Category: thoughts on being an artist

Time after Time

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

I have a friend at work that wants  me to do a painting for his 25 wedding anniversary of a song by Talking Heads. While I was discussing the problem of finding the music I  asked him when he thinks of that music what colors come to mind.  He told me he did not know because his wife had not painted the room yet.  Later I thought,  I should have responded back with, you hang the painting then re-decorate the room.  But I did not.

A problem is as you can see from the different photos of stages of these paintings my colors vary a lot.   So, if I am thinking soft blues, who knowns for after a while I may be thinking punchy greens, with a little gold and pink thrown in.   If someone wants me to do a work in greens when the mood fits better blues and yellows, sure I will give it a green theme but every work of art ends up being a big pile of colors all mixed up and moving fast from left to right.

As for anniversary paintings, whatever.  As long as the finished work represents my best attempt when it is done,  I can walk away.  The painting and the fear of failure keeps me focused and driven.

Scott Von Holzen

Chopin Fantasy nearing completion

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

I am dropping a note that I am in the process of wrapping up this canvas and starting the thinking ahead and the need to prep a new project.   I have spent much of this weekend working this canvas.

When all the main objects are in place, then there comes a judgement.  I pick the music because of it’s parts and now that they are all down on canvas,   I must discover next how  to make it a cohesive work of art.  A lot depends on liking the impact of the colors and their relationships to each others. I go over and over the same parts on different days, changing, adding, and balancing the contrast of many shades of colors.  That is what separates just doing this digitally and painting the idea on canvas.

I apply, like all people that paint,  thousands of individual brush strokes, to get the shapes, color and contrast right.  Nothing special about that, but I have realized how important that is today unlike when the idea  of creating works of art based upon music was developing.

There was a time I thought I could create what I do with paint now just by using  Illustrator and Photoshop on my computer.  No way, I know today that that. would never do.  And that is one good reason why I am not posting an upgrade picture of my efforts lately.  You see, moving in close, is one of the differences, that separates wall decoration from art.  And ……..that will probably never happen……for quite a while.

Scott

Improvisation no. 3 2010 theme: mr sandman is finished

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

Ok…. after a lot of second guessing on Sunday and adding, then removing paint from the lower color band, thinking of Rothko as I scrubbed away,  all was done just after 5pm.  I find the playing with words that I used  does certainly push the painting and the viewer into a reconsideration of its meaning. Actually, every piece where there are words I try to spin their meaning differently from the music to claim a unique perspective.

And as for the musical theme this work is based on  sure,  you can see the golden sand and the setting sky in the background.    That is the symbolic tribute.    All that music stuff gets quickly loss as I progress with the art and the creation of a flow and the right use of color and balance.  When finished a work is judge by me as a work of art only.    The music has been absorbed in the canvas only exist in the mood and the title.  You see it always start with the love of music but ends with the passions of art.

I will be uploading a  final and much larger view of this canvas to my website so you can see much more detail.  It was hard to photograph this ten foot horizon… and although the glare is fairly well contained I am going to pick up some white  material tomorrow and see if I can even out the lighting even more before posting it.  There is going to be a 3 foot by 18 foot canvas coming up and I will need to fine tune my photography skills to have a presentable image.   We shall see…. more comments and the true thoughts about this painting to come.

scott von holzen