This painting, like all by artworks, is a tribute to the music of the artists that have given us songs to remember. This years 2014 Christmas painting is A Great Big Sled from the musical group,  The Killers.

Since I have been slow to blog lately, the image you see above is a lot further along than my usual image one. This artwork is composed of five canvases with a length of sixty inches, and a height of just over twenty-seven inches.

This is the eighth in the Christmas series. I had to do some research to find all the previous years artworks.  Here is the list:

2006  Joy to the World (I know this is not a Christmas song, but the title certainly fits that time of the year, and I liked the music of Three Dog Night)
2007 Winter Wonderland (a standard, Bing Crosby)
2008 Sleigh Ride ( a fun song)
2009 White Christmas (the greatest Christmas song, Bing Crosby)
2010 What Child is This (a strange choice that year, not my style)
2011 The Christmas Song (one of the best, Judy Garland)
2012 Let It Snow (my favorite Christmas look)
2013 You Raise Me Up (A tribute to Uncle Walt)

I choose this years Christmas painting early this year. It is these words form the chorus that made the decision easy:

” I wanna roll around like a kid in the snow. I wanna relearn what I already know.”

Those two lines took me back, reconnecting me to the boy I once was fifty years ago.

I appear to not be in the Christmas spirit yet, for I have not enthusiastically worked on this artwork. That may be changing for I need it done.  Once finished,  I can than photograph it, print copies to canvas, and send out this years Christmas Card, signed and numbered, before the Christmas mailing deadline, to all those that have purchased an artwork. That sentence exhausted me.

My overall feelings towards this work so far, are that I am not crazy about the design look of the music. It appears to be a little awkward.  I do like the heavy use of gold and silver which I consider perfect for a Christmas theme.  And finally, the most interesting part of this artwork is those lower images surrounded with multiple circles.

When I played this music for people there was the suggestion that I include the sound of the bell that you hear, that now appear along the lower part of this painting.  It was that suggestion that changed my  original choice of music. I move away from the lines I quoted above. Any of those choices would have been much smaller and easier to do. My original plan for this years painting was to do a small canvas similar to the Let it Go, and Fly Me to the Moon artworks. Instead I followed the idea of the bells, and choose this much longer, more demanding, more interesting phrase, that  I considered a greater challenge. I cannot turn away from my own test. If I consider doing an artwork a challenge, that pretty much guarantees that I will paint that image. I cannot help it, I know I need to push to be the artist I expect to be.

I must say that receiving feedback can be useful. The thoughts and suggestions from others, does offer me a different insight and perspective about this art.  Although, that is a little hard to say, at times the words from others are useful. It does not really change anything important,  for I know that it is a must for me to find my own artistic path, and not follow the wishes or trends of others. Still, a small amount of outside, unbiased exchange does more good than harm. I am mature which makes me smart enough to filter, never doubting nor forgetting, what makes me, is me, and not you.

Scott Von Holzen