Tag: Antonio Vivaldi

S_V _H Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons – Winter Allegro Mvt 3 image 2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

WinterAllegro3Image3

Making progress on the flow of the music for this Winter Vivaldi, after fixing an error. On the far right of the artwork I have two groups of eight 32nd notes. After a lot of measuring for spacing, I drew them in and then gave them some weight using different shades of blue.  Next up I ran the tape to define the beams of these notes. I soon discovered that instead of eight notes I have only drawn in seven, on the far right canvas. Somehow all my math, in the end had been wrong.

I first thought that the easiest solution would be to add another canvas, but I have no six-inch by twenty-four inch, which would be ideal. The smallest size canvas that I have is a twelve by twenty-four inch, which would have left a lot of wasted space. I could have continued the next group of thirty-second notes, cropping at the end, which would have worked, but I dropped that idea. I already have an artwork over 17 feet in length, that was already in the way of the entrance door. The right solution then,  was to over paint the notes, which I did, and that turned out surprisingly well.

You are seeing the large amount of taping done to create the sharp edges I like for the stems of the music. As mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I changed from free hand painting of the stems to the sharp edges because I began to see the stems as a way to better represent how the music flows.  By giving them hard defined edges that just reinforce this sense of the music flowing through them as you follow across the canvas.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V _H Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons – Winter Allegro Mvt 3 image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

WinterAllegro3Image2 Vivaldi’s Winter Allegro consists of  eight canvases that vary from 15 by 30 inches to 36 by 48 inches in size. This is the eleventh in the series of thirteen artworks of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Again in these images I am not capturing the look of this work. They look flat in contrast and color.  You have to see this work in person  to believe this difference. Looking at this completed background what I see is what I am living in: the chill of winter. At 17 feet in length and three feet high, standing close to this work all that is missing is the chill in the air that makes each breath feel razor-sharp.  Standing near this work it is winter, no matter the season.

Up next is putting down the musical flow.  I will using three different blues not used so far: light Blue Permanent, Light Ultramarine blue, and Brilliant Blue, and for the edges I will be using Turquoise Deep.

atLastJan29th

I thought I would put this image in this post that I took to send to a potential customer.  This is the great At Last that I painted back in May of 2010.  Hopefully, it will find a home in California.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V _H Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons – Winter Allegro Mvt 3 image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

WinterAllegro3Image1

This is the eleven in the series of thirteen paintings picturing the musical works of four Antonio Vivaldi’s popular concertos: RV 269, RV 315, RV 293,  RV 297, which together make up The Four Seasons. This huge artwork, over 17 feet in length, was tough to photograph, but I needed to document the visual progress, and this first photo fulfills that need. Turning around and looking at the real artwork, it is much prettier in person, and already presenting a dramatic image.

In the photograph you are not seeing the contrast between the stripping and the background where I first spread a light gray layer.  Over that I then pulled across multiple thin layers of pure white.  I am using an image of pure white snow, in this artwork, for we have received plenty of that, lately. My challenge, with this work,  is to display this feeling of fresh snow cover across the entire seventeen feet of canvas that is Winter Allegro, creating diversity and multiple areas of interest.

Starting with a light gray background gives me the contrast to build up an image on white canvas.  Somehow I will use this same technique for the rest of the bare canvas, and besides using gray,  I will need to find ways to  add color in the background.  Lately, with my backgrounds I have used a lot of stripping for its musical effects and interest adding looks,  and that should work here by using cold blues mixed with a lot of white.  I have used so much white that I ran out of it, and had to pick up some locally, 40% off, of course.

The capturing of that winter feeling, for this artwork, is a lot easier to do while living in the season. Actually, I try to do that as much as I can with this series.  For example my last Vivaldi was the last movement of Autumn, and now I am, of course, working on the first movement of Winter.  When  I compete this work, next up will be the first movement of Spring, followed by the final artwork in this series, the third movement of Summer, sometime this summer.

Up next, I am turning around getting up from my computer, putting on my apron, and hopefully before nights end covering up the rest of the white canvas with white paint.

Scott Von Holzen