Collaboration with Rebecca Tripp – part 9

With being away from my computer most of the day because of errands and being at Blue Moon Gallery for our monthly Artist Reception, I hadn't been able to go into any of my in-boxes until just an hour or so ago. When looking through the messages for my deviantART account, I found that Rebecca had sent me a message.

Wait? Fuchsia and Wisteria? Which painting of mine did she dig up this time? Now my curiosity was peeked since my dear composer friend has a strange talent of pulling out paintings that I have long since forgotten about. I had to watch the video to find out.

Ud - Pipa comparison 

Her newest creation Waltzing Under Wisteria has as an almost Asian quality to it this time around, accomplished with the marriage of what sounded to be piano, harp, and perhaps what seemed to be hammered dulcimer. Of course I could be wrong on the last stringed instrument but the Eastern influence was certainly there to me. It actually reminded me a little of Red River which was performed by Liu Fang on a pipa (a stringed instrument that similar to an Ud but has a longer neck, both being types of lutes) but there were bits that reminded me of some traditional Guzheng playing such as a piece called Spring River Flower Moon Night or even A Water Lily which has both Guzheng and I believe Erhu play in it. Rebecca's Waltzing Under Wisteria also seems to be an almost Westernized version of traditional music from China which is difficult to accomplish but the blending of the instruments she chose for the piece work perfectly together.

"There was a Kingdom" by Dawn Star Wood

While watching the video, I couldn't help but laugh when I discovered which painting she had managed to find deep in the archives of my gallery. Somehow she found a painting I had done back in 2008 titled There was a Kingdom which was part of an unfinished series I was working on at the time where I was trying to tell a small story through a group of different floral paintings and their titles. At the time I realized that what I wanted to do was not where my skill level in painting was so abandoned the project to perhaps redo sometime in the future. The painting was also done at a time where I was experimenting with a combination of watercolors, India ink and gold paint. At the time I was pretty happy with it but now that I look at it, I can tell in comparing the piece to my more recent work that I have improved greatly. Now it makes me ponder if I should, at some point, return to the project idea and completely redo it. Looks like it will be something that I will need to think on.