Tag: Antonio Vivaldi

Vivaldi’s Four Season RV 297 Winter – allegro final work.  Last night I signed the back in two places. This painting  will soon be taken apart, and stored in two large pieces. I have no walls large enough to accommodate this work, so it will disappear and only reappear when the entire sires of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons paintings, all thirteen of them, make their public début sometime in 2015.

In a day or two I will take a  final portrait of this 18 foot canvas, outside.  This is possible because  today we are having our first Spring Day.  Interesting timing:  the end of Winter, occurring with the finish of Winter Allegro.

It was time to move on.  This work began on February 4th.  I think, the painting and I where both tired of each other.  Everything  just reach a point, where I had nothing else to offer it, and it seemed all right with letting go.

Scott Von Holzen

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, Winter Allegro. This painting consists of 10 connected canvases for a length, just under 18 feet(5.48m).  The only objects left to add are the nine natural incidentals, which at this writing have all been drawn in, and are now being painted it.   To my surprise I am using different shades of green, which I will explain in the final image blog post.  Once done,  the entire focus of this artwork will move from construction to finishing.  This phase brings everything together,  to improve the appearance and to add contrast and interest.

I was a kid the grew up in the beginning of space exploration.  I remember having a cardboard mobile of the solar system hanging from my bedroom ceiling.  My favorite planet, to this day, is Saturn. Maybe, because it starts with an S, like in Scott, or maybe it was because of the rings. I never thought of becoming an astronaut, and the telescope I wanted for Christmas, never arrived.  My fascination of  going out there, however,  has never gone away.  Of course,  now I can afford to buy any telescope I wish, but I would not, because that moment has passed, and I am much to serious today, to feel the passion of first discovery,  which I would have felt way back then. That was an importunity, now lost.

That brings me to this artwork and those shaded circles you see in the above images.  First, in the image above on the right side, is an eighth note, which in music looks like this:

The part  that comes of the stem is the flag, but I now like to think of that part as a sail.   I see these notes as big helpers to push the music across the canvas, so in whatever form of a sail that works, I make the eighth notes a high point of interest.  So, that brings me back to those shaded circles that are all around these eighth notes.  To me they are bits of music. But unlike, the shaded circles that represent my vision of a musical notes, these other circles have actually nothing to do with the music.  They are there because, I put them there, to float and flow across the canvas.  They can represent pieces of music,  or maybe small  planets moving through  the vastness of space. I like to think they are both.

This painting is just under 18 feet (5.48m) in length and is hard to photograph,but the color and the contrast is fairly accurate, even with the uneven photography.

When I listen the music and read the Allegro part of the Vivaldi’s Winter Sonnet:

Now we walk on the ice, with slow steps,
attentive how we walk, for fear of falling

If we move quickly, we slip and fall to earth,
again walking heavily on the ice,
until the ice breaks and dissolves.

We hear through the closed doors
Sirocco, Boreas and all the rushing winds at war –
this winter, but such as brings joy.

I feel that this music and those words speak to those bitterly  cold temperatures and hard numbing winds that we who live in such climates, scurry quickly inside to avoid, and certainly dislike.  Maybe the word “joy” in the Sonnet refers to the relief one feels with the warmth of a fire, a cozy blanket, and shelter from the wind.

Thinking that way, this one work, is going to use a lot of white, grays, and blues that are the look and feel of ice and bitter cold.  Also, I must find a way to depict the raw winds. And finally, to push this artwork, hopefully, I can offset this wintry theme, based on  that one word  joy.   Taking that word, I am thinking I can bring in some bright contrasting colors, to shake up, and lighten the mood of this work, while increasing this artworks overall emotional grasp on the viewer.

That is the thoughts, and we will see if this artwork cooperates.

Scott Von Holzen