That’s the best hour I’ve spent for a long time.
I’m not hugely impressed with my first outcome as a painting but I think that’s to be expected as I’m not a painter or well practised with water colours.
I’m listening to The soundtrack to the film The Fountain by Clint Mansel It’s my go to classical album, I’d like you to imagine driving through Norway for example, eating up the miles of mountain road and rugged empty coastline, glacial and majestic. The music is moody, dramatic double bass, cello and violins with a deep thumping bass drum. This morning the fog has closed in and the day is damp and somber.
I chose watercolour as I thought that watercolours might give a moody ethereal effect.
The still life started grey, not black and white grey but purplish and greenish, fascinatingly, a ray of yellow appeared and then a bright rust occurred. It was really interesting how the music drew me in away from distracting thoughts and then instructed my choice of colour with sudden bright moments.
I certainly felt influenced by the music, the background was wetted and then I flowed the purple grey onto the page like a conductor. Colour accents were instructed by changes in musical mood, I worked really quickly to the rhythm of the piece.
I could have stopped sooner, there was a point when the colours were suitably morose but not to muddied.
Second interpretation to Once in my life from The Decemberists album I’ll be your girl, the track starts quite gently then an optimistic string orchestra kicks in, the vocals are quiet melancholic the music triumphant. It got very colourful and quite ——-.
I felt like I needed a much larger piece of paper – it’s not often that I’ve felt constrained by page size. I need a big empty room with massive canvases and lots of paint and powder that I could use with my hands. I was put in mind of Jessica Warboys huge canvases that she makes with the sea.
Third interpretation Fast car by Tracy Chapman da da da daaaa. … An old favourite that often returns for a visit. Music is so very powerful and interpretation incredibly linked to current emotional states. I was searching my music collection for something uplifting yet calm. I used oil pastels, as it felt like a smudging sort of groove, warm and mellow, the background of yellow and blue is really uplifting , there is a halo effect like the resonating acoustic guitar ringing, the vessels particularly the jug are strong and clear. Some melancholic shadows crept in and I was moved to add strong outlines – not entirely sure what drove that!
I worked from a simple sharpie drawing. Without added colour or shade. I became more confident at drawing the shapes and also more relaxed about the exact placement so my 3 interpretations are slightly different.
I think that the music influenced colour more than the movement of applying the media. Movement was influenced more by the type of medium. This exercise really highlighted my inexperience with handling different mediums. I think that my observational drawing is becoming more confident and clearly experience and practice will improve confidence with choosing and handling different techniques.