S_V_H Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons(Spring)” Largo image3

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Spring Largo about 120 inches (3m) long  and for the most part 24 inches wide.   The Italian words chosen from Vivalidi’s Spring sonnet are, “the pleasant flowery meadow,” using Google translator.  Other translations include “On the flower-strewn meadow,”  ”..the meadow, in full flower,”  and “…the flower-rich meadow.”  You have the choice to pick your favorite.  Anyway, since these sonnets are almost 300 years old, and languages change in meanings over the years, who really knows what the correct English translation should be?

Listening to Beethoven’s Piano Concerto # 5.

It is obvious that the different colors around this music represent the flowers.  Another couple of things, the flowery stems of violet and dark purple, are made longer than the usual.  This was done to slow the music down.  Also, these dark purple circles inside the flowers are there to slow the music.

Otis Redding – I’ve Been Loving You to Long.  A great classic R&B song.

One interesting note is that this main canvas is composed of a four foot piece attached to a 6 foot piece.  In the past all multiple canvases have been composed of the same sizes, or part of a combine with a smaller center piece.  The surprise was the first time this work was moved in order to be photographed, how out-of-balance it felt with the four foot left side carrying all the weight. With that thought it mind,  the final decision to use only a sixteen inch by forty-four inch canvas, attached to the light six foot, made sense not only in a musical  but also an architectural way.

Prince – Purple Rain

Even though the background is done for now, there is going to be some changes, too boring, to improve this works originality.  Also, you see looking at the full image, that the drawing above the two yellow flowers, which symbolizes a musical tie, is heading in a new direction.  That is happening because, this artist hates, and fears, the routine, and each of these works demand, in their own right,  originality. What will be seen with each of these Vivaldi works is a gradual maturing of an artistic understanding, and the evolution of the depiction of his music.

James Brown – Get Up Offa That Thing

Shirley Horn – If You Go Away.  A classic that should be heard more often.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons(Spring)” Largo image1&2

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons Spring II largo RV 269 the second in a series of 13 works to be completed.

This first image is 120 inches (3.048m) in length by 24 inches (.6m).  The result of this first stage, besides getting my brushes wet again, was to put down different flavors of paint that fit the mood of the music, to see what happens.  That is what you see above, nothing special, only a starting point.  Go to this YouTube link to  Itzhak Perlman’s nice rendition of  Spring.  At about 3 minutes and 20 seconds in, is the beginning of Spring – Largo.  This movement in Spring, is certainly not a favorite, but throwing some paint at it, will put the art and the music in the right light.

Now, this second image is where serious considerations begin to come into play.  The first image has a lot of movement across the canvas, but that has been slowed with the added horizontal brush strokes. Also, the edges where, either sharpened , or better defined, too pull the three parts together. A change, of lately, is that the backgrounds do not have to have that finished look, which  previously meant that a background had to be able to stand on their own, like a separate artwork.  Now, the thought is to work up a good, basic background, and than adjust it when the music comes into play.  That makes more sense, and what comes from experience, which is a good teacher as long has it is not an end in itself.   That is important, especially for a person of my age.  It is good to let-it-fly at times just to see what sticks.

Listening to Itzhak Perlman  and Vivalidi’s Spring.

From here, starts the next challenge.  A number of put-on canvases of different sizes have been prepped.  The music flow will be placed and worked into a good fit, and then the add on canvases will be figured out,  than attached,  which will give this work some life.  Green will still be the dominate color, like in  Summer – allegro non molto, but because it is spring, there will be spots of brighter colors across the work to pop it, and to reflect the season.  It makes sense to change the color schema, not only according to the season, but with each movement,  from early, middle, and late in the season.

Piano Man – Billy Joel

Robert Palmer – Bad Case of Loving You

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons(Summer)” Allegro Non Molto Final Image

Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons width about 110 inches (2.8m) by 38.5 inches (.98m). This painting is not the largest every photographed but what made it difficult, to photograph, was the added canvases, and a studio with less than eight foot ceiling.  A lot of work has to be done to get the camera, the flashes, and the artwork to work all together to get a decent, evenly light image, without glare, that is fairly square in appearance, with accurate color.  Even accomplishing all that, Photoshop is still a valuable asset that was needed to tweak the final image.  In the end, it is a good representation of the work.

Listening to Eva Cassidy – Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Still, it is not perfect, and the thought is to re-shoot this image, one more time with the camera higher up to remove seeing as much of the bottoms of the add on canvases as possible, and using Photoshop, to improve the bottom edge contrast.  The reason for this concern, over the image quality, is that there is a preliminary plan to print a few canvas images of each of the artworks from The Four Seasons series for distribution.

