Category: 2013

This is a progress update on this eighth painting in the Vivaldi Four Seasons series.  You can see by this snapshot that this painting is close to completion,  probably less than two weeks a way.  All the main parts are in place leaving clean up and repainting, my main concern now.  This is an exciting and difficult work because of the use of so many colors.

This is a Spring painting, and like most springs everywhere, every thing is wakening and transforming.  This is what you see in this artwork.  There are many parts: the notes, the shafts, the beams, the ties, the words, the incidentals, and the backgrounds, that have all been painted with colors to help them stand out from the rest.  I want nothing to boring about this work.  Each of these chaotic canvases, that make up this third movement of Spring, could each be framed to stand alone, and yet together they represent Spring at its’ peak.  But, I did find a part of this work where restraint actually gave me a better look.

Those squiggle lines, you see above, are my notation that represents a musical tie.  With Blue Rondo, I have a similar tie, but in that painting I added a second squiggly line.  I found that trying to add that second line on this canvas, just did not work.  I believe it was because of the narrow stripping in the background of these ties, that cause me to change my mind, and to go with one line only.  To my surprise that single squiggle works, giving a clean break among all the chaos.

The words in this painting translate roughly as “Their faces glowing with Springtime’s brilliance, ” or how about this translation, ” (nymphs and shepherds) lightly dance beneath the brilliant canopy of Spring.”   For the first time, the words on different canvases, use different colors.  I am thinking Spring, so the more varieties of colors used the better to add interest to each canvas.

All in all, I will be glad when done with this painting. I can then start the Ninth Vivaldi, think about a Birthday canvas, and choose a much smaller work, around six feet like Blue Rondo, to paint next to the Vivaldi.  I need to move to do some smaller sizes to increase the options for buyers.  Of course the song choices will be the music I enjoy.  I will try to pick pieces that I think hold up well, or have an interesting message that I wish to present.  Think of it this way, the Great Impressionists painted a lot of unknown buildings,  objects , and people, and their works have done well.   I can have fun with the music I choose, some of it lasting some not so much,  because in the end it is how the work finishes that will decide how great the artwork is.

We shall see.

Scott Von Holzen

Vivaldi’s Four Season RV 297 Winter – allegro final work.  Last night I signed the back in two places. This painting  will soon be taken apart, and stored in two large pieces. I have no walls large enough to accommodate this work, so it will disappear and only reappear when the entire sires of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons paintings, all thirteen of them, make their public début sometime in 2015.

In a day or two I will take a  final portrait of this 18 foot canvas, outside.  This is possible because  today we are having our first Spring Day.  Interesting timing:  the end of Winter, occurring with the finish of Winter Allegro.

It was time to move on.  This work began on February 4th.  I think, the painting and I where both tired of each other.  Everything  just reach a point, where I had nothing else to offer it, and it seemed all right with letting go.

Scott Von Holzen

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Winter Allegro. This painting consists of 10 connected canvases for a length, just under 18 feet(5.48m).  The only objects left to add are the nine natural incidentals, which at this writing have all been drawn in, and are now being painted it.   To my surprise I am using different shades of green, which I will explain in the final image blog post.  Once done,  the entire focus of this artwork will move from construction to finishing.  This phase brings everything together,  to improve the appearance and to add contrast and interest.

I was a kid the grew up in the beginning of space exploration.  I remember having a cardboard mobile of the solar system hanging from my bedroom ceiling.  My favorite planet, to this day, is Saturn. Maybe, because it starts with an S, like in Scott, or maybe it was because of the rings. I never thought of becoming an astronaut, and the telescope I wanted for Christmas, never arrived.  My fascination of  going out there, however,  has never gone away.  Of course,  now I can afford to buy any telescope I wish, but I would not, because that moment has passed, and I am much to serious today, to feel the passion of first discovery,  which I would have felt way back then. That was an importunity, now lost.

That brings me to this artwork and those shaded circles you see in the above images.  First, in the image above on the right side, is an eighth note, which in music looks like this:

The part  that comes of the stem is the flag, but I now like to think of that part as a sail.   I see these notes as big helpers to push the music across the canvas, so in whatever form of a sail that works, I make the eighth notes a high point of interest.  So, that brings me back to those shaded circles that are all around these eighth notes.  To me they are bits of music. But unlike, the shaded circles that represent my vision of a musical notes, these other circles have actually nothing to do with the music.  They are there because, I put them there, to float and flow across the canvas.  They can represent pieces of music,  or maybe small  planets moving through  the vastness of space. I like to think they are both.