Author: Scott Von Holzen

I am currently renewing an artistic adventure that first started in 1974, and ended in the early 1980's. A casual comment restarted the quest in art in 2004. Now, at night I am surrounded by artworks done and in progress, shelves full of art books, my music collection playing through a classic NAD amp and a pair of solid, classic free standing speakers, my piano, violin, blues guitar, and saxophone. So all is musical no matter what I am up to in the studio. Since I was a kid I have had the urge to be creative Now, in my later sixties, I am determine to know. I want to follow this to the end to see what these paintings, and all this music amounts to. This is probably the last great adventure I will have, so I am all in. So, watch out for nonstop music, canvases with multiple panels, with paint spread thick or dribbled on, words with meaning, and results that will challenge, push the meaning of music, and may even splash back. This blog's real purpose is to document my story in the making, and you are welcomed to follow along. Thank you for your support. Scotty Von Holzen

Chasing Cars image 3

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

chasingCars_3

This is Chasing Cars third image. This artwork is  twelve inches by thirty-six inches in length. This small work, along with its companion work Fly Me to the Moon, are surprising me, by becoming experimental projects.  It started with the strong vertical stripping on the main canvas.  Now it has spread to the secondary, nine-inch by twelve-inch, panel.  Even though this small canvas is physically mounted in front of the blue canvas, I wanted it to project even more. I could have easily painted it a solid lighter blue color, but the use of  this totally different color scheme, and stripping,  pushes this one canvas even further out into the viewer eyes. This is consistent with my later work: I like each canvas to push against the others.

My color choices came early, before I  had even chosen the canvasses. My plan was to use shades of blues and browns together. I thought that those colors matched the romantic mood of this music. So, then after covering the large canvas with blues, brownish colors became my next option.  My client mentioned earth tones when we where discussing the music, and I agreed with her, so a mix of those colors also showed up on the small panel. Oh, the light violet, that is my idea.  It just felt good.

Scott

 

Fly Me to The Moon image 1,2 & 3

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

FlyMe_1Fly

 

Fly Me to the Moon first image from September 5th.  I like the bass beat of this music, and that is why you are seeing this unusual vertical stripping. You are seeing the push and pull of this music. This work is also a commission adventure.  I requested no down payment.  I do that on purpose. One reason is that this music is a piece that I may have painted anyway, some time, some day, somewhere in the future, for myself. The main reasoning for no down payment is that  I can paint whatever I feel is right without concerned over the client’s expectations.  By doing this I can keep this art free to go where ever it wishes to evolved into without being concerned about consequences. I do take into consideration my clients basic wishes, but since I am creating art instead of wall decoration, this painting is going were ever, and will form its own identity on its own, matching that of the music. I can see its future. I just cannot predict it.

Interesting live performance of Fly Me to the Moon from 1964:

 

 

This version is my favorite form The Sands Hotel.  You can really feel that solid bass beat.

 

 

 

FlyMe_1a

With this second image of Fly Me you are seeing the two extra canvas I added to accommodate the music and the words.  It took too much time to find the right size canvases to keep the artwork in balance. The solution arrived in the boxes of an order that I received. I found  that I had ordered canvases six by twelve inches. That is the size canvas I used on the right side of this work.

FlyMe_3

In this image three of  Fly Me you can see my stripping taken to an extreme. When I remove the tape the results are always unpredictable. It is the choice of colors  for each new layer that can, somewhat, control the look of the outcome. Still, the results are always a surprise. I may eventually gain a better understanding, and better control of this stylistic direction, but not enough to lose the fun of discovery. I have no reasoning behind why I chose to strip these two add-on canvases other than it makes them look quite different from the main canvas. It is this bringing together of different looks, all in one artwork, that may someday set this artist works a part from whatever else is out there that calls it self art. We will all have to wait to see if that is true.

The one thing I learned about doing smaller projects is that I need to make all the same decisions no matter the size of the artwork. Those required choices are what can be time-consuming and difficult to make. With the other aspects of creating an artwork, I do save is a little paint, some cost of materials, and some time to complete a smaller project, but it hardly seem worth it. I like big. And I like bigger even better. I like art to surround me. I like art to engulf me. Small is cute. Big is wonderful.

Scott Von Holzen

Chasing Cars image 1&2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen2 Comments

chasingCars_1

 

This is Chasing Car’s first image from September 5th.  The main canvas  is 12 inches by 36 inches in length. This commissioned artwork is a test, by me, to see if I can do a small painting, to meet the needs of this special client. I don’t do small, ….until now, but why?.

I have heard this line more than any others, “Your paintings are too big.”   I say to them “I like big.”  They say “I don’t have a wall big enough.”  I say that is strange, “..  is your home all windows and doors?  Most of the time I do not get an answer.  But I tell them  In my modest house I can hang a sixteen foot canvas in my living room.  And I certainly can hang a 10 or more in the master bedroom, and six to eight footers on a number of other walls.  So than I say “I don’t get it” and that usually ends the conversation., and they go away. I do not know, maybe, big overwhelms them. Maybe, they cannot face, or deal with,  the look of real art. Maybe, they are only looking for decoration.  My works demand attention. Maybe that is just too much for some people to comprehend or to give in to. Maybe, my art scares them. Or maybe, they think it’s too much.  Whatever, their reasoning, I do my best to understand and fulfill my client needs, if it comes to that, and charge what I feel I think I need. That way we both are happy.  I do not want to do a lot of commission work, but it does build character and at times I like a challenge of a new artwork seen through their eyes and words. That way we both are happy. And anyway I wanted to see how small works.

I should mention a stylistic change the occurred  in the look of this background, compared to pretty much else I have produced. Actually, on another artwork I am working on the same time,  I painted the background in strong vertical blue shades, to match the beat of the music (more on that work tomorrow). I thought the up and down stripping  looked so good on that work, that I thought why not use it in a more modest form on this artwork. That also turned out nice. Interesting, how fluid a style can be if it just let it flow.

 

Here is Chasing Cars live:

 

 

 

chasingCars_2

 

This is Chasing Cars second image September 7th.  I struggled trying to figure out how the music was going to fit. I even decided, at one point,  that  one canvas was all that needed. I then changed my mind.   Finally, on Saturday I could see that all this artwork needed was one add-on canvas, nine-inch by twelve-inch.

I do have a number of smaller canvases, but not enough variety to use for a small work.  For now I need to build artworks from what I can find that is already stretched.  I do not have the time to cut and stretch custom sizes. And even though I do have thirty-six different size stretched canvases in stock, the smaller the overall artwork, the smaller the options. That  was what was causing my problems with this artwork.

Originally, I thought I needed to mount two canvases because of the flow of the music, the words. My problem was that adding two small canvases to the one already small background canvas created an unbalance  To fit the music I would need to place one of the canvases a few inches from the left edge.  The other extra canvas I would have mounted on the far right edge, and beyond.  My issue is when I am dealing with these smaller overall size artworks, the options I have for still smaller canvases to accent the background become limited. The far right eleven by fourteen inch canvas caused the artwork to look too heavy on that side. Even the eight by sixteen canvas on the left side of the artwork was not enough to give this artwork balance. Those two added small canvases where too big and appeared to be dominating the 12 inch wide background canvas. I had to abandon the right canvas. Doing that I could then see this artwork stabilizing. That move was unusual for me because  the music on those two canvases would have been similar. But that is one example how an artist’s style changes, out of necessity. Balancing an artwork ranks high on my list.

Scott Von Holzen