Category: contemporary art

S_V_H A Great Big Sled Christmas 2014 image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

bigSled_1

This painting, like all by artworks, is a tribute to the music of the artists that have given us songs to remember. This years 2014 Christmas painting is A Great Big Sled from the musical group,  The Killers.

Since I have been slow to blog lately, the image you see above is a lot further along than my usual image one. This artwork is composed of five canvases with a length of sixty inches, and a height of just over twenty-seven inches.

This is the eighth in the Christmas series. I had to do some research to find all the previous years artworks.  Here is the list:

2006  Joy to the World (I know this is not a Christmas song, but the title certainly fits that time of the year, and I liked the music of Three Dog Night)
2007 Winter Wonderland (a standard, Bing Crosby)
2008 Sleigh Ride ( a fun song)
2009 White Christmas (the greatest Christmas song, Bing Crosby)
2010 What Child is This (a strange choice that year, not my style)
2011 The Christmas Song (one of the best, Judy Garland)
2012 Let It Snow (my favorite Christmas look)
2013 You Raise Me Up (A tribute to Uncle Walt)

I choose this years Christmas painting early this year. It is these words form the chorus that made the decision easy:

” I wanna roll around like a kid in the snow. I wanna relearn what I already know.”

Those two lines took me back, reconnecting me to the boy I once was fifty years ago.

I appear to not be in the Christmas spirit yet, for I have not enthusiastically worked on this artwork. That may be changing for I need it done.  Once finished,  I can than photograph it, print copies to canvas, and send out this years Christmas Card, signed and numbered, before the Christmas mailing deadline, to all those that have purchased an artwork. That sentence exhausted me.

My overall feelings towards this work so far, are that I am not crazy about the design look of the music. It appears to be a little awkward.  I do like the heavy use of gold and silver which I consider perfect for a Christmas theme.  And finally, the most interesting part of this artwork is those lower images surrounded with multiple circles.

When I played this music for people there was the suggestion that I include the sound of the bell that you hear, that now appear along the lower part of this painting.  It was that suggestion that changed my  original choice of music. I move away from the lines I quoted above. Any of those choices would have been much smaller and easier to do. My original plan for this years painting was to do a small canvas similar to the Let it Go, and Fly Me to the Moon artworks. Instead I followed the idea of the bells, and choose this much longer, more demanding, more interesting phrase, that  I considered a greater challenge. I cannot turn away from my own test. If I consider doing an artwork a challenge, that pretty much guarantees that I will paint that image. I cannot help it, I know I need to push to be the artist I expect to be.

I must say that receiving feedback can be useful. The thoughts and suggestions from others, does offer me a different insight and perspective about this art.  Although, that is a little hard to say, at times the words from others are useful. It does not really change anything important,  for I know that it is a must for me to find my own artistic path, and not follow the wishes or trends of others. Still, a small amount of outside, unbiased exchange does more good than harm. I am mature which makes me smart enough to filter, never doubting nor forgetting, what makes me, is me, and not you.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Summer Presto image2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

summerPresto_2

Summer Presto from the Vivaldi Four Seasons series.  Composed of eight panels each thirty inches, this artwork reaches a length of twenty feet.  What you are seeing is the background completed, for now.  Blue dominates this artwork because  the theme of this movement, from the Summer concerto, is a  storm.  Along the edges I have created the forward and backward flow that appears in the clouds of an approaching storm. The narrow strips in the two wide bars of color is where much of the music will appear.  Then between the music I again have gone with another back-en-forth created from using two different patterns. This neutral area does then add interest, drama, and variety to the artwork.

Understand, this music is about a  summer storm, but I am in no way trying to physically depict a weather scene. Thousands of artists that can do that better than I would ever.  Instead, I am going for something less predictable, which I would think, can represent nature, but also shows the range of this artist’s style. If you stand far enough back, to take in the entire work,  you would see that it is the center area of this artwork that dominates this work. Those sections are there not to represent the storm theme, although, they strangely enough, work will with the rest of the background.  Their main purpose is to shake up this artwork,  challenging me, and the viewer to take this artwork beyond the music.

