I don't like to rush the design stage of a painting. Having said that by the time its come to me, its quite easy to sketch some ideas out to see how they work, and then adjust the colours or tones accordingly to make the painting better in as many ways that I can. But the basic concept will usually remain the same from the original thoughts.
The painting I'm working on at the moment, is the oil painting commission of the Royal Crescent at Bath, with various people, alive and dead, within the picture. The painting won't be fully representational, but also it won't be fully abstract either, but an amalgam of them both. But it will also have more of a surreality to it as well, in that the wind that is blowing around the people within the picture comes from the two much beloved people within the clouds of the sky. That is the concept. It took three full days last week for me to get to the point of being happy with it, along with a couple of long phone calls with the clients, in Bath, to agree the design and make any adjustments accordingly. I know the days were intense, because I woke a couple of times in the night (a rarity!) with ideas rushing around my head, and thoughts for the planning stage fresh and running free.
The reason it was done that way, was because the clients are going on holiday for a fortnight, and I didn't want to have to put the painting on hold whilst I awaited for their return. By having three very intense days of designing it, it means that it has freed me more for the week ahead and being able to plan the colours at my leisure. When I asked the client what colour palette he wanted - the reply was that he'd sent me photos of the room, so I could see where the painting was going to hang, and since I was the expert, and he'd already given me the brief, he wanted to leave me to make the final decisions and didn't want to interfere with those decisions, giving me free rein.
So, after emailing him the first design and then hearing his thoughts on it, adjusting the second design accordingly the next day and emailing him that drawing with the new changes, he loves it! And I've got the go ahead! Yay!
That always makes me happy, when it's all positive and upbeat.
The client said "That didn't take long, did it?" and I smiled! But he was right, and more to the point, he was happy. And that is what I'm aiming for, always!
So, now, I can think of the colours. I know to a degree what they will be - cream, brown, plum, black, red, and silver. And I know the silver will be the wind, blowing diagonally across the painting, full of love, and connecting the people, but also with a power, a spiritual power, as well as a physical one. I don't think at the moment that anything else in the picture needs to be silver, as that will detract from the wind and that is one of the most important aspects of the painting. So, the next stage will be working out the layout of colours for dramatic effect. As the painting certainly will be dramatic, and it also needs to stand proud from the heavy and dark Georgian style wallpaper that it will hang against.
Then, I can start painting it, properly.
But yesterday, I did something that although not obviously connected with the painting, it is something that will affect it, totally and absolutely. Fully, and instantly.
It was my choice of music, for my iPod.
Loud, rocking, with good rhythm, and the stuff that instantly fires me up!!!!!
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Monday, 21 February 2011
Friday, 17 December 2010
Musical goodbyes from the heart
I've been to a lot of funerals. Too many of them, for sure.
But part of life is dealing with death.
I haven't arranged many funerals though - only my fathers, and this one for my mum. And whatever hymns we sang that day for him would have been chosen by her. Although the song that was played at the end for him was chosen by me as being the only song he'd ever liked, to my knowledge. And it can still make me cry if I hear it played on the radio, because it reminds me of him.
But this time, I am making the decisions for the hymns, and for the music to walk into, and out from. The hymns were easy enough - there is one funeral hymn in particular that always makes me cry "Lord of all hopefulness" and I've sung it enough times at other funerals. Its part of the saying goodbye, for me, so that was my first choice this time. The other hymn is equally sad, and traditional for a funeral.
As for the walking in piece of music, it has to be something by Mozart, as he was her favourite classical composer, and I've narrowed that down to one piece that seems most appropriate for this purpose.
But, it is the walking out piece of music that has given me the most problems. It had to be by her favouite singer - Frank Sinatra - but he sang so many songs it's been difficult to narrow it down. I remember various songs he sang that were played in my childhood home whilst I was finding my own loud (!) musical interests (disco, rock, glam rock, and soul) but some of his old songs I still like to listen to when I'm feeling reflective and mellow. So revisiting them all now has been a blast from the past. But so many of them are totally inappropriate for a funeral, as they're about physical love between a man and a woman. I don't want any of those. And ideally I don't want the song the singer is most famous for. It would be ok if that was the only song, but there are so many that are more apt. It just took me a while to find them. Sifting through song lyrics and narrowing it down eventually to just three. I read them, and re-read them, looking for meanings, and every time I read one particular one, it made me cry. I know that crying is part of the dealing with death, of the acceptance of what is, and what was, and what will no longer be. I understand that. But, these tears were for a different reason. They were happy tears. Tears for love.......... for love experienced.....for understanding love, for happy love.
And I know that when I hear it played at the funeral I shall cry.
Even though I chose it!
But it's right for her, and right as a celebration of her life, and what she was.
And the lovely thing is, that as I am ringing around my cousins - so many of them!- and they all remember her as the vibrant, attractive, fiesty woman that she was, not what she became in the last few years. And two of them told me she was their favourite aunty - which is lovely to hear. So, I've been revisiting her life through my conversations with them, which has been poignant but also refreshing, and lovely in its warm comfort. And I can hear the love they had for her. And I know the love I had for her.
So, the music is right.
Because it will make me cry.
But part of life is dealing with death.
