The Art of Music

Every now and again I’m inspired to paint a musical themed painting.  I like the intermix of creating music along with creating a painting.  Watching someone or a bunch of people making beautiful sounds through their chosen instrument(s) is an art in itself and my job is to try and portray this through my paint and brushes.

When I started painting, my son was about 15 and learning the guitar so I’d practice sketching him at work. Further down the track I’d paint guitar and saxophone players and the odd band.  I once had a commission to paint a trumpet player.  These were all acrylic pieces.  I’d begin by painting a ground colour then doing a very rough sketch in paint using a dark colour.  From here I’d add colour and brush marks working fairly quickly and keeping things fairly loose.  I paint quite intuitively, not analysing too much as I go, to try and keep things fresh and not overdone.  I also generally paint alla prima, for this reason.

Recently I attended the Bay of Islands Jazz & Blues Festival which has inspired me to do a musical series of paintings once again. The orchestra painting is done on 300gm paper which began as a “palette” for another painting.  This gives the painting an interesting background to begin with and, during the process, much of it is lost but small, surprising pops of colour can add interest, depth and originality.  The initial “sketch” was done with a white crayon and some charcoal linework helped to define the figures near the end.