This is the Last Vivaldi of the Four Seasons series. This is a large artwork 240 inches in length.

The following video featuring the soloist, Mari Silje Samuelsenh, displays her violin talent and the electric connection the orchestra has with this Vivaldi masterpiece from the start. Than, from the 24th second to the 34th of this movement, you hear the music that is this painting.  In only 10 seconds,  that takes 20 feet to represent, the entire orchestra does a number of synchronized head movements that is visually stunning.  Than interestingly just before the one minute and twenty seconds, the serious concentration you see in Mari’s face suddenly changes,  she smiles, letting some unknown viewer share her exhilaration in this, one of the finest performances of  any music,  composed almost 300 years ago.  Amazing.

My challenge is to do some of my head bobbing and find the way to paint the emotions of this music into this artwork.

The green strips, you see on this work in progress, are pieces of removable tape I use as a guide and to create sharp edges for the painting of the this music’s shafts. You can see by looking at the flow of the music going up the scale why everyone shakes their heads.  That up and down is a natural movement with the music.

I would like to mention that you are seeing a small directional change in style. If you compare the middle stripping from the first image of this work, with the second image, you will see that I have done something different from earlier works.

This close up of image one is how I have portrayed stripping in the past: using multiple layers of colors spread all within a single strip:

Now, with this second image you see I have added, using different colors, brush strokes in a cross hatching method, that covers multiple strips. This helps to create a less stagnate and more interesting image, without losing the structure of the artwork. This is a small part of that head shaking I need to represent.

Finally, a little reflection:  I have looked at a lot of music representations in art and the best of these works are pure abstractions. Although at first that might be thought of as the logical method to display sound,  I do not see it that way. I do not paint music as an abstract. Instead I show the structure and organization of music, while always remembering that a piece of music is never played the same twice. This artwork strives to represent the spontaneity, and diversity of music, and not the cookie cutter images you see in sheet music. This art flows with the music, but is never meant to be precise. This art displays, in tribute, the beauty and wonder of a single musical piece.

Scott Von Holzen