Pussy Riot (Sunset)

Three members of Pussy Riot
14" x 11", oil on canvas, 2012

The background for this painting was done at the same day as the one of Cat Power that I attached  in the previous post. Cat Power's background was done in the AM and for this one I turned the easel 'round in the PM. All these landscapes are done plein-air but I'm not particularly proud of this Pussy Riot painting. I could point out several things that are wrong with it, and that is just on the technical part of it (I won't even get started to self-criticize the conceptual aspects). To top it off I took a less than accurate photograph of it (which actually helps a bit to cover up certain mistakes). I am proud however to have Pussy Riot a part of my Top 100 2012 list. Most of you probably heard of the band Pussy Riot but I bet very few of you actually listened to their music. Pussy Riot, of course, is that Russian riot grrl group that made the world news because of their arrest following a blasphemous performance in a Russian Orthodox Church in which they ridiculed the Church's support for president Vladimir Putin. The group consists of approximately 12 members and performs with balaclavas, face masks to hide their identity. The three members that were arrested (and sit out a two year jail sentence for hooliganism) are not anonymous any more as the trial was a daily hot news item all over the world. The three, that also depicted in the painting, are Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich. Two others whose identity is revealed have fled the country. After hearing about them in the news I immediately looked up their music to listen to it and behold, it is really good, one of the most exciting bands I've heard in a long time associated with that term Riot Grrrl. The Top 100 song is Putin Lights Up the Fires, it is their latest single sung in Russian that was released recently.