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

S_V_H Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Winter Largo image2

Published on 01/11/2013 by Scott Von Holzen

Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons Winter – Largo. This work not has 10 panels and is just over 15 feet in length. What I did find interesting about the progress of this work, is the idea that each panel can have a unique style. Of course all the panels do work together, which is important in that they support the musical theme which flows across the entire work. The beams in the past appeared as simple rectangles with patterns of colors, or as pieces from a rectangle scattered about, or even left out of the picture. In this work they are now being portrayed in a far more interesting way.

With a good start learned from The Christmas Painting of 2012, the beams now are adding a dramatic movement to the artwork. As said many times before, the feeling of motion is a must in these artworks. So, if you look at the beams you can still make out parts of the original rectangles, in Prussian Blue, so there still is structure; but then over them comes the curving figures, that add interest and motion that just was not there in the past. This is good approach that offers lots of options for future works.

As for the CloseUP view, you can see how sketchy the artwork appears at this stage. In the final week of this work, I will spend a lot of time cleaning up edges, filling in the gaps and giving the entire work a cleaner look. Actually, getting to that finished look, still surprises me, in how much difference that does make in the overall feeling to the painting. It is only getting to that looked that I know it is time to move on.

I think that a video is useful in portraying the Artist and his connection to the Artwork.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Winter Largo image1

Published on 01/03/201301/03/2013 by Scott Von Holzen

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons Winter Largo first image. This work consists of nine panels with a length of just over 15 feet or about 4.57meters. The larger image I created using PhotoMerge in Photoshop, because of space and camera limitations. Hopefully, in time, I will be able to align the joined images evenly.

This is a close up of the upper left side of this canvass.

What sets this work apart is the incorporation so many diverse panels that follow the flow of the music. In the past the music followed the canvas, but you have seen, especially in the previously Vivaldi work Autumn allegro, that I am letting the music dictate the look of the artwork. This is important. As my skill and understanding grows I see this style of portraying music as the direction to seek out and follow. This artwork moves a little further, in that direction. By having four large panels that are a major part of the work and not just add-on pieces, and with the artwork changing directions, this canvas moves right along with the music. The attempt is to try to capture, in a sense, the feeling and emotion of the sound, that is music.

Listening to On a Good Day – Jude JohnStone

White Room – Cream. I like the wah-wah pedal.

Fur Elise – Beethoven

For A Dancer – Jackson Browne

Over the Rainbow – Eva Cassidy. A nice version of one of my forever favorite pieces of music.

Queen – Somebody to Love

S_V_H Christmas 2012 & Vivaldi’s Winter Largo

Published on 12/30/2012 by Scott Von Holzen

I am starting a new feature call CloseUP. The above image is from this years Christmas painting 2012. I like the idea of close up images, just to get you closer to what I see. This image is very abstract. Of course you can see that I was running out of time and failed to clean up the edges of this painting. and yet the image still works, balances well and creates tension between the two main objects.

I have also included a video about this painting and an introduction to the next Vivaldi painting from the Four Seasons, which is not Winter Allegro mentioned in the Video. It was an honest mistake, for Winter Allegro was the first piece of Classical music that I completely fell in love with. To put it in perspective I have over thirteen thousands songs in my current iTunes collection. In that collection there is a piano version of Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen, and Vivaldi’s Winter Allegro Non Molto which are the only pieces of music with a five-star rating. So, the Vivaldi work that I am about to start is actually Vivaldi’s second movement from his concerto RV 297 The Four Season Winter Largo.