Tag: Music

S_V_H The Pretender image1&2

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

The Pretender image1 from Friday night.

Image 2 of The Pretender from Sunday afternoon.  This is a single panel, right now, 20 inches (51 cm) by 5 feet (152cm).

There was some time, and debate, between the finish of Mozart’s Eine and the choice to what to paint next. The original song choice was a Concerto in G minor by Vivaldi; but that would have been a big work that would have required a large canvas and another month dedicated to one work.  This artist wanted a break from that, and also wanted to do a smaller work that would use a lot less resources,  allow easier directional changes to be made, and different ideas to be tried, to see what sticks.

This artwork is an improvisation of  the song The Pretender,  written and sung by Jackson Browne. There where a number of great phrases, from this music,  that would have each required larger canvases, but  one small part of this music was found that would work on a 5 feet canvas.

Listening to B.B. King – Tired of Your Jive

The side thought about choices made: because of the shortness of time and the amount of effort that is required to complete each of these works, my thought is that once a particular piece of music is painted, I would never return to it for another canvas.  There are just too many great pieces of music still to be painted.  But, you never know, in the future a commissioned work for this music still leaves those other choices.  This is a good quality piece of music that fits well with Thunder Road and Hallelujah, in diversity and artist options.

What closed this choice of music, was watching the following video, where Jackson Browne explains the meaning of the music, and how it relates to many a working man and women’s life, including myself.  This music speaks of choices made whether we want to or not.  For now,  this life we lead, may not be the best option, but it does get us through the day.

Listening to  Little Milton – That’s What Love Will Make You Do.

Right now,  there will be two added canvases to this work, one top middle, and one lower right. Because of the impact of those two additions will be quite important, the thinking is to let this tempoary background stand as is, for now.  Next step is the drawing in of the music flow, to see where everything fits.  After that, the two extra canvas can be added, and the background finished up.  We will see.

I nice ending to this entry:  I’ll Be Back by Shawn Colvin.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Serenade No.13 for Strings in Gmajor Final

Published on by Scott Von Holzen1 Comment

Mozart’s Eine Kleinie Nachtmusik, K.525 Romanze Andante; and no I cannot pronounce that name, which is regrettable.  But the wondering is “Eine Kleinie Nachtmusik” may to be more attractive when seen as words instead of just being heard. This painting uses a total of 5 panels and for the most part it is 30 inches plus 2, by 120 inches plus 3 or just over 3 meters in length.  This painting was started on the twelfth of January, and Sunday night the twelfth of February it was finished.  The feeling was that it was  time to move on and  figure out what next to do.

Maybe because of the limitations of space, or the shortage of time that is available to painting, there is always only one work in progress at a time. The thinking is that planning ahead by picking the next music, and prepping that canvas, is the right thing to do, and yet it never happens.  It could be the lack time, but it could be the need to stay focused on the work in progress, that probably has the largest effect. Lately, there  exists a notepad with the listing of potential next work that is handy; but for the most part, the final choice of what music to do next, ends up being more of an emotional decision then anything else. The list be damned.

Listening to The Piano Concerto No. 21 – 2nd Movement – Mozart

This work  may very well have an effect on every painting done in this year.  With canvases, being attached to each other, laid on top, or off to the side, these additional pieces  have slammed open a lot of doors. As far as the color the browns where the most difficult to deal with.  They at first looked drab, until they where re-worked a number of times, and that seemed to help.  It does not hurt to try a color, and then the next day, over paint it. What you have then is the lingering effect of previous paints, that can add to the work’s depth and interest. In this work green was again deliberately held back.  The inner Light Violet speed ring on the notes was a surprise that worked. The four flagged notes where troubling, to a point that they finally convinced this artist, that the look was best for this moment.

So, what is going on in this painting?  I am not sure there is an easy answer.  It starts out as a tribute, and then it evolves from there. The beginning it’s meaning is easy, an artwork portraying a particular piece of music.  Now, at the end, there is still the music of Mozart, but what is on view kicks Mozart’s Serenade  right off its manuscript.

Listening to Escape Club – Wild Wild West

Lets leave it there.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Mozart Serenade No. 13 for Strings in G major

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

Eine Kleinie Nachtmusik, K525 Romanze Andante (A Little Night Music)  5 panels 30inches plus by 10 feet 3 inches.

I learned a lot about the Los Angeles art world watching the movie The Cool School .  It was interesting enough that I purchase the book Catalog L.A. Birth of an Art Capital 1955-1985, which shows a few of Mike Kelly’s works, photographs of him, and a short conversation. When I read that the artist Mike Kelly had killed himself, I was taken back.  Here is an artist that accomplished so much, and  that can be an inspiration to us unknowns, and tragically he ended his journey.  I do not get it, and yet I do understand this: that the dream of becoming a known artist with sales and exhibitions, and then accomplishing that goal is, in reality, just a step forward in living the creative life and not the end in itself.  Life keeps going on so the acknowledge artist still needs that next goal to keep him and his art pushing forward.  Maybe, Mike Kelly just missed a step, tripped, and never recovered.  Who knows what really happened.  He was a lucky man up to that point.

So, here we are most of the way through this artwork, that was started on January 5th, and it looks like this work is going to go over a month.  That is surprising considering that it is not that large, but the past month has been filled with distractions.  There is still some major additions to be painted in, and a lot of smoothing out of the roughness. This work is looking to be a break through piece, and the anticipation of doing more, with more panels, is a driving force to push ahead to its completion.

Listening to Sade – Never as Good as the First Time.

Scott Von Holzen