Beira-Baixa (Portugal)

Woman from Beira-Baixa with Donkey (large detail)
32" x 20"
oil on wood, 2010

This is a larger version of an image I've painted before in 2005. I took six photos of the painting upon finishing and the one shown here I took without a flash, not enough daylight, a hand not sturdy enough. I like the fuzzy 'motion' quality of the bad photo, I may go back into the painting and apply some motion filters manually with the brush while the paint is still wet. I may not. First photography and now Photoshop have revolutionized painting! In a few weeks I will post a sharp version of this painting along with images of paintings that I already posted before but retouched. I tend to do this all the way up to the time I exhibit the Top 100. I went back into the Joseph Spence painting because I felt proportions could be more natural and now it's a better painting than the one below from the previous post. The Cat Power painting I retouched just to add some refinement. I liked that painting from the very beginning.

The song I illustrated with a woman and a donkey is Cançao de Embalar (meaning Rendez-Vous) from a nice cd in a Music and Musicians series. This cd is dedicated to the folk music of Portugal. Several women, all anonymous, perform on this track. The third track on the cd (also from Beira-Baixa) is a song about camomile called Macelada. I was so happy learn this because in last year's writings I dedicated a whole paragraph on the topic of herbal songs for the occasion of a song in that Top 100 about basil from Serbia. Alas, here's that paragraph.

Unlike songs about art, there is no anxiety in songs about herbs. (Quite a category indeed and well worth listing, especially since I like to make lists: She Likes Weeds was a hit for the Tee Set; Scarborough Fair –parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme– for Simon and Garfunkel; African Herbsman by Bob Marley; Neil Young's Cinnamon Girl; and I'm not even getting started on songs about marijuana.) Oj ubuva malo momo deals with basil, Serbian people (used to) carry bits of basil with them to church and also used it in their homes for fragrance.

Let me know if you know of any other songs on the topic.
In the meantime: The 16th Top 10 provided me with more songs to be included in The Top 100 2010. There are now ten song certain of a spot in the list.

1. Vampyre Corpse - Dogs of War
2. Roberto Carlos Lange - Amazonian Pacific
3. Sekouba Traore – Walinyumadon
4. Blooddawn - Nailed Fist
5. Time and Temperature – Havana
   
6. Clarinetes de Linares – El Gallito Giro
   
7. Smodern (?) – Miss Smodern
   
8. Mother of Fire – The Beast and I
   
9. Bob Marley – Put it on
10. Tsjuder – Blasphemy