Norah Jones in performance
Acrylic on canvasboard, 22 x 24 in (2009)

One of a series of paintings about singers and players . . .

This is a portrait of Norah Jones in concert, around 2007 or so. Ms Jones is a popular jazz singer, pianist and likey everything else_ist given her muscial family (her dad is Ravi Shankar). Her full name is Norah Jones Shankar.

I am not a music expert, and can only attempt good musical rationale on what I like or don't like. So to say that I enjoy some of Ms Jones' stuff — especially her live sounds — does not at all explain why I like some AC-DC, or all of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite. I just do, whether they use arpegiated intos or dropped minor fifths, or just play all the guitar strings open and loudly . . .

The painting shows the effects of high intensity stage lighting that tends to wash out the features of the performers. That's why theatre performers put on what was called Texas Mud (in my day), a dark coloured makeup goop that helps you to appear a so-called normal colour under the lights. Also, one can avhieve really bizarre effects using coloured lighting as any band with a travelling light show (and retina-burned fans) know very well.