Summer Presto from the Vivaldi Four Seasons series.  Composed of eight panels each thirty inches, this artwork reaches a length of twenty feet.  What you are seeing is the background completed, for now.  Blue dominates this artwork because  the theme of this movement, from the Summer concerto, is a  storm.  Along the edges I have created the forward and backward flow that appears in the clouds of an approaching storm. The narrow strips in the two wide bars of color is where much of the music will appear.  Then between the music I again have gone with another back-en-forth created from using two different patterns. This neutral area does then add interest, drama, and variety to the artwork.

Understand, this music is about a  summer storm, but I am in no way trying to physically depict a weather scene. Thousands of artists that can do that better than I would ever.  Instead, I am going for something less predictable, which I would think, can represent nature, but also shows the range of this artist’s style. If you stand far enough back, to take in the entire work,  you would see that it is the center area of this artwork that dominates this work. Those sections are there not to represent the storm theme, although, they strangely enough, work will with the rest of the background.  Their main purpose is to shake up this artwork,  challenging me, and the viewer to take this artwork beyond the music.

For now, this is it for this artwork. With the Holidays coming up I need to turn my attention to this years Christmas painting.  For 2014 I am painting A Big Red Sled, made popular by the band, The Killers. It is an interesting piece of music that I can relate to, and I find the music interesting.. Normally, my first thought about the Christmas artwork,  is to keep it simple and easy. I tried that with this music, but I could not do that which lead to the struggle to except that part of the music that was the most difficult. Next, I had difficulty finding a physical design for the music. Last night I thought I figured it all out, and prepped three larger canvases for the artwork. This morning I was looking at my earlier Christmas works, and the 2012, Let it Snow, made me change my mind.  I have now finished a new setup for this artwork that consists of smaller canvases, but more of them.  I have gone from three large flat canvases to six, with four to be attached on top of the background. As far has the look, I am seeing wide bands of gold with narrow silver strips for separation. That is about in for Big Red Sled, for now.

As for the Vivaldi I will work on it, here and there, over the next month, and post a new update in early January.

Scott von Holzen