Category: Jazz

S_V_H Bach BWW 1014, Adagio image4

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

bach1014_4

Bach BWV 1014 Adagio, 220 cm by 130 cm,  all on one canvas.  What you are seeing different from image 3 are the white bands, and the Azurite blue bands in the center area.  What you do not see is the three hours of work it took to get this final look of the background.  Originally, I had two large bands of blue.  I then tried an old technique, by using a wall paper, or plaster brush with short bristles, that I pull across the Azurite.  I did dark lines of Prussian, and then later I added white bands to counter the darkness of the two wide blue bands.  I stared at the results, and finally decided, that the big blue bands were too much.  Now, the background is better balanced, pushed back towards the lighter look, the preferred look, and is ready for the music.

Tonight and tomorrow, I will be putting the music in place, to see that it fits and then I believe I will be filling them in and shading them.  Next up will be the shafts, and the beams, of the music.

We will quickly see how it goes.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Dave Brubeck Blue Rondo á la Turk image 3

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

BlueRondo3Blue Rondo á La Turk, near finished, image 3   This artwork now consists of eight canvases. The eighth canvas is the 8 x 10 inch on the bottom right side, of the enlarged image.  I forgot that there were two slurs  used in this music.  You can see the second one in the upper right of the above image. The style of is this slur comes from Cy Twombly used in It’s a Man’s World.  While the added slur reminds me of the outstanding one from Hallelujah

This close up shows how my style changed while working on this work.  That happened after I watched a documentary on Gerhard Richter that shows how he applies his paint using, squeegee like, large L shaped frames.

In many of my past works I have used different sizes of pallet knives to drag the paint.  But seeing the documentary on Richter gave me a fresh approach to how I could improve my method of applying paint with a knife.  I tried this style first on the eighth canvas on Blue Rondo. I found that by taping off those parts of the canvas I did not want to change, made it easier to spread the paint in a similar style of Richter.

Using this application method I have now moved on to the Vivaldi work. Here I saw dramatically that the big difference from Richter, for me, was the use of tape. By taping, I found that I could then show a mixed of styles.  You can see this technique, better applied on the Vivaldi work, in the images below, from Blue Rondo.  I have now created my L shaped tools to replace the pallet knives. Their application advantages, and their lack of size limits, along with the taping, makes me think there is some interesting options ahead for me.

BlueRondo3b

The following video I took with an iPhone.My Canon 7D  is in for repair with a power on issue. I did find the video, for some unknown issue,  impossible to edit using my Sony software, so I uploaded it as is.

I would like to present polished images and video on this blog, but the belief that this is a documentary site and not a vanity blog, gives me the leeway I need to actually keep up this effort. Even in this form this website requires hours of work for each blog entry.   I approach each of my artworks in a non compromising way each day, but that certainly does not extend to these pages. It is like I am writing on a deadline.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Dave Brubeck Blue Rondo á la Turk image 2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

BlueRondo2 What you are seeing is the second image of a painting of two measures from Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo á La Turk. The change in style, that shows with this work, clearly works.  These two measures of music were found to fit an artwork around six feet in length. My goal.  This size allows more options to hang Blue Rondo at a different locations at the University.  After choosing the phrase from the music to paint, I than broke that down into pieces finding the right size canvas to fit each.  Next up I  connected those pieces, at an  exact sharing point, to best represent  this musical flow.  What you have now, is a better visual physical representation of those few moments, from this exceptional Jazz piece.

The overall feel of this Jazz piece, I do like.  I cannot help but use a lot of blues and deep greens.  The vertical red bars, which I mention in the video, still bother me, and will need more paint.  I have also done some work on the left beam, seen above as a drawing, but this morning I looked at the results and quickly decided that I had to think of something else.  What happens, with many decisions, is that they just pop into my head. Most of the time the decisions are correct, but sometimes like the effort with the beam, the paint looks bad.  I am looking for a new idea.  Tonight the small goal is the painting in the beams on Blue Rondo. I may then switch over to the Vivaldi work so I can apply what I have learned.

Scott Von Holzen