This first Four Seasons artwork shows the influences of the previous two works, that pioneered add-on canvases.  That is part of what is expected, and  that now sets a baseline for the next work, and those that will follow over the next two years. The disappointment of, what is expected, is that somehow I can not but feel the wish that this work had broken even more ground for such an important beginning of this seres.  Every artist has this hidden fear of  what if that is all there is, and not just Peggy Lee.

Sarah Vaughan – My Funny Valentine, sung live with her marvelous later voice.

To put that thought in proper prespective, here are some feelings about the  artistic steps made by this work.   That small smooth, straight green line that started this work, is something that will be carried over that will start all of the next works.  That simple line, like  a rope or tape around a package, holds the music and the artwork together, no matter what else was done.

Those six medium magenta and Deep Cyan rests (the narrow pink triangle objects, along side the small pink circles) all in a row make a statement, that demands attention.  I like that.  Those crazy beams, mostly along the bottom follow a color pattern that bounces along and keeps this work moving, are cool, and interesting in themselves, even without the music.  Those red slurs along the top, also, add greatly to the motion of this work, but unlike the beams their movement is contained.  Now take a look at how the flow of the music is slowed by the green note heads that are a solid color, without the inner smaller circles, that usually are added to spin the music along. The blue  shafts under the note heads are soft light blue that follow along and blend well with the background green colors.

Lets not forget to mention those wonderful Italian words for this artwork, and the decision that made Italian the language to be used on all the future Four Seasons canvases.  Finally, take a look at the final note on the far right? That one note, split and shifted as it is, brings the music to a stop, as it should, and creates a new interesting style direction.

Listening to George Carlin – Dumb Americans

Johnny Cash – If You Could Read My Mind

Let me put all of this in perspective.  Although most music has been written down as sheet music, to organized it, to document it, to make the sound available to others (I can go on-and-on) it is a fact that the paper the music is written on is just a starting point for the musicians that sing and play it.  Everyone knows that,  and this is what this art is dong:  playing and displaying music in its own way.  But, what separates these musical artworks from all other musical art is this artwork emphasizes on the actual flow of the music which is present in the music not matter who is singing or how it is being played.  Sure, the  movement of any of these artworks, matches the look in hundreds of different pieces of music, but that is good for it separates this art from sheet music. I am not trying to imitate sheet music, but only trying to display the a flow of music that relates to the title of the canvas, with a unique interpretation. That is the goal, that is expanding in look and meaning, with each new work.  So, maybe I should feel that this art is opening up as it should, with this first Four Seasons artwork, being a nice step forward in its unfolding.

Listening to Mozart - Serenade No. 13 KV 525

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons(Summer)” Allegro Non Molto image3

Antonio Vivaldi’s Summer part 1, three panels (110 inches in length), with four add-on’s.  About 3/4 of this work is finished which leaves 12 and 1/4 canvases to go.

On all 13 of these canvases there will be added some of the words from the The Four Season Sonnets, attributed to Vivaldi.  It just seems like a great combination, wonderful music and words for all the unknowing to grasp onto, if the music do not move them. But!

In Italian here is the opening line of the Summer sonnet:  Sotto dura staggion dal sole accesa. That line would correspond with this canvas. You think it would be a simple translation to English.  It is not.  Here are a number of the translations that were found on the Internet and one from the Book Vivaldi Voice of the Baroque:  ”Beneath the blazing sun’s relentless heat,”  ”Under the heavy season of a burning sun,”  ”Under a hard Season, fired up by the Sun,”  ”In the harsh season scorched by the sun,”  ”Beneath the blazing sun’s relentless heat,” “Beneath the baking sun,” and from the book “Under the heavy season of a burning sun.”  So, what is the best choice?  I have no idea.  So, I went to Google Translate, from Italian to English and for “Sotto dura staggion dal sole accesa,”  it said in English “Under a hard season of the sun on.”  That did not settle anything.

Here is the thought: since all of the sites started with the same Italian words, I have this choice which is to use the Italian words on these canvases.  It seems the only choice since the original sonnets where written in eighteen century Italian, who knows for sure what, if Vivaldi did write the Sonnets, just exactly what his words translated into eighteen century English where.  The meaning  of the words will rest with the viewer, and that is exactly what  has been the goal for all of this artist works.

Italian it is.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons(Summer)” Allegro Non Molto image 1&2

Image one should be titled “Three panels with green line,” and this would have been taken seriously, 30 years ago.  But, today the green line is just the first applied paint in the start of a 13 canvases series based on the music,  The Four Seasons, by Antonio Vivaldi.  This music consists of 4 concertos: Spring RV 269, Summer RV 315, Autumn RV 293, and Winter RV 299. These 4 concertos consist of 13 movements, or twelve, if you consider the short piece that begins Summer, as a part of the Allegro.  That short piece is the first work of this series.

