The Ballad

[gxhpainter2]

a torrid ballad about love, guilt and the death of the father

[stevemawmv]

Based on your description of the piece and the title, going to just enjoy this painting and not risk coming to any wrong conclusions of the meaning.
As always, really like it and my imaginary walls are filling up with your wonderful work dear Gary.
Take care friend,
Steve

[Alexandra]

So much feeling here, Gary. It is easy to see how overcome this poor soul was indeed. Outstanding, as always!

[D Akey]

Intriguing title. Did you take a torrid paperback and rework the cover? If this is a personal thing, it's really personal because I don't think I could guess that this was the theme without your synopsis. It's as you words could have been taken straight off the cover of the novel or the first line in the liner notes on the dust jacket.

Well if it's about a torrid ballad of a torrid romance, I want to see hoop skirts and heaving bosoms and weeping willows and a plantation house, and a confederate officer embracing Missy Scarlett. . . and cats on hot tin roofs. . . and the old Colonel on the porch swing looking like he just kicked a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. . . and Old Blue the faithful hound dog nosing through the buckets for stray bits of chicken, extra crispy which he favors. . .And the handsome neighbor lad entering politics to seek to eliminate the abuses of the old boy network, meeting with some resistance and while visiting the old homestead falls in love with the daughter, who has only ever looked at him as a kid, but now. . . um. . . and like that.

So the liner notes are not without merit in such a context.

But it's a swell painting, though quite cliche, with the same old plot line. . . NOT!

[jibes]

Beautiful painting Gary. Great composition.

[gxhpainter2]

Based on your description of the piece and the title, going to just enjoy this painting and not risk coming to any wrong conclusions of the meaning.
As always, really like it and my imaginary walls are filling up with your wonderful work dear Gary.
Take care friend,
Steve

that is a very good approach to take with this Steve, and I am happy that you enjoy it.

So much feeling here, Gary. It is easy to see how overcome this poor soul was indeed. Outstanding, as always!

very perceptive Sandy and I am very happy you sense that power behind this work.

Intriguing title. Did you take a torrid paperback and rework the cover? If this is a personal thing, it's really personal because I don't think I could guess that this was the theme without your synopsis. It's as you words could have been taken straight off the cover of the novel or the first line in the liner notes on the dust jacket.

Well if it's about a torrid ballad of a torrid romance, I want to see hoop skirts and heaving bosoms and weeping willows and a plantation house, and a confederate officer embracing Missy Scarlett. . . and cats on hot tin roofs. . . and the old Colonel on the porch swing looking like he just kicked a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. . . and Old Blue the faithful hound dog nosing through the buckets for stray bits of chicken, extra crispy which he favors. . .And the handsome neighbor lad entering politics to seek to eliminate the abuses of the old boy network, meeting with some resistance and while visiting the old homestead falls in love with the daughter, who has only ever looked at him as a kid, but now. . . um. . . and like that.

So the liner notes are not without merit in such a context.

But it's a swell painting, though quite cliche, with the same old plot line. . . NOT!

Well you kind of are on the right track but although this was a very personal painting to express some recent events for me, as I refelected on it I felt in a way it was my own person ballad. along the lines defined in Wikipedia for Power Ballad:

[I]Power ballads[edit]

Simon Frith, the British sociomusicologist and former rock critic, identifies the origins of the power ballad in the emotional singing of soul artists, particularly Ray Charles, and the adaptation of this style by performers such as Eric Burdon, Tom Jones and Joe Cocker to produce slow-tempo songs often building to a loud and emotive chorus backed by drums, electric guitars and sometimes choirs.[49] According to Charles Aaron, power ballads came into existence in the early 1970s, when rock stars attempted to convey profound messages to audiences.[50]

Aaron argues that the power ballad broke into the mainstream of American consciousness in 1976 as FM radio gave a new lease of life to earlier songs such as Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" (1971), Aerosmith's "Dream On" (1973), and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" (1974).[50] The Carpenters' "Goodbye to Love", (1972), has also been identified as a prototype of the power ballad.[51] Notable power ballad examples include Nazareth's version of "Love Hurts" (1975), Kiss' "I Still Love You" (1982), Foreigner's "I Want to Know What Love Is" (1984),[49] Scorpions' "Still Loving You" (1984), Heart's "What About Love" (1985),[52] and Whitesnake's "Is This Love" (1987).[53][/I] I really didn't expect anyone to "understand" it in any traditional sense but maybe sense the range of feeling that drove its existence... I think Sandy got the gist of it from her comments as well ..

Beautiful painting Gary. Great composition.

thanks Neal...

[D Akey]

Well all I can say is, wow. Hope it's not too too bad. And my sincere condolences, Gary.

[AndreaMG]

Another gem. Be strong my friend.

[MeggerzTouch]

I too do abstract paintings, So on a certain level I understand your description for this piece. my Avatar photo is an abstract ArtRage 4 painting of my life up until now and my 'now' is im pregnant as a mother to be.

I love it. great job!

[Caesar]

An ancestral tragedy through a strong, moving, though composed, chorus narrative and music tones. just wonderful! I can see the funeral pyre and the mourning ....