It is not hard to see the appeal of the instrument in the hands of Court Painter. Light and portable, a harmonizing instrument ;easy to maintain and soothing to his many celebrity visitors.
The lute he finds enormously versatile, using it as a break from his onerous painting schedule to play interlude dance music… interlude popular tunes… interlude arrangements of rap music and interlude song accompaniments that he hums lustily … and interlude passemezzi (a sort of Renaissance twelve-bar blues) he loves to belt out after a few shots of courage at the Ship & Anchor… often ending an evening plucking and riffing on “musical interludes of the most refined and expressive fantasias that haunt Court Painter’s imagined reveries and opium dreams.” (Accompanying images are not meant to illustrate opium dreams however the monotone prints are intended to transport the viewer to an experience of 17th century reality before colour)
