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HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD |
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Perth Amboy Artist Hari To Paint Stars Of Opry |
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Kenneth Hari, possibly the best known resident of Perth Amboy since Walter Mitty, has set up a studio in Nashville, Tenn, to paint portraits of 14 stars of the "Grand Old Opry." The artist, whose lithograph "The Prophet" hangs permanently in the Vatican, has been commissioned by the operators of the music hall to paint the recipients of the George D. Hay award. The award is presented to those who have done the most during the years for country music and is named after Hay, who was the first announcer in 1925 of the radio show, Barn Dance. The first 14 winners were named two years ago when Irvin Waugh, president of WSM-TV, dedicated the new Opry House and saluted those who were instrumental in its growth. Two more recipients will be announced each October when the annual country and western music awards are nationally televised, Waugh said. Hari has completed a portrait of Chet Atkins, singer and guitarist who is also a vice president of RCA, and a likeness of the late Hank Williams. Atkins sat for the artist in his Nashville office but the portrait of Williams, who died in 1953 at 29, had to be completed from photographs - the few Williams would pose for. T he New Jersey artist, who studied at the Maryland Institute in Baltimore after high school in Perth Amboy, and at the School of Fine Arts in Newark, is working on a portrait of Minnie Pearl, a stalwart on the Opry for many years. Down From Birmingham He is also to paint Roy Acuff, who wrote the "Wabash Cannonball; Ernest Tubb, who wrote "I'm Walking the Floor Over You," and Hank Snow, whose song "I'm Movin' On" headed the charts for 9 weeks. |
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