Title of Piece: A Cat Called Bird
Artist: Jean McGuire
Size: 30 x 24 framed
Medium: Charcoal on toned paper
Price: $650
About the Piece:
Charlie “Bird” Parker was one of the most influential jazz musicians of the twentieth century, and Kansas City played a defining role in his artistic development. Before rising to international fame, Parker came of age here as both a young man and a musician, shaping his distinctive sound in the clubs and late-night jam sessions along 12th and 18th Streets. Today, his legacy remains deeply connected to Kansas City and its enduring place in the history of jazz.
About the Artist:
After a forty-year hiatus from art, Jean McGuire rediscovered her passion through portrait studies, drawn to the challenge of capturing the unique stories behind each person. Her portraits seek to illuminate the emotions and histories of these individuals, making each piece a narrative in itself.
Artist: Jean McGuire
Title of Piece: Jay
Size: 24" x 24"
Medium: oil on canvas
Price: $1000
Description: “You’d hear some cat play, and somebody would say, ‘This cat, he sounds like he’s from Kansas City.’ It was Kansas City Style. They knew it on the East Coast. They knew it on the West Coast. They knew it up North, and they knew it down South.” – Jay McShann Jay McShann was an American jazz pianist, vocalist, composer, and bandleader, leading Kansas City bands featuring Charlie Parker, Bernard Anderson, Walter Brown, and Ben Webster.
Title of Piece: Lonnie
Artist: Jean McGuire
Size: 40" x 30"
Medium: oil on canvas
Price: $2200
Description: As I was deciding which jazz artists to paint for my current series on jazz, Lonnie McFadden was a logical choice. This piece also stretched me by having to figure out how to make the colors I work with pop against the black background.
Title of Piece: The Gift Of Her Song
Artist: Jean McGuire
Size: 24" x 24"
Medium: Oil on canvas
Price: $1000
Description: Wrapped up in a ribbon, like the gift her talent was to the world, Aretha honored our first Black President with her song. Her iconic hat soon became on of the first images to be made into widespread memes.
Title of Piece: Bobby
Artist: Jean McGuire
Size: 24" x 24"
Medium: oil on canvas
Price: $1000
Description: Bobby Watson is a world-renowned saxophonist, composer, arranger and educator. He has contributed consistently intelligent, sensitive and well-thought out music to the modern-day jazz lexicon for more than three decades. The intensity of his gaze in the reference photo speaks volumes about the man as a person and as an artist.
Name: Jean McGuire
Title of Piece: Looking For A Bluebird
Size: 40" x 30"
Medium: oil on canvas
Price: $2800
Studio Number: 204
About the Piece: : Florence Mills came to fame in Harlem during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s. When she was offered an opportunity to perform in the Ziegfield Follies where she would have been the only black performer on stage, she declined. Instead she took a role in an all-black production. She took the role, she said, to “give my people the opportunity of demonstrating that their talents are equal.”
Name: Jean McGuire
Title of Piece: Jubilation and Resurrection
Size: 30 x 40
Medium: Oil on canvas
Price: $2000
Studio Number: 204
About the Piece: : When I was working on this piece my only objective was to try and capture the sheer joy that exuded from these dancers. Working from a photograph from 1960, the fact
Name:Jean McGuire
Title of Piece:The Greatest
Size:14" x 18"
Medium:Oil on canvas, framed
Price: $500
Description:Muhammad Ali, was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed “The Greatest”, he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time.
Name:Jean McGuire
Title of Piece:1960 Something
Size:36 x 36
Medium:Oil on Canvas
Price:$2000
Description:Easter morning, 1960-something. Obviously time for a family photo. My mom, surrounded by her three children, poses in the front yard. We are all dressed in our Easter finest. I even got to wear a fancy hat. Outdoor pictures were taken facing the sun back in those days, which made for a lot of over exposed photographs with everyone squinting at the camera. Each person in this photo reveals quite a bit about themselves and where they were in life, you just have to know the stories. Each figure makes me smile, but trying to capture that moment in time was a major emotional challenge.
