Category: Modern Art

S_V_H Let it Go two images & Final Image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

letItGo_1

Let it go is a small five panel commissioned artwork.  What you are seeing in image one are the main background canvases. This is a change in my style that started first with the paintings, Chasing Cars, and Fly me to the Moon.  On small-sized artworks there is a lot less open spaces so it was a simple  practical decision to paint the entire background canvas first and then later attach the other canvases. Another idea I wanted to test on a small work,  was how extensive I could add stripping, not only horizontally, which was the norm in the past, but vertically. You can view my early effects of this style with image two.

letItGo_2

This second image has some strong color contrasts, that I did before I watched the video for this music.  When I did I realized that I had drifted a considerable distance from the color scheme of the music video..  It is not that I wanted to duplicate the video, but like in the artwork for Northwestern Missouri  State University Wings of Victory,  also a commissioned work, where the School colors played an important part in the painting, the video from the movie Frozen, defines the mood and colors of the music.  I felt, looking at image two, that I had moved to far away from the music. I also felt I had drifted away from my original thinking about what color choices I would use  for this art piece.  Even without watching the video,  I knew, from the beginning,  that for this painting,  the colors white and blue would dominate. As you can see in the final image,  I pull it all back to my original plan.

When I think about a song and how I will paint it, my first decision for every artwork is to pick a couple of colors that I think would best represent the mood and the theme I wish to present.  For Let it go it was blue and white.  For the recent painting, Chasing Cars, brown and blue popped into my head.  For Fly Me to the Moon, it was obvious that many different shades of blue would dominate.  And next up, Vivaldi’s Spring Movement three, nickname the Storm, again what I see are many shades of blue, probably accented with violet.

letItGo_FM

 

Let it go Final image, consists of five panels with a height of 20 inches by a length of 41 inches. Looking at my information I started this work on September 2nd.  It is now November 2nd. That means I have spent two months on this one project, although,  the actually painting on the work began on October 10th, I am still surprised that this work only took three weeks, for it felt more like  that two months.  The reason is, as mentioned above, the deep tie this music has with the movie. There was some time wasted about how I thought I had to draw in some snowflakes.   Then I realized after two failed painting sessions, that I had to let this artwork define it self,  and I wisely let the movie go. When I did that everything slowly came together. What you see in this final image is a nice artwork with the emphasis on the blues and whites. What you also see is an artwork that defines itself.  and that has evolved not form a music video,  but from its own existence.  I like it that way, for it has always ended that way.

Here is my Video Comments on this artwork.  It has been a while since I have done a video, which is a disappointment.  As you can tell, very early, this is a one take presentation.   I do not see any reason to not just let the words flow, and hope the viewer will get some idea of what I am doing. Hopefully, they will enjoy the ups and downs of an unscripted presentation.

You can purchase prints of Let it go from my ETSY Print store.

Scott Von Holzen

 

 

S_V_H Improv Fly me to the Moon final image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

 

FlyMe_Final

Fly me is compose of four canvases with a length of 40 inches by at most of nineteen inches.This little blue gem, stands out as a special work.  The strong dark verticals of the background represent the strong and solid beat of this music song elegantly by Frank Sinatra. Of course all the blues are a statement about the darkness of night and the wonders of dark skies.  In this work you seen nebula’s and galaxies and in the upper right top you have a view of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. You see in the flow of the music the drifting across of  little planets that float untouched far above the drama of the background. The words ,”the moon, the stars,” say it all and then say so much more.  What an amazing treasure a potential buyer will have. We will see if she has the courage to tackle owning this most wonderful work of art, known only to me and now to you.

 

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Improvisation Chasing Cars final image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen3 Comments

chasingCarsFinal

I have finished Improvisation Chasing Cars.  One thing that surprised me was how fast this thirty-six inch painting came to a finished look.  Once I had painted all the major components  it took three or so hours of focused concentration to do the clean up.  And then that was it.  Easy to photograph, and easy to wire up.  Tomorrow out of the door, and then in a few days off to the client that commission this musical piece.

My impressions. My,  this is a small work. I can easily carry it around without concern of banging the edges. That is one advantage with the other being the physical painting of this work progresses quite fast. Let me counter that, for I have checked the date on my work sheet, and that surprisingly read August 23rd. Wow, that is over a month, spent on this small work. Of course,  some of that time I used on a sister work that I was painting concurrently, but still?  To my surprise I have learned that I put a lot of heart into all my efforts, no matter the size.  I guess I was trying to see if I could paint small canvases.  Well, I guess I can paint small works. The problem is they take about as much time as larger works, and that is the issue for larger works pay more. Although I do not paint for the money, the money pays for the paint. Interesting dilemma. For commission works the demand is certainly for small to smaller size works, a lot less than four feet. I can say this though,  I have reached my limit on the size of the music at thirty-six inches.  No smaller, no way.

In the future, I will have to charge more for the one mentioned reason,  it takes about the same amount of time to complete a small work or a six-foot artwork. I suppose if this art involves to be spontaneous, like Bebop, or Cosmos forbid, in the style of past music artists, that could speed up things.  But I do not expect that. I guess my original approach to doing small works, was to paint them using similar methods as I do with Birthday paintings.  But these small works are not Birthday paintings. They are regular artworks. The more I learn the language of music, the more complicated and interesting it has become. I like to portray as much interest as possible in each musical work, no matter the size, and no matter the time needed.

Time now to give my feedback on this work.  It is cute. of course, and fits most walls. I would have liked to have used some shades of brown on the thirty-six in canvas.  I decided not to going along with the work, which told me it was fine with the blues.  I work the blue background, considerably, in the clean-up process, which helped.  The most interesting new technique, used on this work,  is the deep depth of stripping on the small panel.  I have in the past been very horizontal in my stripping, and that little nine by twelve-inch panel now challenges that idea.  I can see this style being pushed forward on larger works. I love the words, and  I uniquely painted them using iridescent paints, which solve an issue on how to softly pop them.

 

Scott Von Holzen