Category: 2015

S_V_H With a little help from my friends Final Image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

helpFromMyFriends_FinalI have done enough with this artwork to be able to call it completed.  With a little help from my friends consists of two canvas 58 inches in length by 15 inches in height. My worksheet for this painting dates August 29th,  and today’s finish date is October 2nd. That is a long time on one work, but I must admit there are good reasons.

On September 15th my Father passed away.  No one thought his time was so near, although we where all aware of his continual decline.  Still, it was a shock. No matter your age it is always hard to lose a parent. You have known only two people all your life and that is your Mom and Dad. When my Mom passed away in 2001 I still had my Dad to hold on to that connection. When Dad passed away that Tuesday morning,  I felt that last brick slip away from under what was my foundation, my link to my beginnings.  Life is for the living, and 2016 will be a new start, and I will built on other foundations I have created in my life, but that last first brick, that started it all will be forever cherished, missed, and now lost forever.

At the start of a new week I did returned to work for three days, which was awful. Thankfully, when needed the most,  on the 24th of September I flew out to Pennsylvania, having booked this trip in June.  My destination was Richland,  to visit my fellow garage band member, Tom Haley.  Our best  guess was  that it has been well over 20 years since we where last together. I spent six days with him.  All six days where each an exceptional experience for the both of us.  I liked knowing that each day I would be doing not only fun things, but also seeing things that where different from my daily experiences.  That was important, by being away from my routine life I could then enjoy a new me filled with new conversations, a lot of Art, and much different thoughts.

Tom and I took a bus to New York for the day. We spend most of the afternoon at the Museum  of Modern Art. I saw all the paintings I have seen only in books. I took a lot of pictures, and we walked through a great Picasso sculpture exhibition that both of us enjoyed.  The Modern surprised me.  I am not sure my art would fit with the contemporary art that they had on display.  I feel the dream of mine to walk into a gallery and see one of my artworks may be an out-of-place expectation for the Modern.  If there is a next time, that I am in New York, I will go to the Guggenheim to see if that would be a better fit for this art. Time will tell.

Below at the Modern is Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon that changed the course of modern art. This photograph taken by Haley, shows what bad lighting, and not knowing when to smile all come together in this classic forgettable snapshot, that surely will live on forever.

picasso

Here is a familiar Picasso sculpture among many familiar Picasso sculptures I have seen in print:

picassoB

What turned out to be two nice surprises, among our day trips, was first, at a  local museum call The Reading Public Museum were they had a wonderful exhibition of Futurism works on paper. The first work called The Swimmer by Giulio D’Anna I especially like,  for he is creating a sense of motion through line and color. That is always been my first goal with every artwork, to work on creating movement of the music flow across the canvas. The other work Music by Pippo Rizzo of course I  liked because of  a sheet of music in the artwork.  I believe I can learn about movement from Futurism.

Futurism

dAnna

 

 

 

 

Futurism2

RizzoSm

The other great surprise was the Barnes Foundation Museum in Philadelphia.  Below, is the only picture I could take, for they do not allow any photography of the collection. Our time  in the Barnes moving from one surprising gallery of artworks to the next, amazed us. I have visited a number of art museums in the world, but I must tell you this would be the best collection of Impressionism, post impressionism and early modern works you will every see under one roof.  Truly, and understatement to say this collection is spectacular.  What a tribute to Albert C Barnes, one of America’s greatest art collectors.

barnes

Continuing the bad lighting theme below this is my video commenting on With a little help from my friends artwork.

I really do not have much to say about this artwork, too much time has passed, with too much else clouding my feelings towards this painting.  For now I do believe I did the best I could do. I have finished this artwork.  Hopefully, this small gem, will accomplish what I have originally planned for it.  Again, time will tell.

Time also requires me to move on. Next up,  I will doing another small work based on the music, once again, written by Bruce Springsteen. This is a more traditional styled Gospel song that I called Heaven’s Wall.

Scott Von Holzen

 

 

S_V_H No Rain Final Image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

No Rain_Final

This is the final image a tribute painting to the music of Blind Melon, called No Rain.  What is different about this artwork is that I did not follow my normal flow pattern for the music:  horizontally from left to right. Rarely does it move vertically, which this artwork does.  In No Rain the music flows left to right starting with the top left panel. It then hops over to the top right panel. The music flow then moves, left to right across the larger bottom panel.  In order to improve the logic of this flow I decided to physically mount each panel at a different depth, creating a step movement in this work.

The following  side image shows these changes in canvas depth:

Side View No Rain

I did not have to do it this way.  An alternative design, typical of this art, would have been one longer horizontal combination of panels.  I could have also created a horizontal stepped look (actually never considered) to this work following such examples as this years Birthday Painting, and last years  Up on The Roof.  I choose neither of these paths, and at first I could not remember my original thinking about this artwork.  Then I remembered: if you listen to the music you will hear a  series of short pauses after the word ‘escape.’  What it  came down to was I wanted to create an artwork without displaying these stops in the music flow.  And yet I wanted to keep up the logical movement of the music across this artwork.  I realized I could reach these goals by placing each  ‘escape’ on a different level.

It all came down to this reasoning:  what convinced me to paint this music was the word, ‘escape.’  I wanted this artwork to focus entirely on that repeated word, and  so I eliminated the rests. The pauses are actually still there, it is in the change in-depth between the three canvases. I accomplished what the music does, but in my way.  I think any viewer who sees this work and says that word three times, will understand and find their own meaning  in this artwork. I know I did.

Scott Von Holzen

 

S_V_H Sweet Little Angel final image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

sweetLittleAngel_finalSweet Little Angel came together, as an artwork, following by painting of this years Birthday artwork, Losing my Edge.  Before the Birthday painting,  the painting technique that I used for those vertical shafts that follow the music,  came from a fairly consistent past. The first step I would do would be to put down a base color, letting it dry. Then next I would spread, drying between layers, other colors.  What changed with the Birthday painting is that I did not wait for each layer to dry.  This new technique is to spread one color, and then another,  mixing them while still wet.

Returning to Sweet Angel, I then decided to paint over the shafts I had already finished. What I did different from Losing me Edge,  was to use an extremely heavy white first coat.  Then while that was still wet I would worked in a blue color that quickly tinted.  I liked this added thickness, that increased the depth of the work,  and I like the mixing of  wet colors mix that resulted in some interesting, and random looks.

The second difference that occurred in Sweet Angel, that came from the Birthday painting, was the drip painting I did all along that top curved line in the center panel.  Up to this work I have had the feeling that I was being a little rigid in the way I handled, what they call in the music world, the slurs and ties. This new method frees me up to better match the diversity that is music.

Sweet Little Angel will always be remembered for being the first work to use wooden cutouts for the flow of the music. This great Blues tune, painted in a variety of blue colors,  gives this artwork a great overall looked that matches its genre, that is further enhanced by the center panel with its contrasting tints of magenta.  This is a good painting, that easily goes beyond being a “good job.”

Scott Von Holzen