Tag: Music

This is a late 2nd image of A Great Big Sled this years Christmas painting.  Looking at the image you can see that most of the major items are in place.  For those parts that I need to paint in I have some basic ideas of what I am going to do.  With my version of 8th notes I am looking to fill space and add interest. By using a long curve shape this will animate the music across the canvas, which is similar to many of my artworks, where I create sails out of my notes.  When I create a musical artwork a static look is not excusable.  Maybe that is why a lot of art based on musical themes are abstractions.

My words ‘me in the sled,’ say something different from the music, which is what I always try to do in my word choices. My words intentionally go in a different direction from the music. The viewer hopefully seems them as a curiosity.  They are a part of an artwork, that starts out as a tribute to a song,  and ends as something more out of something else, that maybe on its own appears to be rather mundane or boring.

It is interesting that the  music that I portray, ends up being little influenced by the real music I am portraying.  It is like I am using music as an excuse to paint an artwork.

My love of music makes my love of art real, and not a reproduction in a book.

Scott Von Holzen

This painting, like all by artworks, is a tribute to the music of the artists that have given us songs to remember. This years 2014 Christmas painting is A Great Big Sled from the musical group,  The Killers.

Since I have been slow to blog lately, the image you see above is a lot further along than my usual image one. This artwork is composed of five canvases with a length of sixty inches, and a height of just over twenty-seven inches.

This is the eighth in the Christmas series. I had to do some research to find all the previous years artworks.  Here is the list:

2006  Joy to the World (I know this is not a Christmas song, but the title certainly fits that time of the year, and I liked the music of Three Dog Night)
2007 Winter Wonderland (a standard, Bing Crosby)
2008 Sleigh Ride ( a fun song)
2009 White Christmas (the greatest Christmas song, Bing Crosby)
2010 What Child is This (a strange choice that year, not my style)
2011 The Christmas Song (one of the best, Judy Garland)
2012 Let It Snow (my favorite Christmas look)
2013 You Raise Me Up (A tribute to Uncle Walt)

I choose this years Christmas painting early this year. It is these words form the chorus that made the decision easy:

” I wanna roll around like a kid in the snow. I wanna relearn what I already know.”

Those two lines took me back, reconnecting me to the boy I once was fifty years ago.

I appear to not be in the Christmas spirit yet, for I have not enthusiastically worked on this artwork. That may be changing for I need it done.  Once finished,  I can than photograph it, print copies to canvas, and send out this years Christmas Card, signed and numbered, before the Christmas mailing deadline, to all those that have purchased an artwork. That sentence exhausted me.

My overall feelings towards this work so far, are that I am not crazy about the design look of the music. It appears to be a little awkward.  I do like the heavy use of gold and silver which I consider perfect for a Christmas theme.  And finally, the most interesting part of this artwork is those lower images surrounded with multiple circles.

When I played this music for people there was the suggestion that I include the sound of the bell that you hear, that now appear along the lower part of this painting.  It was that suggestion that changed my  original choice of music. I move away from the lines I quoted above. Any of those choices would have been much smaller and easier to do. My original plan for this years painting was to do a small canvas similar to the Let it Go, and Fly Me to the Moon artworks. Instead I followed the idea of the bells, and choose this much longer, more demanding, more interesting phrase, that  I considered a greater challenge. I cannot turn away from my own test. If I consider doing an artwork a challenge, that pretty much guarantees that I will paint that image. I cannot help it, I know I need to push to be the artist I expect to be.

I must say that receiving feedback can be useful. The thoughts and suggestions from others, does offer me a different insight and perspective about this art.  Although, that is a little hard to say, at times the words from others are useful. It does not really change anything important,  for I know that it is a must for me to find my own artistic path, and not follow the wishes or trends of others. Still, a small amount of outside, unbiased exchange does more good than harm. I am mature which makes me smart enough to filter, never doubting nor forgetting, what makes me, is me, and not you.

Scott Von Holzen