Name:Jean McGuire
Title of Piece:Were They
Size:48 x 36 inches
Medium:oil on canvas
Price:$2800
Description:Looking at the reference photo it’s hard to be sure what the relationship was: Were they friends? Were they relatives? Were they more? We may never know, but I know that in that era, female couples were accepted by society as long as they presented as roommates or friends. I just hope they were happy.
Title of Piece:Elegance, With Furs
Size: 40" x 30"
Print or Original?: Original
Medium: Oil on canvas
Price: $2000
Description:The styles of the late 1920’s, early 1930’s de-emphasized the waist and depended on a lot of fur for warmth and style. Hats were worn every day and hemlines were low. However, in the photographs we were left with people always seemed to be having fun.
Title of Piece:False Modesty
Size: 40" x 30"
Print or Original?: Original
Medium: Oil on canvas
Price: $2200
Description:Each generation likes to think that they invented sex and sexy dressing. Not only is that false, it’s totally ludicrous. A century ago was the Roaring 20’s…and they were roaring!
Title of Artwork: Saintly Sinner
Materials Used: Oil on Canvas
Price: $2200
Medium: Painting
Date created (Year) : 2024
Size: 30” x 40” x 1.5”
Rarity: Unique
Condition: Excellent Condition
Signature: Hand-signed by artist, Signature located on Bottom right
Certification of Authenticity: Included (issued by authorized authenticating body)
Frame: Not included
Series: Telling Their Stories
About the Work:
This painting is based on an antique photo of a Wichita saloon girl, dated 1886. Many of the saloon girls were women who were forced to earn a living in an era that offered few means for women to do so. If for some reason a woman was not married, or marriageable, she had few choices in how to support herself.
A saloon girls job was to encourage the cowboys who visited the establishment where she worked to spend as much of their pay at the saloon as possible. Buy her a drink? Yes. Play a game of cards? Yes. Maybe pay to enjoy her company? Sometimes yes.
The photo I worked from intrigued me: the young woman is a mixture of innocence and sensuality. She looks young, but old; innocent, but provocative. Statistically, women who were in this line of work had a high percentage of suicides. I hope she escaped this and ended up living a long, happier life.
Title of Artwork: Harlem Stroll
Materials Used: Oil on Canvas
Price: $2000
Medium: Painting
Date created (Year) : 2024
Size: 36” x 36” x 1.5”
Rarity: Unique
Condition: Excellent Condition
Signature: Hand-signed by artist, Signature located on Bottom right
Certification of Authenticity: Included
Series: Telling Their Stories
About the Work:
It’s a beautiful day and you’re with your best friends, dressed to the nines, strolling down a street alive with people and style. You’re living in the most exciting city in the world, in a neighborhood that is enjoying a true cultural renaissance.
We all have good days, we all have bad days; this is one of the best days.
Title of Piece: Jump, Jive, Joy
Artist: Jean McGuire
Size: 48" x 36"
Medium: Oil on canvas
Price: $2800
About the Piece:
18th & Vine is the home of Kansas City Jazz with a history that goes back more than 100 years. People tend to focus on the music when they think of 18th & Vine, but dance is just as important a part of the story. The combination of dance and music are an integral part of our city’s heritage. The two dancers in this piece embody the joy of moving with the innovative music that wafts through the streets of the district.
About the Artist:
After a forty-year hiatus from art, Jean McGuire rediscovered her passion through portrait studies, drawn to the challenge of capturing the unique stories behind each person. Her portraits seek to illuminate the emotions and histories of people from times past. The proximity of the ZhouB to the rich musical history of the 18th & Vine jazz district has inspired me to produce a series of paintings focused on the jazz that this area is famous for.
Connect!: https://www.instagram.com/artbyjeanmcguire/