Category: 2012

S_V_H Serenade No.13 for Strings in Gmajor Final

Published on by Scott Von Holzen1 Comment

Mozart’s Eine Kleinie Nachtmusik, K.525 Romanze Andante; and no I cannot pronounce that name, which is regrettable.  But the wondering is “Eine Kleinie Nachtmusik” may to be more attractive when seen as words instead of just being heard. This painting uses a total of 5 panels and for the most part it is 30 inches plus 2, by 120 inches plus 3 or just over 3 meters in length.  This painting was started on the twelfth of January, and Sunday night the twelfth of February it was finished.  The feeling was that it was  time to move on and  figure out what next to do.

Maybe because of the limitations of space, or the shortage of time that is available to painting, there is always only one work in progress at a time. The thinking is that planning ahead by picking the next music, and prepping that canvas, is the right thing to do, and yet it never happens.  It could be the lack time, but it could be the need to stay focused on the work in progress, that probably has the largest effect. Lately, there  exists a notepad with the listing of potential next work that is handy; but for the most part, the final choice of what music to do next, ends up being more of an emotional decision then anything else. The list be damned.

Listening to The Piano Concerto No. 21 – 2nd Movement – Mozart

This work  may very well have an effect on every painting done in this year.  With canvases, being attached to each other, laid on top, or off to the side, these additional pieces  have slammed open a lot of doors. As far as the color the browns where the most difficult to deal with.  They at first looked drab, until they where re-worked a number of times, and that seemed to help.  It does not hurt to try a color, and then the next day, over paint it. What you have then is the lingering effect of previous paints, that can add to the work’s depth and interest. In this work green was again deliberately held back.  The inner Light Violet speed ring on the notes was a surprise that worked. The four flagged notes where troubling, to a point that they finally convinced this artist, that the look was best for this moment.

So, what is going on in this painting?  I am not sure there is an easy answer.  It starts out as a tribute, and then it evolves from there. The beginning it’s meaning is easy, an artwork portraying a particular piece of music.  Now, at the end, there is still the music of Mozart, but what is on view kicks Mozart’s Serenade  right off its manuscript.

Listening to Escape Club – Wild Wild West

Lets leave it there.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Mozart Serenade No. 13 for Strings in G major

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

Eine Kleinie Nachtmusik, K525 Romanze Andante (A Little Night Music)  5 panels 30inches plus by 10 feet 3 inches.

I learned a lot about the Los Angeles art world watching the movie The Cool School .  It was interesting enough that I purchase the book Catalog L.A. Birth of an Art Capital 1955-1985, which shows a few of Mike Kelly’s works, photographs of him, and a short conversation. When I read that the artist Mike Kelly had killed himself, I was taken back.  Here is an artist that accomplished so much, and  that can be an inspiration to us unknowns, and tragically he ended his journey.  I do not get it, and yet I do understand this: that the dream of becoming a known artist with sales and exhibitions, and then accomplishing that goal is, in reality, just a step forward in living the creative life and not the end in itself.  Life keeps going on so the acknowledge artist still needs that next goal to keep him and his art pushing forward.  Maybe, Mike Kelly just missed a step, tripped, and never recovered.  Who knows what really happened.  He was a lucky man up to that point.

So, here we are most of the way through this artwork, that was started on January 5th, and it looks like this work is going to go over a month.  That is surprising considering that it is not that large, but the past month has been filled with distractions.  There is still some major additions to be painted in, and a lot of smoothing out of the roughness. This work is looking to be a break through piece, and the anticipation of doing more, with more panels, is a driving force to push ahead to its completion.

Listening to Sade – Never as Good as the First Time.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H A Little Night Music, K.525 Romanze Andante image5

Published on by Scott Von Holzen1 Comment

Eine Kleinie Nachtmusik in English is, of course, A Little Night Music. This artwork has been worked on, and painted on, for the most part in the night time, fitting its title. If this image looks somewhat  scruffy it is mostly do the the drawing in of all the slurs that this artwork is representing in its own interesting way.  In the real world of music slurs or just OK to look at,  but they are too boring for this artist to leave alone.  These slurs look like fireworks bursting across the canvas in a left to right movements helping to push the music across the surface.  No idea of what will be their background color scheme.  That is left to the mind to sort through the options and let it be known tomorrow what ideas it has.  I do not always follow its suggestions but at less the preliminary work gets done.

The beams are not finished either, but they are looking strong and for now time is been given to them to see how they settle in with the rest of the artwork.  I see mostly fine tuning and maybe a splash of a bright color here and there to give them a little more of a beat.

Listening to Tori Amos – Way down  followed by Patty Griffin – Burgundy Shoes on Pandora.

In this studio there hangs the paintings: Imagine, Hallelujah, Thunder Road and the Vivaldi from this summer.  Scattered around the room for inspiration are the works, Baby Love, It’s A Man’s World, More Than you Know, I Call your Name, and the great Body and Soul.  At times the artworks, propped up here and there, are in the way, but I need them close.  It helps.  They are the reason to keep painting.

Finishing this blog with Van Morrison – Reminds Me Of You  followed by Johnny Hartman – Ain’t Misbehavin’

Scott Von Holzen