The Pretender 20 inches by 5 feet (1.524m) with three add on canvases.  The colors are appearing a little on the bright side on my monitor, so there is still some work to be done, to offer a realistic representation.

This week and more, have been filled with interruptions and other obligations, but no matter,  the time that is spent with this work have produced, small, but productive efforts.

The song and the words of The Pretender are soft and reflective, while still maintaining a rock beat.  This is a constant reminder when it comes to color choices.  It is important to maintain the mood of  this music, so that is why the blues and darker purples are there. The splashes of bright color add musical and artist contrasts, because, in many ways, this is an upbeat song:  it is the excepting of one’s own fate, and then getting on with it.

Musical slurs are a part of this painting. You see a lot of them on the lower right added canvas.  They have been evolving, in style, a lot this last year.  The  issue with slurs has always been how to make them stand out. That is where the different colored boxes help to do.  The boxes eliminated the need to work with the painting’s background color.

Now, after doing a number of canvases, with this  slur -in-box style, there has been some questioning. Going back to Van Gogh, again, and looking at a number of his olive tree paintings from 1889, the wonder is could Van Gogh’s late style be worked into these slurs, to open up the look?  Hum?

Hopefully this artwork will be done this week, which would be about a month spent.  That time spent is to long for a work of this size.  But, since finished works are display only a few months and then stored away, it may be time that is do to it.

Scott Von Holzen