If you wish, listen to the first minute of the first Movement of the Summer Concerto,  Allegro Non Molto, at the Four Seasons link above.  It is a little fast for me so I prefer this YouTube link,  Trondheim Soloists,  that extends this short part to one minute and thirty-two seconds.

Back to the lone green line.  The purpose of that line in this canvas is to present a continuum.  It bonds the main three panels in a work that is, in total length, 110 inches (2.794m).

This second image was taken a couple of days ago. The smaller, add-on canvases, make the the  painting  more interesting, challenging, and add another dimension,  to better depict the flow of the music.  The large squares are there to slow the music flow down, unlike the original thought to use narrow strips.  In later Summer works, when the music is at times punchy, I can see the use of narrow lines to better increase the feel of movement in the work.

Listening to Mozart KV242 Concerto for 3 pianos.

Green has not been comfortable color for this artist, for unknown reasons. In work done lately,  it has been used only for small splashes of contrast.  The Birthday painting from 2010 was the last large use of green, but Summer has 4 canvases, so there will be a lot of bright, strong greens, and hopefully, more creative uses of this color family, still to come.

Listening to Emmylou Harris – I Will Dream

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H The Pretender final image

The final image of The Pretender from the music by Jackson Browne.  This first thing that is noticed is how small this painting is to those canvases that are around it.   The second perception is how strong this work stands, and how easily it makes its presence apparent in the room.  Obviously, it is the addition of the three other canvases that feel to be well placed, well balanced, and together add interest and uniqueness to the work. Although far from perfect, this artist never strives long for perfection.  Artistic perfection is a journey, a quest, an adventure, but never the goal.

Again, the colors appear, a little strong on my monitor, but a lot has to do with lighting, and this image is as close to reality as time an effort permit. Another thing that is wondered about with this type of work is how do you frame them.  I believe, to stabilize an artwork over time, a good frame is important, and yet, look at the challenge.  The thought is that someday to frame the main canvas and do cut outs around the three smaller attached pieces. Since the smaller canvases are fairly heavy and well constructed, they will probably maintain their shape well into the future, if the main canvas is well framed.

This work comes off well.  The words used can relate to the music, but they also can have many different meanings to the viewer.  The colors are varied and interesting, and they seem to all work well together, and with the music.  The work flows nicely from left to right with a soft beginning and a dynamic ending.

Now, next up is a very, very large project.  What this artist needs to do to make his statement is that is going to be attempted next.  This artist plans on over the next couple of years to do  Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons.  All twelve parts will be done on thirteen canvases starting with Summer RV 315, part 1, the first minute or so, of the Allegro non molto, which is the thirteenth work. This part of part one of Summer, just feels right to do as a separate work, especially considering how different it is from the rest of the Allegro. I do understand that there is a huge amount of knowledge that has to be learned about Vivaldi and this music, but for now I am going by this artist rules, until future knowledge says else wise

Then when all the pieces of The Four Seasons are completed, and framed, the thought is to put them on exhibition.  The plan, right now, is to put each Season in its own area and have the music playing in the background to match. The location for the first display will probably be here, where I live, and then hopefully we can go on the road, maybe to Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago.

We shall see.  Right now this is all only a dream.  Not a single thing as been accomplished so far, besides the birth of an idea. There will be many obstacles, and not just time and money. We will all learn what this artist is made of.

Thanks, to all of you that have commented and click the Like button.  We are on our way.

Scott Von Holzen

S_V_H The Pretender image5

The Pretender 20 inches by 5 feet (1.524m) with three add on canvases.  The colors are appearing a little on the bright side on my monitor, so there is still some work to be done, to offer a realistic representation.

This week and more, have been filled with interruptions and other obligations, but no matter,  the time that is spent with this work have produced, small, but productive efforts.

The song and the words of The Pretender are soft and reflective, while still maintaining a rock beat.  This is a constant reminder when it comes to color choices.  It is important to maintain the mood of  this music, so that is why the blues and darker purples are there. The splashes of bright color add musical and artist contrasts, because, in many ways, this is an upbeat song:  it is the excepting of one’s own fate, and then getting on with it.

Musical slurs are a part of this painting. You see a lot of them on the lower right added canvas.  They have been evolving, in style, a lot this last year.  The  issue with slurs has always been how to make them stand out. That is where the different colored boxes help to do.  The boxes eliminated the need to work with the painting’s background color.

Now, after doing a number of canvases, with this  slur -in-box style, there has been some questioning. Going back to Van Gogh, again, and looking at a number of his olive tree paintings from 1889, the wonder is could Van Gogh’s late style be worked into these slurs, to open up the look?  Hum?

Hopefully this artwork will be done this week, which would be about a month spent.  That time spent is to long for a work of this size.  But, since finished works are display only a few months and then stored away, it may be time that is do to it.

Scott Von Holzen