Tag: Antonio Vivaldi

This is Vivaldi’s Spring Allegro.  The image you see enlarged is from three photographs combined.   I knew early that a lot of stripping was going to happen with this work.  Where in the last Spring project, there is no stripping, with this being a summer image those rigid color patterns work well.  Spring is about growth, renewal, change, and so any pattern stripping just did not seem to work.  That is why you saw the squeegee.  In this summer work, I see it as a time when nature is settling into a pattern: there is still  lots of color like Spring, but it is  better organized.  Next up, I am going to try to use squeezes  to carry forward the freshness of Spring that is still present in early summer.

Scott Von Holzen

Now, I would like to introduce Jordyn M Stensen, my Granddaughter, and her first major artwork.  All I did was to give her  six canvases, of three different sizes, and asked her to arrange them on the floor.  I gave her only one suggestion in that how she arranges the canvas they should seem to look balanced.  She tried a number of ideas,  I liked some, and others I would point out the imbalance.  To my surprise she arranged what you are seeing below all by herself.  I really did not offer any changes, telling  her only how well-balanced the image looked.  I asked her if she liked it and she agreed.  She did not want to make any other changes. I then mark the edges and flipped the canvases over.  Together we connected them all. Then we ended this session with two coats of white gesso.

This is her first image with the basic background colored in.  We spoke a lot about what colors she would like to use on what canvases, but  all the color choices for each canvas where her choice.  I spoke to her a little about the look of Hans Hoffman, and I think she understood. I showed her images and the effect you get when there is a dark color and a light color next to each other.  But she wanted the base coloring  bright and happy, so that is what we have.  I think she has chosen her colors well. She did want an orange color and I did mix one up, but I will have to mix a more yellow orange  for that far left canvas. You see my other duties include brush cleaning and color mixing.  Next  up we are going to have Jordyn let loose her loved for Miro and her passion for Picasso.

Today, Jordyn created a view of the city, a view of houses, and fireworks or as she said it could be confetti. After some intense painting I spilled the water dish on her pallet full of fresh paint.  At that moment she insisted on cleaning up the painting area, putting everything in its place. Taking breaks from her artwork, Jordyn is also practicing  on the piano Ode to Joy by Beethoven, and Do Ra me from Sound of Music.

This is Image 2 for Antonio Vivaldi’s  The Four Seasons Summer Allegro. So far this artwork consists of 9 canvases with a total length of 184 inches, just over 15 feet.  All you are seeing is the base coat of paint, to give me an idea of what 15 feet of color looks like.  This first coat background is rough with lots of shading to start the process of representing the up and coming winds that begin is this movement music. Next up is more work on the base.

I am looking at  Winter Largo , and  would like to bring back the color stripping that work so well in that work.  The panel, I think I will go at first, is the largest canvas which is 3 feet by 4 feet.  I would like to see a mix of stripe boxes to create interest and depth to the base. Right now I am not worried about the colors of the music.  The background phase of this art has become more interesting these last few months, and I plan to greatly strengthen this one.  A solid interesting background is going to force me to step up and put down music that rises to the challenge, and does not get lost in the colors.  This was what I had to do in the last work, because of the color diversity of the backgrounds.

Those four red panels are already a stand out parts of this work. These panels each will each consists of one note with a rest. But what makes these four notes interesting is that each of them is a musical trill .  Like I have said this music is the sound of a bird and those trills keep this 8 to 10 seconds of music tight.

Scott Von Holzen

This is the ninth painting in the Vivaldi’s Four Seasons series.  This artwork is over fifteen feet in length. The fall image above is a quick composite of three different images.  The dark purple line is there to unify all the different canvases. Such an early look at this next project gives you an idea of the planning that goes into creating these paintings.  In the past I use to fit the music to the canvas, but as you can see today’s artworks all the canvases exist to fit the music.  The four 12 x 24 inches canvases, that you see rising above the main image, are key to this work.

I have also found an interesting take on this part of the music.  In H.C. Robbins Lando book Vivaldi voice of the baroque, there is this sentence that speaks to the part I will be painting: “The goldfinch has trills and very high alternating notes, of soft summer winds.”  I looked up pictures of European goldfinches.  Their prominent colors, that I will be able to use, are the browns, yellow and a bright deep red.  Right now, I am planning to paint those four small panels in red.  Yellow, with different shades of lighter browns I may use for some stripping patterns.  I started last night with a yellow-green base on the first panel, that will quickly change to blues.  I am thinking that blue colors will represent the wind, which will probably be an interesting challenge to try to recreate. The wind analogy comes from the words that where chosen from the Summer Vivaldi Sonnet:  “The North-wind appears nearby and suddenly,” or for another translation, “Soft breezes stir the air… but threatening north wind sweeps them suddenly aside.”

The hope is that this work will not take two months to complete. For more  of story, and history of this series,  you can go the Vivaldi page, where you will find pictures and videos of the first eight completed artworks.

Scott Von Holzen