I haven't arranged many funerals though - only my fathers, and this one for my mum. And whatever hymns we sang that day for him would have been chosen by her. Although the song that was played at the end for him was chosen by me as being the only song he'd ever liked, to my knowledge. And it can still make me cry if I hear it played on the radio, because it reminds me of him.
But this time, I am making the decisions for the hymns, and for the music to walk into, and out from. The hymns were easy enough - there is one funeral hymn in particular that always makes me cry "Lord of all hopefulness" and I've sung it enough times at other funerals. Its part of the saying goodbye, for me, so that was my first choice this time. The other hymn is equally sad, and traditional for a funeral.
As for the walking in piece of music, it has to be something by Mozart, as he was her favourite classical composer, and I've narrowed that down to one piece that seems most appropriate for this purpose.
But, it is the walking out piece of music that has given me the most problems. It had to be by her favouite singer - Frank Sinatra - but he sang so many songs it's been difficult to narrow it down. I remember various songs he sang that were played in my childhood home whilst I was finding my own loud (!) musical interests (disco, rock, glam rock, and soul) but some of his old songs I still like to listen to when I'm feeling reflective and mellow. So revisiting them all now has been a blast from the past. But so many of them are totally inappropriate for a funeral, as they're about physical love between a man and a woman. I don't want any of those. And ideally I don't want the song the singer is most famous for. It would be ok if that was the only song, but there are so many that are more apt. It just took me a while to find them. Sifting through song lyrics and narrowing it down eventually to just three. I read them, and re-read them, looking for meanings, and every time I read one particular one, it made me cry. I know that crying is part of the dealing with death, of the acceptance of what is, and what was, and what will no longer be. I understand that. But, these tears were for a different reason. They were happy tears. Tears for love.......... for love experienced.....for understanding love, for happy love.
And I know that when I hear it played at the funeral I shall cry.
Even though I chose it!
But it's right for her, and right as a celebration of her life, and what she was.
And the lovely thing is, that as I am ringing around my cousins - so many of them!- and they all remember her as the vibrant, attractive, fiesty woman that she was, not what she became in the last few years. And two of them told me she was their favourite aunty - which is lovely to hear. So, I've been revisiting her life through my conversations with them, which has been poignant but also refreshing, and lovely in its warm comfort. And I can hear the love they had for her. And I know the love I had for her.
So, the music is right.
Because it will make me cry.
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Vicarious pleasures
I've just finished reading a book. A very long and thorouglhy enjoyable and very popular book - "The pillars of the earth" by Ken Follet- about the building of a cathedral in the twelfth century in England, and the people involved with creating it, their lives and loves, passions and hatreds.
And it struck me as I reached the end of it, and was so involved with the tale and where it was heading, that although a book is a physically small thing - a collection of words on paper in a particular order, in effect, that it's like diving into a new world, a dimension beyond normal life. The words on the paper bring the previously unknown world to life, so we can feel the pain, the ecstacy, the passions and emotions of the story and make it part of ourselves and feel fulfilled within ourselves, and better people for the reading of it, the digestion of it, that makes us more rounded within our characters for the knowledge of it.....
And that in turn made me think of movies - that they are a step into another new world, particularly if it's a science-fiction film, of course- a different dimension when we empathise with the characters and their various predicaments and the mesage within the tale....
And then I thought that music has the same effect - the words of the song reminds us of our experiences in life, particularly love and its endless joys and sorrows....
And then I considered that music is poetry but with a harmony added, and that made me consider that poems are beautiful beyond belief sometimes with their lyrical understanding of the use of langage and the heartaches and passions that poetry evokes....
Which of course, led me on to visual pleasures after the written ones. And that made me think of my art. And that's what I'm trying to capture within my pictures - that happy feeling of being part of what is portrayed within the medium, that makes you feel happy and sad, gives you the empathy and ecstacy of being part of the subject matter. That you too feel the pain and loss, the love and joy, the passions and understandings of what is being portrayed within...................... that the medium of creativity evokes such joys within us................ music for the soul..................
And it struck me as I reached the end of it, and was so involved with the tale and where it was heading, that although a book is a physically small thing - a collection of words on paper in a particular order, in effect, that it's like diving into a new world, a dimension beyond normal life. The words on the paper bring the previously unknown world to life, so we can feel the pain, the ecstacy, the passions and emotions of the story and make it part of ourselves and feel fulfilled within ourselves, and better people for the reading of it, the digestion of it, that makes us more rounded within our characters for the knowledge of it.....
And that in turn made me think of movies - that they are a step into another new world, particularly if it's a science-fiction film, of course- a different dimension when we empathise with the characters and their various predicaments and the mesage within the tale....
And then I thought that music has the same effect - the words of the song reminds us of our experiences in life, particularly love and its endless joys and sorrows....
And then I considered that music is poetry but with a harmony added, and that made me consider that poems are beautiful beyond belief sometimes with their lyrical understanding of the use of langage and the heartaches and passions that poetry evokes....
Which of course, led me on to visual pleasures after the written ones. And that made me think of my art. And that's what I'm trying to capture within my pictures - that happy feeling of being part of what is portrayed within the medium, that makes you feel happy and sad, gives you the empathy and ecstacy of being part of the subject matter. That you too feel the pain and loss, the love and joy, the passions and understandings of what is being portrayed within...................... that the medium of creativity evokes such joys within us................ music for the soul..................
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