Tag: ART

S_V_H Vivaldi’s Autumn allegro 3rd mvt. image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

4SeasonsAutumnAllegro3rdmvt1

This is the first image of Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons,  Autumn Allegro third movement. This artwork consists of nine canvases for a total length of twelve feet ten inches. Since this is the last movement of Autumn, which is the season I am living in at this moment, I will be using a lot of the late  fall colors I see all around me. Today while out walking I picked up a number of leaves that I will keep for color references. What you are going to see in this background is a lot of earthy colors, faded greens, dirty yellows, and darker shades of red. The bright colors are for the music. I suppose it would be fine if I kept my entire pallet for this artwork like you see in the above images, but that would not be my current style. Generally, every color in the rainbow tries to find a spot in my works. Take a look at Keep on Loving you, and you will see what I mean.

I think this background will be fine for now.  Next up I will be applying a lot of stripping to give each canvas their own look. In their own strange way my strips relate to the lines of a staff in music notation, but the resemblance ends at that point.  I am not drawing the music I am depicting the flow only, but I do enjoy the comparison. The difference is my lines mean nothing, beyond adding interest to the artwork, unlike those five lines in a musical staff which represent a blank sheet of western musical notation.

The big think here is that I need to move a lot quicker with this work. Taking over two months to complete this one artwork, was not my original timing for this work. Stopping to do the Christmas canvas will slow this works progress, and because I am also working on a small work, all that is making me re-think a new Vivaldi in eight weeks. I could be destined to complete the first concerto of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, by the end of January.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H UP On the Roof image1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

upOnTheRoof1

UP on the Roof is a new small work, 72 inches in length.  I decided to start this work while I wait the arrival of canvases needed for the next artwork in the Vivaldi Four Seasons series, Autumn Allegro 3rd movement.

Why paint Up on the Roof? That is a question that is as hard to explain, as it is easy to answer:  I like this music. I think it will hold well over time. The words say something that a lot of people can relate to, and the melody is catchy. Finally, the timing was right. This song happened to play in iTunes, and I became curious about it. I learned that Carole King, another old favorite of mine, co-wrote it. Searching for recordings I found a live performance of Up on the Roof with James Taylor and Carole King, and at that point the choice became clear.  UP on the Roof not only is a good song, it has history and depth with me, which all helps aid the decision-making process.  It comes down to this, I only have some much time to paint a limited number of musical pieces, so I have to pick wisely, or pick a song when it is hot, before I change my mind. Hopefully, I have chosen wisely, for unlike the just completed, Keep on Loving you, which has a buyer, this one is on its own to prove it worth.

I cannot remember which version of this song that I first heard, but I am thinking it may have been the version by the Crying Shames, a garage band, that dates to 1967.  The sound and the date sounds about right. Also, there is a slight possibility that it could have been James Taylor, because I have always been a fan of his music, ever since his Sweet Baby James album. Taylor’s version of UP on the Roof dates to 1979, which seems late for me. The last possibility may have been the original release, and major hit by the Drifters in 1963, but I doubt it.  I do not think music meant much to me until the Beatles, which was  when I was a sophomore in high school in 1964. I am going with the Crying Shames, for now.

One more personnel discovery about this song, is a rare cover by Laura Nyro, my musical first love when I arrived on campus in Madison in 1968.  Her record ,Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, was a heavy play in the dorm at that time.

The base colors are dark and gritty, to keep with the mood of the music. This changes as the work moves from left to right. The third canvas elevates about the first two, while the fourth canvas is another step up from the third  This artwork is another three-layered work, similar to The Four Seasons Work, Spring Danza, where you have to go to the firth canvas which is the first to touch the wall in my living room.

I am also posting this first image of Up On The Roof,  on Etsy, where you can pre-order a digital print for much less money, then when finished.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Keep on Loving You final image

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

keepOnLovingYouFinal

Keep on Loving You this five foot 4 inch artwork look is more interesting, to me,  than the original music.  I think I could have reduced the physical size of this work, but the canvas I used gave me the extra room, (that is rare in most of my musical portraits), to let my slurs, those huge almost circles you see above the musical flow, a chance to really express themselves.  I had the space so I used it to their advantage.  Those slurs come straight out of my last Vivaldi painting.  I have realized that if done right my slurs do not need any squiggly lines. That is how it works: I am learning as I go.

Originally, I was going to go with the words “I’m Lovin’ you,”  but strange the word ‘i’m’ I could not find any space for on the first canvas, so I dropped it.  Lovin’ you, says it all, covering a lot of territory.  I see it is important to paint more than just one Vivaldi after another.  These little works offer ways to try to maybe explore painting techniques I am trying to do on the large work.  When I see that a new idea works on a 15 foot canvas, I then know I can move that idea to a much smaller work, and see a greater effect of that idea on a small surface, which carries with it a bigger impact on the artwork.

I like this artwork, it has that look.  Now on to another Vivaldi.  This time it is the late fall movement.

Scott Von Holzen