Category: technical note

S_V_H Ain’t No Sunshine image4 final

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

First the slang word ain’t is detested, and yet when sung by Bill Withers it seems to work.  It is cold in Wisconsin and  today the general weather seems to be effecting the concentration and drive.  Last night was spent painting in some, and cleaning up, sharping some edges, and signing.  Tonight, this work will be gone over and let go, but the mood, right now to start another, is lacking some enthusiasm.

Lately, there has been a number of these two foot by six foot canvases and they are starting to look somewhat repetitive.  There is a anxious creative need to do a Classical work to shake it all up, but the feel for this music has been weak, and unimpressive.  The music is searched out and played and the information is gathered about how great the work is, but it is hard to be convinced.  Do not know where this comes from.  Time was spent browsing Mozart, and Vivaldi, and just recently Chopin’s waltz Op. 64 No. 2.  The canvas is only eight feet by three feet a must to break this two foot binge of lately, which means about 32 notes.  That few of notes for a Classical piece makes it is hard to find a start and end point.  The start point is going to be a start it here because the measure breaks with the previous measure. The end is harder because a lot of good classical music just keeps moving.   Lucky in this Chopin piece there is a rest that pauses the action and a start that can be chopped off.  Also, a nice early version of this music was found in the Public Domain.   So, time to pump up the creative juices and plunge ahead.  We shall see, if the music fits the height and if so it should be a go.

Back to Ain’t No Sunshine.  There has been a lot of enjoyment listening to the six different versions of this music by: Bill Withers, Aaron Neville,  Bobby Blue Bland, Buddy Guy, Eva Cassidy, and Sting with David Sanborn.  With this variety it has kept the music fresh.  Enjoyed putting down round notes, but would have like them to be larger, like in Winter.  The colors of this work amaze, because they come not from preferences but from the need of the work.  Strange, the work drives the colors, that is driven by the music that in this case comes from a personal arrangement.

A lot of time and frustration was spent with the three ties. Originally they where a lighter green. All have all been washed off and repainted, and changed in style, to try and make them look fresh. Every work of art moves the art forward.  The problem with the style of the ties is that the forward movement has been in a number of different and scattered directions.  Similar to the creative path of the eighth notes which have lately stopped changing in jerky steps with the painting of Naive Melody.

The words are strong and colors sharp and fitting with the music, an exceptional work that challenges the Birthday painting and makes the interesting Cry Me A River, finished near the end of November, seem dated in style.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Cry me a River image4

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

Cry me a river right side.  The words were hard to choose.  The interesting part is that most viewers will never know what context the words that appears on these canvas have come from.  But, they should seek out the original phrase and see how this art samples and defines its own meanings.

Some extra acrylic magenta was added to perk up more interest in the lower section finishing the base.  Next added where the notes sketched in white to make sure they all fit in the space that has been provided.  The number of notes is sixteen and the count on the canvas is sixteen. This phase in done.

A technical note in the past when the notes where first put down a water based oil white titanium by Windsor & Newton was used.  The main reason is that these oils are slow to dry and changes and mistakes can be corrected without too much mess or any damage to the base..   The base is painted using heavy bodied, quick drying, acrylics mostly by Golden. Before the move to use acrylics for the base, there was a cost when mistakes where made and a note or sometimes many notes had to be removed, and the base repaired. That has changed with Cry.

The notes on Cry are being applied with an acrylic from Golden that is the type Open.  That means it drys slower, and tonight it has worked well.  A number of notes had to be erased or moved to better positions and it was easily done with a wet rag.  We will see tomorrow morning how easily the titanium white is removed.  This test will confirm one way or the other, which direction to go.  The nice thing about the acrylics is that there are a lot more convenient  colors to choose from over the Windsor & Newton water based oils.

That brings up another technical thought: there is this feeling that there are not enough different colors to create the unique individual looks each work demands.  It is like there is a need for another primary color beyond Red,  Blue and Yellow, and their mixes called something else.  That is not going to happen without going into another dimension, which is where this art  would like to go.

Until then though, with more experience with colors,  creating more paintings with different combinations of  mixes, should in themselves open other visual doors.  In the end a dimensional shift may not be necessary.  In the end it is  the personnel need to keeps things interesting and not boring that will drive the colors that will keep driving the artwork.

Scott Von Holzen