This is a commissioned work based on the theme I will Always Love you,  a song, written by Dolly Parton but made famous by Whitney Houston. I didn’t think much of this song, that is until I watched the video. For  reasons beyond music a good video can change a good song into a block buster.  Check it out and see what I mean:

They owners of this artwork requested the colors brown and turquoise.  At first I painted the canvases a brown look,  and that failed measurably: I could not see the color brown as a great love song color being sung by a woman.  Maybe,  I needed a different brown,  but I decided to cut-my-loses and repainted the canvas using short vertical strokes off different shades of turquoise. After drying I realize that because of music those lines needed to be horizontal, so I repainted the canvases with longer horizontal stripping.  That did work.  Than, I still needed the color brown, as requested, and I decided to use the color brown for the music. I did change my first brown choice from Burnt Umber light to a more transparent Brown Iron Oxide.  With this brown choice I had better control by being able to apply in layers.

I needed  the colors brown and turquoise to dominated this artwork, but I felt that such a combination was out of my comfort zone.  Judging from past experiences I knew such things is what commissioned works do. They always challenge, with the benefits being both educational and inspirational.

Scott Von Holzen