Month: August 2011

S_V_H Baby Love image2&3

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

Baby Love the 1964 hit by Diana Ross and the Supremes, two foot by 6 foot canvas.  Certainly you can see this image has similarities with this years Birthday painting. What is difficult to see is the similarities between image 2 and image 3.

This art is evolving with each canvas in search of a unique style for displaying a unique theme.  A  question that bothers is what happens when you find that unique way of expressing  paint on canvas?  Here the wonder is what went on in the minds of Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko when they new that they had found their own styles.  Pollack best drip paintings occur around 1948 to 1950, judging that from the book Jackson Pollack, that was part of a 1998-99 exhibition of his works at the Museum of Modern Art. Rothko’s style found its moments, again around 1948, and truly hit its signature look in the 1950s. Strange, paging through Mark Rothko The Works on Canvas, is that the last painting pictured, done in 1970, looks similar in style to those done in the early fifties.   So it appears that every style, even your signature style,  can either run its course quickly as with Pollack, or in the case of Rothko, be repeated and tweaked for twenty years. Just thoughts, for at this moment nothing is preventing this artist from going in any direction.  And I mean nothing.

Listening to Mozart piano Concerto No. 9.

The background is done, so tonight the music is going down.  What will be interesting, and the challenge for this artist is how to make the music stand out from the background, or not how to make the music stand out, but instead how to get it the melt with, or merge into.

Also, since Baby Love pretty much was recorded only by the Supremes, I have decided to steam the music from Pandora with stations created for the Supremes, the Animals, the Beatles, The Association, and maybe a mix of other 60s girl bands and a chunk of Motown to round thing off.  The music sets the mood for the painting.

Coldplay In My Place.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Baby Love image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

Back from a week and a weekend away from the art and in a mental struggle to focus along comes Baby Love by the Supremes.  This was not the first choice.  With the other choices either the music was difficult to find, showed a lack of interest, or just would not have fit a six foot canvas. One constant irritant is that this artist does not stock pile music for future choices.  It took two evenings of searching through a dozen musical books to find something, anything, that would fit, look interesting, and had some musical credibility.  Baby Love being a number one hit for 4 weeks and the artist catchy phrase Let’s Kiss found in the musical line “Instead of breaking up let’s start some kissing and making up,”  sold the painting once it was confirmed that the music would fit.

As was mentioned before, a lot of times the next artwork choice just happens, so that is what has occurred again. There is this quilt of not painting the best of the music that is available.  There is this knowledge that time itself will prevent many great pieces of music to be represented by this art, which is a frustration, and leads to a lot of back and forth debate.  And yet, this artist knows that the musical choice is just the start of this art.  This artist knows that what is put down on the canvas, and the techniques used, is way more interesting then any particular notes from the music.  The foremost goal is with each work, to increase this artist understanding and skill to move ever closer to creating a great artwork.  The music is there to inspire and to be a surprise to any first time viewer.  Hopefully the art is there to not just fill wall space.

Scott von Holzen

S_V_H Vivaldi – L’Estro Armonico, Op. 3, Concerto No. 2, Larghetto finalimage

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

Vivaldi

Listening to One Headlight by Wallflowers.

This is a link to one to a version of this music which starts at 3 minutes and 40 seconds in.  At about 5 minutes and 29 seconds is where this painting begins as the Larghetto part of this most wonderful music comes to an end.

This work is about finished. Although, the photos presented here are not detailed enough, the part of this image that is most interesting, to this artist technically, are those rectangle beams, which you see three of in the above image. With the use of a pallet knife and then layers brushed gently across the results are unique. This may be the next step through break through to hopefully move the backgrounds, since this art beginnings, away from a stylistic interpretation of Mark Rothko. To go to a much larger application will be challenging, use a lot more paint, and may look terrible, so that effort will be performed on a two foot by six foot canvas just to keeps things manageable.  Not sure the musical choice, just need the faith to step through the break, and work it to make it work on a big scale. We shall see.

Listening to Steely Dan FM, a favorite.

Style, is a large part of what separates true art from imitation and wall art. You paint, paint, paint and paint, and you try this and that and look at this artist and that artist and then you realize that no matter how you try to learn from others, your own way of doing things just keeps coming back.  And that is what is important.

Careless Love by Dr. John.

If you are every to become a unique artist among the other millions of other artists you need to come to terms with your own vision of art and then follow it without question.  If you question it, you will fail. You will be nothing about another self centered and boring Art blog here at WordPress.

Listening to Pa-pa-pa-pa  from Mozart’s The Magic Flute K.620

Die Of A Broken Heart by Carolyn Dawn Johnson. Yes, it is an acceptable Country tune.

This painting seems to be a summary of the last half dozen works.  This painting sums up and then, as mentioned shows the way forward away from what was taken for granted.  This artist is not ready yet, to pound out duplicates of a style of art, similar to what Rothko did when he was at his best.  Sure, there will arrive that same moment that arrived for Mark Rothko around 1948, but for now this artist is not feeling that.

Other music:

Nat King Cole  Unforgettable, a great barbershop tune that will live on hopefully many more generations.

Evil Nine  Cakehole

Get Off My Cloud The Rolling Stones

Listening to a heavy Rap piece by Dr. Dre  with Snoop Dog

Laura Nyro and Stoney End. Her album, Eli & The Thirteenth Confession, first heard when I arrived at my college dorm room in Madison, opened the musical floodgates.  I can still feel that moment, that now seems ten million years ago.

What this painting accomplished was to confirm to this artist his appreciation of  the music of Vivaldi.  The regret is that there must be dozens of other Classical Artists this artist should paint, but the limits of time and the amount of time it takes to complete a work, just make for many wonderful pieces of music that will be left out. Strange, that the choice for a Classical painting is not methodical but simply the current piece of music that sticks in this artist head at the moment a decision is needed. Even choosing the more  familiar modern music, a lot of the time the choice is random.

Listening to Aimee Mann live, Save Me.

There is no top one hundred pieces of music that this artist feels that are a must to be painted. Understand the music is –

Sam and Dave, Hold On! I’m Comin’

– the excuse to paint.  The painting allows this artist to listen to music. The music allows the pursuit of  the life long quest to find an unique way to creatively express oneself.

Simon & Garfunkel, Cecilia, another college apartment favorite with a good story to go along with it.

Time to move on.  Joe Cocker, The Weight

Scott Von Holzen