For now, this is it for this artwork. With the Holidays coming up I need to turn my attention to this years Christmas painting.  For 2014 I am painting A Big Red Sled, made popular by the band, The Killers. It is an interesting piece of music that I can relate to, and I find the music interesting.. Normally, my first thought about the Christmas artwork,  is to keep it simple and easy. I tried that with this music, but I could not do that which lead to the struggle to except that part of the music that was the most difficult. Next, I had difficulty finding a physical design for the music. Last night I thought I figured it all out, and prepped three larger canvases for the artwork. This morning I was looking at my earlier Christmas works, and the 2012, Let it Snow, made me change my mind.  I have now finished a new setup for this artwork that consists of smaller canvases, but more of them.  I have gone from three large flat canvases to six, with four to be attached on top of the background. As far has the look, I am seeing wide bands of gold with narrow silver strips for separation. That is about in for Big Red Sled, for now.

As for the Vivaldi I will work on it, here and there, over the next month, and post a new update in early January.

Scott von Holzen

 

S_V_H Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Summer Presto image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

summerPresto_1

 

This is the last great painting of The Four Seasons, that I started in March of 2012.  When finished this series will consist of be thirteen paintings in all. You can see the previous Vivaldi Four Seasons works at this Page.  You can tell by  the enlargement,  of this first image, that this is a large painting. It consists of eight canvas panels each thirty inches by thirty inches, for a total length of twenty-feet. This is certainly the longest work of the Vivaldi series, and very near being the largest in the group. The length of this work quickly adds up when you consider that the 64 painted strips, in this first image, total  1,280 feet of paint.

Here is a good orchestra version of this 3rd Movement from Summer.  What you will see in the painting is from the 24th second to the 32nd second of this music.

I have a David Garrett version that is a favorite of mine,  but could not find it on YouTube.  Here is another YouTube version by him:

This third movement is nickname The Storm, so it is a bad weather related image I see.  I picked those 8 seconds from the music because you can hear and feel the driving rain and hall. The words I have chosen from the  Summer Sonnet are from the line: Thunder and lighting split the Heavens, and hail-stones.

Obviously, I expect to be using a lot of dark colors, mostly blues, maybe with some dark greens, along with a lot of different splashes of bright colors to increase the drama and movement in the work. You can see some beginnings of this sense of movement by looking into these two wide strips at the random shades of blue.

All eight canvases are of the same size, with each representing, in musical terms one measure. By being connected at various heights they follow the up and down of he music, which adds to the sense of movement.

This work along with the other twelve canvas will eventually be sold as one. As I have mentioned in the past, I do not want these works split up.  I do not expect, except on rare occasions,  that I will ever see all thirteen artworks on display together.  I do see them being shown,  by the season they represent in smaller groups of three, with Summer having four works. Whoever purchases these works, I am certain will be strongly connected to all of them. I can say this  from what I have learned by the reactions from the patrons of this art.

These are people with money in the game, and so I know they are being honest. I have been constantly surprised by the bond that forms between the artwork and the owner. I cannot explain it. I do not understand it. But it is there.

What I do know is that even though I put everything I have into creating these works, that in itself appears to have little to do with how others react to them. They see something else in their artwork that becomes important for them. They do not visualize whatever I did to create them, or my reasoning behind the works creation.  They do form a special attachment to their artwork.  And that I do understand. In whatever shape that bond is, I too have it.

For me it is that mysterious something, that captivates, and pushes me to see, to know, and to find out how far this art can go. In short it is that something that is unknown, not only for me, but for those that own these works, that brings this art meaning.  And for the owners of these artworks, I can only thank them, for I have consistently fallen short of understanding just what is going on. I guess, that will remain, the conundrum that so far I have no right answer.  That is just fine with me. I find it fun not knowing.

Scott Von Holzen