The basic idea for painted guitars is not a new one. It was popular during the Rennaisance and Baroque periods when it seems virtually everything was subject to being painted. The most common painting of musical instruments was done on the lids of harpsichords. They traditionally depicted parlor scenes and landscapes. In general the soundboards of
wooden instruments were not painted for fear that the heavy oil paint would diminish the sound. For this reason we chose to keepthe painting to the backs and sides of the guitar.

My own interest in painted instruments goes back to when I began
making guitars; some 35 years ago. My father was a painter and silversmith which is where I get my love of working with my hands and my appreciation for painting. My mother gave me music.

I first met Tamara Codor when she was living two houses down from us in
the town of Gardiner, New York. For a while she was giving my daughter,
Gabriella, painting and piano lessons. It wasn't until I saw her portfolio some years later with its many beautiful paintings that I realized that I had found the painter for my guitars. Tamara has a unique style of combining classical painting with abstract modernism, just like my concept for the millennium guitar.
I make a typical classical guitar in which I have incorporated my own
modern ideas.

Like many painters Tamara has extensively studied anatomy and figure painting which you can see in her paintings. It has turned out that painting nude figures on the guitar has spurred a bit of a controversy. This comes as something of a surprise in this day and age, but
then so did the introduction of the elevated fingerboard on the millennium model guitar. Even old ideas seem to take a period of readjustment.

All of the guitars that Tamara will paint will have a musical theme.
So far, the only completed guitar is "the acrobats from a traveling
minstrel show" but we have studies for paintings of, the sirens, the
mistral winds, Sherezade, serenade, the muses, the listeners etc. We invite new ideas as well.

Because we realize that fully graffic depictions of the nude body does
not suit everyone's tastes, we are planning to do some degree of veiling of the subjects. We invite you to contact us to let us know what you think of the concept as well as the paintings.

- Thomas Humphrey