of a dark figure playing a guitar pointed toward the sky, is reminiscent of the one in the posters from the festival's first two years, created by "Harry Potter" illustrator Mary GrandPre.

"I talked to Mary GrandPre and told her I was going to do something similar," Brandes said. "I paid homage to her images."

Brandes is an instructor in the Illustration Department at the Ringling College of Art and Design.

He has created several pieces of public art along the Bradenton Riverwalk, including a recently installed panel titled "Bradenton Baseball."

The limited edition poster signed by Brandes will be on sale next week at Keeton's Office & Art Supply, 817 Manatee Ave. W.

T-shirts with the same image will be on sale as well. Posters sell for $30, T-shirts for $20.

If you can't wait that long, go to Ace's Live, 4343 Palma Sola Blvd., Bradenton, on Friday night to see Rick Estrin & the Nightcats perform. The band is among the headliners at this year's blues festival, and festival posters and T-shirts will be on sale. Discounted tickets for the Bradenton Blues Festival will also be on sale for $25, $5 off the regular price.

Brandes is carving a woodcut of the poster, which he will paint so it looks exactly like the poster image. The woodcut will be sold through a silent auction at the festival. Last year's woodcut sold for about $2,000. The money goes to Realize Bradenton's Blues in the Schools program.

The festival is scheduled for Dec. 5 on the Riverwalk. Besides Estrin, big names on the lineup include Janiva Magness and Joanna Connor.

Information: bradentonbluesfestival.org.

Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Poster for Bradenton Blues Festival unveiled ."