When James Williams paints, his easel is usually set up under his carport beside stacks of car tires, which he sells to folks who stop.
“I sold one this morning,” Williams said.
The proceeds from the sale, Williams said, are used to buy canvases for his oil paintings.
Sunday, as a result of some of the first winter-feeling weather of the year, Williams posted up inside his trailer on Marin Avenue. Inside, incense burned to temper the smell of paint thinner, portable heaters kept the small space toasty and Grover Washington Jr. played soul-jazz saxophone from an old boom box near his paint brushes.
A curtain separated the bedroom and kitchen areas from the den turned studio.
“Jazz gets my brushes going,” said Williams, who was wearing a white T-shirt, jeans and long necklace of colorful plastic beads, which he strung years ago on some fishing cord and now wears every day.
In addition, Williams said he likes the idea that his paintings offer posterity — something to give the later generations a glimpse of his world while he was alive.
