Gnossiennes

Rust-en-Vrede asked me to take part in a group show they are curating, due to open next week. The idea was to take inspiration from a song, be it the lyrics or the music itself, or both.
I started work on a landscape with the intention of inspiration coming from a recording I was obsessed with as a child - The shifting whispering sands, narrated by Billy Vaughn. The story is of a gold prospector of old who wanders into the Valley of death and narrates his experience of getting lost. The record inspired a life long love of mournful cowboy music and the perceived romance of the life of prospectors.
The recording itself, listening to it as an adult, has really naff backing vocals, but I love it still.
Halfway through the journey of the painting, an interpretation of Saties' Gnossiennes, by Patrick Watson came onto my ipod, and the melancholia of the minor notes had me taking the painting on a different path, and I went with it.
I went on to do 2 paintings, and am posting pics of the below. They are oil onto gold leaf on canvas, and measure 1x1m each.