After Rain

I often paint listening to music; just like in this case when Randy Newman’s song Rider in the Rain turned up on my playlist. (I adore Randy Newman, and have all of his songs.) When he writes about the flip side of the American dream, and the longing and loss, with a particular irony that is more European than American, he is at his best for me. He paints dark moody pictures which never let go. But this song is different, a transparent story with fresh music about a desperado in the rain riding to Arizona. I had it on repeat and this little painting materialised out of something that had been much bleaker. But I had been flogging a dead horse, (excuse the pun) and Newman’s simple song with the swing of a horse’s easy gait, told me where to go - TH