Dearest Mama

The paintings for Painted Song were created with inspiration from arias from Douglas Moore's opera " The Ballad of Baby Doe", recorded by opera singer and musician, Olivia Whiddon for me to listen to while painting. The five arias for soprano from this opera feature lush natural imagery and present opportunities for the singer to highlight range and vocal dexterity. The story is based on actual historical figures and centres on a silver mining town in the late 1800s. With Kenora having a similar history this seemed an appropriate subject for our first project together.