Image one should be titled “Three panels with green line,” and this would have been taken seriously, 30 years ago.  But, today the green line is just the first applied paint in the start of a 13 canvases series based on the music,  The Four Seasons, by Antonio Vivaldi.  This music consists of 4 concertos: Spring RV 269, Summer RV 315, Autumn RV 293, and Winter RV 299. These 4 concertos consist of 13 movements, or twelve, if you consider the short piece that begins Summer, as a part of the Allegro.  That short piece is the first work of this series.

If you wish, listen to the first minute of the first Movement of the Summer Concerto,  Allegro Non Molto, at the Four Seasons link above.  It is a little fast for me so I prefer this YouTube link,  Trondheim Soloists,  that extends this short part to one minute and thirty-two seconds.

Back to the lone green line.  The purpose of that line in this canvas is to present a continuum.  It bonds the main three panels in a work that is, in total length, 110 inches (2.794m).

This second image was taken a couple of days ago. The smaller, add-on canvases, make the the  painting  more interesting, challenging, and add another dimension,  to better depict the flow of the music.  The large squares are there to slow the music flow down, unlike the original thought to use narrow strips.  In later Summer works, when the music is at times punchy, I can see the use of narrow lines to better increase the feel of movement in the work.

Listening to Mozart KV242 Concerto for 3 pianos.

Green has not been comfortable color for this artist, for unknown reasons. In work done lately,  it has been used only for small splashes of contrast.  The Birthday painting from 2010 was the last large use of green, but Summer has 4 canvases, so there will be a lot of bright, strong greens, and hopefully, more creative uses of this color family, still to come.

Listening to Emmylou Harris – I Will Dream

Scott Von Holzen