The Be Good Tanyas

The Be Good Tanyas
16" x 20", oil on canvas, 2011-2

I did a little painting experiment: Instead of my usual process of painting figures on an already established landscape painting, I painted the landscape behind an already finished figure painting. It's a quite a different approach, especially on the way how I approached painting my backyard. I made a few innovations in the process. I ended up painting a whole new layer on the figures too, and the face of Samantha Parton, the figure on the left, is painted anew altogether. I'm not so sure if this version of the Be Good Tanyas painting is better than the one I did a year ago (compare with last year's Be Good Tanyas) but it is what it is, I can't revert back to the old one. And... an experiment is always good for something. Besides... I needed another Be Good Tanyas painting.

It's not about me remember, it's about them. It's about the Be Good Tanyas, about Samantha Parton, Trish Klein, and Frazey Ford. It's about their version of the Townes Van Zandt song Waiting Around to Die. It's music first, painting second. So I needed another painting to illustrate that song and I pulled out last year's but it wasn't the shortcut I had intended it to be. It took me a long time to get this painting to where I could live with it. 

Per request from one of my followers, I will occasionally include a link to a video of the music discussed, whenever this is appropriate. And this is certainly the case with Waiting around to Die as I know it from a video on YouTube.