Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse
16" x 12"
oil on canvas board, 2011

It was hard to resist. And I was not going to waste any of that little will power I posses on trying. Amy Winehouse died Saturday and I painted her just three days later. I didn't know much about her, I hadn't listened to her music much, I usually avoid the stars, the charts, and the Grammys,  and I still couldn't resist to paint her. Commercial intentions? Perhaps. Was I moved? Yes. I like Amy Winehouse's music you know, it may even make it in my list of 100 this year. The song? Back in Black.

I made the painting as a demonstration on portrait painting in a summer class for teens I teach in Bonita Springs. The class is a lot of fun, I had not taught teenagers before. The students knew about Amy Winehouse, they probably heard her music more than I did. Amy Winehouse may well be the only musical interest I have in common with these students. I started the demonstration by sketching out Winehouse's silhouette by means of the background. Not the background I found behind Winehouse in the photo, that was just gray, no I painted the lush green palms of Bonita Springs that I could see through the classroom windows. Next I painted the face, neck, and arms with a bright pink. Then her shirt in white and blue, followed by her hair in red and dark blue and the under painting was done. I picked it back up a half an hour later and spent another hour on it. Later that night I took it to my studio for another hour of refinement before I finished it the next day. If Back in Black will make the list depends on the next 6 or 7 months. The song now needs just one more point to make it (according to my ranking system: Once or twice a week I make a top 10 in which #1 receives 10 points, #2 gets 9 and so on. The following list is my 15th and latest top 10.)

1. Frances Bebey – La Condition Masculine (see previous blog; the one with the boobies on the cover)
2. Amy Winehouse – Back in Black (from her magnum opus Back in Black)
3. An outi solo from Crete (from A Collection of Traditional and Popular Songs and Dances of Greece)
4. Sinead O'Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U (another mega hit to charm me, what a week)
5. Beth Orton – Worms (opening track of Comfort of Strangers "Chickens don't fly but they got the wings... They got a wishbone where their backbone should've been")
6. Shelley Winters – Lie to Me (a thrift store find: Ladies of Burlesque, the song reminds of that joke in which a woman sleeps with Pinocchio—too raunchy to publish here)
7. Joanne Woodward – Something's Gotta Give (from the same album as above)
8. Mulatu Astatqe – Asha Gedawa (a beauty from Addis Ababa, from Ethiopiques 4)
9. Michal Michalesko – Yoske der Pedler (at the Yiddish Theater)
10. Arwiha and Ouled Sherif – A'yiti Ma Tkhebbi (Awesome Tapes From Africa)

Francis Bebey

Francis Bebey
16" x 20"
oil on canvas, 2011

Francis Bebey (1929-2001) was born in Cameroon, he was an Afro-pop superstar, recorded more than 20 albums, yet I had never heard of him before. A post featuring the album Akwaaba on the site Awesome Tapes From Africa that I follow, changed all that and Bebey now will be forever a part of my musical appreciation history cemented in the Top 100. So far two of his songs secured a spot within the hundred this year. The first song to enter is the title track from the aforementioned Akwaaba, the second the title track from his LP  La Condition Masculine, that comes with a bare breasted cute African girl on its cover. More to come about that one later but first things first: Akwaaba was released in 1985 by John Storm Roberts, a Britsh musicologist who I discussed at length earlier this year http://berrystop100.blogspot.com/2011/03/african-pop-part-2.html, on his Original label. The painting above, still wet, features the green backdrop of my own backyard (as if he were playing his acoustic guitar right here in front of me—in a painting anything can happen, I wish it could be true for real, but Bebey is no longer with us and even if he were... my backyard would be a most unlikely place for him to visit.)

Rumania

Romanian Village Musicians
(from a photograph by Bela Bartok)
20" x 16"
oil on canvas, 2011

Romania was still spelled Rumania when Bela Bartok took the photograph from which this painting was made after, and recorded the music that appeared on Folk Music of Rumania (1951). From that album the same Folk Dance in Hora Style, that entered last year's 100 in January of this year, is back in, and I used the same image to illustrate it. Scroll back to January and click on Bela Bartok to see the first painting and read more about the album Folk Music of Rumania, a story about classical music and vampires.

A Zulu Princess

Princess Constance Magogo
8.25" x 7.5"
oil on wood, 2011

The Princess' name is Constance Magogo Sibilile Mantithi Ngangezinye kaDinuzulu (1900-1984). Quite a name indeed but not even close to that of her fellow South African singer Miriam Makeba (1932-2008): Zenzile Makeba Qgwashu Nguvama Yiketheli Nxgowa Bantana Balomzi Xa Ufun Ubajabulisa Ubaphekeli Mbiza Yotshwala Sithi Xa Saku Qgiba Ukutja Sithathe Izitsha Sizi Khabe Singama Lawu Singama Qgwashu Singama Nqamla Nqgithi, who is of Swazi and Xhosa descend. Miriam isn't even part of that name! My name is Lambertus Gerardus Martinus van Boekel and it really falls short in comparison.

The first recordings of Princess Magogo were made by Hugh Tracey in 1939, it was the start of a long  career in traditional Zulu music while defying Zulu gender traditions. The Tracey recordings are exquisite and the featured Top 100 track Umuntu ehlobile singem jabise yini tina? is only one of the 39 he recorded, and one is even more beautiful than the other. I've already mused about Tracey a month ago and further examples from the thousands of discs he recorded in Africa are to follow in months to come. Supplemented, of course, with painted renditions of Tracey's photos or other photos of the musicians Tracey recorded.

A do-over

Beth Orton
48" x 12"
oil on wood, 2011

Not happy with last week's Beth Orton portrait I decided I needed to do a do-over. A painting hiatus of almost a month caused a rustiness that only could be loosened by painting a large painting. Such was my conviction after reviewing that portrait published in that last blog that I had worked on for so many days. So I set off with a 4ft plywood in front of me and this do-over on the left is the result: the brushstrokes are more decisive, it is looser, and the colors are more vivid than in the previous one. Still not that masterpiece that I'm always striving to produce but I'm back in the studio routine and I'll proudly include it in the series of a hundred paintings that make up the Top 100 2011. The song Shopping Trolley is a repeat from last year's list of one hundred and comes from the CD Perfect Strangers which was one of last year's top albums.

Shopping Trolley

Beth Orton
20" x 12"
acrylic on canvas, 2011

It has been a while, a little too long perhaps, since I painted. We packed up our belongings, the home, and the studio, and unpacked it some 1200 miles south. It will all be worth it in due time. From the Olentangy tom the Caloosahatchee, from pine to palm, from rent to own, it’ll be just fine, all in time, all in time. I think I’m going to paint the palm trees in my backyard. It’s all about them you know, and her.

Beth Orton’s Shopping Trolley has been my theme song for this move we’ve been through. Just watch the video for it on YouTube and I don't need to say no more.

“I think I’m Gonna Cry, but I’m gonna laugh about all in time, all in time”.