The Christmas Song 24 inches by 6 feet. This music was written by Mel Torme in 1945.  Here is the information link to the Merv Griffin show. Every year there is a Christmas theme painting.  That then is printed to canvas and sent as this years Christmas card, to a select few, and to those that have purchased a painting from this artist.

Listening to Chris Knight – Broken Plow followed by In a Mellow Tone – Ben Webster.

The inspiration for the look of the background comes from a painting by Jean-Siméon Chardin, the Young Schoolmistress. Seeing the simplicity in his backgrounds, caught this artist eye and challenged his current thinking. Of lately, the hard fought effort has been to create backgrounds that clearly are aggressive and almost competitive with the music.  With Chardin what you see are simple backgrounds that result in a clearer, and a cleaner focus on his subject matter.  Most of the portraits done in Chardin’s time are full of stuff, but he choose a different direction, not only in subject matter, but in its presentation.

Steve Winwood – Hearts on Fire

I like it. Chardin looks modern if you would just update the clothing.  What you see above, then, is what came out of that Chardin painting.  I know, use your imagination.  This canvas is more of getting back to basics by letting the background simply serve as the foundation for the work.  In some ways it is a move back  towards the style of Rothko.

Madeleine Peyroux – I Think it’s Going to Rain Today.

The thought then, with this painting, is to accomplish something similar to what that plain old musical staff  does for sheet music.   But to be art, there is the challenge to go far beyond those plain 5 lines. This artist hopes to display in The Christmas Song, a background that is not only interesting ,  but also visually enhances the music that flows across it.  The music should stand out as the subject matter that it truly is, with a salute to the portrait style of Chardin.  Heavy creative efforts, and alternative thinking, will be required to pull that off.

Finishing with Stevie Ray Vaughan – Voodoo Child,  Tori Amos – Give, along with Duran Duran – Come Undone and finally Breaking the Girl – Red Hot Chile Peppers.  Having a hard time breaking from the music.

Scott Von Holzen