Category: Classic Rock

S_V_H We Belong image 3

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

weBelong_3We Belong  is starting to show of her charms.  All the parts of this music are now in place, which is always a major accomplishment for any artwork.  The color black along with shades of gray define this artwork, and the singer Pat Benatar.  To add depth to this look,  interest, and excitement to this painting, I am going to add a number of small, mostly curved wood shapes.  In contrast to the major neutral colors these add-ons, done in the  colors that define the eighties will soften, and enlarge the feminine.

Each of these artworks pushes this genre a bit more forward.  As long as the passion, and the need to know remains strong,  that is the direction I am heading. The one thing I am beginning to understand is that although I care deeply about each of these paintings, I know I can let them go if the time comes.  I am sure of that, for I believe it is this art,  that is leading me around the next corner, to the next piece of music, that will become the next painting,  that will steal my heart away, letting me, once more, feel seventeen again.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H We Belong Image 2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen1 Comment

weBelong_2We Belong, is taking on that 80’s Pat Benatar look.  I knew her music, but in the 80’s I was more a Madonna, and Prince kind-of-a-guy.  Now, since this is a commission work I have had to take a fresh hard look at Pat Benatar,  her music, and influence on other women rockers of the 80’s.  My updated impressions of her  is that she certainly was an attractive performer,  brash, with a great voice.  I am referring to her  early 80’s hard rock voice which was deeper, less refined, and raspy,   that makes me think of the older Sarah Vaughn, without the range.

Here is an example of the early Rocker Pat Benatar before she went pop, We Belong,  followed by a comparison (only a  little) of one of the greatest singers ever, Sarah Vaughn.

Regrettably,  with an extreme amount of others things that need to be done, We Belong is slowly moving along.  Next up,  I will be adding more of the 80’s color look into the artwork, in the form of a lot of small wooden shapes. That will add interest and bring the music, and the background together.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Purple Rain image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

purpleRain_1This is the artwork Purple Rain based on a single larger canvas instead of my recent trend of using small combinations of canvases.   After my first years of only using single canvases I began to combine them  to paint larger artworks. These larger size paintings peaked with the Vivaldi Four Season series where I joined single large canvasses together to produce works twelve feet, and more,  in length, by three feet in height.  The largest, and last of this series, Summer Presto, stretched 20 feet. After finishing the Vivaldi paintings I decided I needed a break from big.

The change to producing smaller artworks, came about out of exhaustion, and the practical consideration that smaller paintings are easier to hang for more buyers which could help to increase this art’s market.  They are also less expensive to make, cheaper to ship, and take a lot less time to complete.  Since March of last year the size of my artworks have ranged from around three feet to five feet in length. The results of these small works, so far, have been disappointing, with little interest generated all through 2015 to the present.

When I began to put together my ideas for Purple Rain I looked into my storeroom,  and all I saw where stacks of large unused canvases. This got me wondering how I was going to use them up. With that thought on my mind I decided to reject the idea of using a number of small canvases for this artwork.  My new direction for Purple Rain, that you see in this first image, is to go bigger and simpler, with the choice of only one two foot by four-foot canvas.

That brings me to this general feeling that my backgrounds have become too predictable. With a new thought in mind for Purple Rain,  I decided to mark the music on the canvas before applying the first layer of paint.  This then allowed me to place the stripping so that it moves along with the music. For the background colors besides shades of purple,  I checked out Prince’s fashion look in his music videos, and  images. You can see in this first image of Purple Rain where I used colors from Prince’s performance at the 2007 Super Bowl:

Awful official NFL video.

 

I am painting this music because of a request by a possible buyer,  and because I am a fan of Prince’s original Funky sound.   Purple Rain stands out as an outstanding pop rock song, and a choice that might appeal to many Prince fans, as it certainly does for me.

Here is an early, and a rare live version of Prince singing Purple Rain.

Scott Von Holzen