- In this Still Life Painting, "When The
Devil Beats His Wife," an original oil on panel, I was interested
in creating an image of a classical guitar, sheet music with
legible notation. Perhaps I over did it. In any event there first
thing I did was write a Wild West Texas ballad and work out a
kind-a part Texan, part Spanish, part Gypsy rhythm for a Spanish
classical guitar that needs to roll on the words and lets the
fingers leaving the strings of one chord sound off at transition
to the next chord allowing the lifted fingers to hammer the next
notes down without the right hand even getting involved.
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- I lived in Texas and jail breaks did happen
in Palo Pinto and all the commotion inspired me to write this
song and as the resultant fantasy of once again living in my
head as a cowboy on the loose out in west Texas who is falsely
accused and escapes the hanging tree which in truth and reality
did exist in Palo Pinto, a tree which was well used, so to speak
and in any event the escapees who inspired this musical creation
which I set to paint were soon apprehended across the street
from the courthouse - jail house after a three day county-wide
man hunt for two escapees on a misdemeanor charges. Hundreds
of Law enforcement officials were involved in this Texas-styled
man-hunt including the Texas Rangers as they scoured one of the
largest counties in Texas. The escapees evidently went straight
across the street got the stashed clothes which were left for
them behind a beer-joint cafe with three cute little rental units
off to one side. Once properly suited up in civilian duds they
went in the front door of the place and rented a unit with a
window overlooking the front steps of the Palo Pinto County Court
House and jail from which they had just escaped. Some how these
jail-bird escapees had enough money to buy several cases of beer
and basic supplies to consume while enjoying the room with the
best view in the county at this time. After several days two
and two got put together and the more than a little bit inebriated
escapees were hand-cuffed and taken back across the street and
returned to their jail cells. In any event it's still not easy
being a cowboy even in a West Texas Cow-Poke day dream set to
music.
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- The Phrase "When the Devil beats his
wife" is derived from Mexican Vaqueros who say that when
there is thunder and sunshine at the same time the Devil is beating
his wife. Still not making sense? Imagine being in a heard of
angry longhorn cattle when there is thunder and lightning, in
other words All hell is fixing to break loose. The way I see
it that's just part of being a cowboy. And as a note I used the
words Quando el Diablo patalano la Vieha ( which means "When
the Devil beats his wife"in English ) as the words to form
the melody and the guitar music as seen in this creation. This
artwork only has room for the guitar part. If you read music
then enjoy. If you don't read music please consider learning
and write us your song.
-
- At this point in the process of conceptualizing
a painting with a five minute wild-west ballad as subject matter
I realized I was in good shape to do the deed, you see painting
is easy, it's the rest of life which is difficult. Had this painting
been my first rodeo in the arena of challenging myself as a professional
painter I don't think I would have survived the first round.
Some how I stayed in the saddle.
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