Tag: The Beatles

S_V_H While My Guitar Gently Weeps image 1

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

This artwork gets its inspiration from George Harrison’s Fender Stratocaster named Rocky.  Here is George talking about the guitar in this poorly lit video:

Even though this music comes from The Beatles famous White Album, that I still remember standing in line to buy,  it is this tribute video, with Prince, that hooked me to paint this music:

At first I was going to keep the background for this artwork as simple as possible. This was to be a small quick turn-around work,  about 34 inches in length.  To keep this artwork clean-looking I painted the background around the center guitar neck image,  a solid pale green. That look worked,  but only if I was thinking of the post Beatles musician George Harrison and his album All Things Shall past.

I said that I originally heard this song on that album I stood in line for on that late November day in 1968.  That remembrance made me realize that I needed an early George Harrison.  Actually finding him was easy once I gave up the idea of a simple painting.  In my research, for this music, I  had come across the story of his Rocky guitar. It obviously is a treasure trove of color and shapes.  I could no longer resist this challenge and potential fun.

( Guitar Aficionado )

Regretfully, I could not find any mention or video of George Harrison playing While My Guitar Gently Weeps with this guitar, but the timeline was consistent.  Here is a short clip of the Rocky guitar from I am the Walrus on the 1967 Magical Mystery Tour album:

The results of changing my thinking will be a complicated artwork,  that will be a lot more interesting, and more important than I originally thought. No other choice. No filler painting here.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H With a little help from my friends image5

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

helpFromMyFriends_5With this fifth image of With a little help from me friends you are seeing two new major features added to this artwork. I have applied little sails to a half-dozen of the items in this musical flow. And I have also did the drafting of the words that I choose for this music.

The interesting part of this image, for me, is those little sails, and yes they do look like the sails you see on sailboats.  They first showed up as a powerful image in the Four Seasons work, The Four Seasons, Winter Largo, a favorite.  After finishing the Vivaldi series I drifted away from that style in Fine and mellow, Ghost of Tom Joad, and Losing my edge, my  2015 Birthday painting.  I returned to the sails with my B.B King painting Sweet little angel, and to my surprised I thought they worked well with that work.

Since starting this musical art in 2006, I have struggle to find some way to represent what an eighth note would look like in this art.  The sail idea makes sense to use for it make the music seem to move across the canvases, greatly improving the flow of the painting.

I am not sure that the sails style will work with every canvas.  For sure I thought it work well with Classical Music. It was not until I tried it with the Blues work that I saw it could also work on more contemporary music. I will probably tweak my notes with sails in this artwork to add interest, pull things together, and maybe to give them a more sixties look, whatever that means.

This work is nearing completion.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H With a little help from my friends image4

Published on by Scott Von Holzen

helpFromMyFriends_4Image four of a little help from my friend, shows the basic structure of the flow of this music.  Stylistically  nothing too different with the exception that I did try a new technique on the beam on right blue panel (that long slopping rectangle at the top). I edge it out with multiple layers of tape so that when removed I had an object with some added depth to it.  Even though the height of the beam turned out to be small it was enough to stand out from the canvas. This is especially noticeable when you compare it with all the vertical rectangles that are my staffs that follow along with the music.

Of interest is my color choices for the vertical  rectangles.  I searched out psychedelic colors, a sixties thing,  and found such a range and variety that I figured as long as I went with bright, and contrasting colors, all would be fine.  As for the large beam, I wanted a connection to be made between it and the music so I used the same color for each, Cobalt Blue.  I also swirled the wet color mix, in a small way, to represent musical sound waves

I am doing this artwork for a specific reason that I cannot talk about at this time.  That means that not only do I want to create something unique, I also want an artwork that appeals. Those desires are similar to my basic goals for every painting, but more meaningful for this small  artwork with a destiny.

 

Scott Von Holzen