A friend of Austin-based visual artist William Stidham was hounding him to paint Willie Nelson, but he wouldn’t relent – until she surprised him with a copy of The Tao of Willie. He read the book that weekend and promptly changed his mind. His watercolor portrait of Nelson ultimately became the first in his Sacred Heart series.

“What I really wanted to symbolize in that initial painting was all the heart that Willie brings to his life and the world he touches,” Stidham says.

He painted Nelson in four colors: red, black, the white of the watercolor paper and gold gauche. And after the painting was complete, he felt inspired to throw water on it. “When I finished that Sacred Heart of Willie, I nearly had an out of body experience. I mean, I was literally shaking. I knew I had done something different and very important to me,” he says. “The next day I was so excited that I took the painting to work. One of my co-workers started crying. I knew that I had touched something much deeper with this painting, and with this idea.”

Two years later, the Sacred Heart series now features Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams, along with numerous rock ‘n’ roll and religious figures. He’s now exhibiting at music festivals, restaurants and a gallery in Santa Fe, N.M. Still, because Stidham grew up in a family that loved Willie Nelson’s music, that first portrait still resonates. Because he works at the Austin radio station KGSR, Stidham had the opportunity to present Nelson with the first reproduction of the painting face-to-face.

“I learned something very important that moment: Willie Nelson is the most centered, in-the-moment person I have ever met. When he looks at you, he looks directly into you, and that particular moment is the only moment that matters to him. Very deep. Very touching. Very present,” Stidham recalls.

“Before I showed it to him, I told him the whole story of where I was, how I did it, what it had meant to me, where it was leading me. I then showed it to him,” he continues. “His eyes teared up. It was a very powerful moment. Just look at me in that picture. I look like I’m floating out of my body.”