There is a long history of links between art and music; throughout the twentieth century many artists made links to music, a few examples are: Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942) and Matisse’s Jazz (1959) and further back Nicholas Poussin’s Dance to the Music of Time (1636).
This exhibition seeks to explore some contemporary connections between visual art and music. We asked artists to submit work they had created which had been inspired by music. We also asked musicians who also had a visual art practice to submit examples of the work they create. Accompanying the artworks are short statements about the artists influences.
What we have from these 50+ artists in over 90 art works is a snapshot of the range and individuality of the creative spirit coming from many regions and cultural backgrounds sharing a common interest and fascination were art and music come together, with clear examples of a shared language/values encompassing a sense of rhythm, tone, colour, shape and form. All this, we believe is another example of how art and creativity are a conduit for expressing our shared humanity.
We hope you enjoy the exhibition and please take a little time to vote for your favourite piece for the artist to have a chance of winning a visitors prize and share your thoughts on the work and the exhibition in general. It would be greatly appreciated.
King Street Arts: Roy Smith and Kath McDonald
Please note the images on this page are not to scale.
If you are interested in purchasing one of the works
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and the slow pulsing rhythm of the chords suggests the trudge of some figure who, “hoping like the blind”, is searching for something. I think the title of song is, in fact, ironic; and, recalling Drake’s struggle with depression, the figure in my painting is looking for the way to blue precisely because he wishes to escape it.
Parasite
31x23cm.
£395.00
Inspired by Nick Drake’s song Parasite
There are times when Drake plays in strict tempo, and the way in which the complicated plucking is tethered to frantic but dull thudding, is represented in my painting by the skinless parasitic figure grasping the dull grey unfinished box. Drake sings that, “I am the parasite who hangs from your skirt,” and I’ve always thought this song was about a boy unable to move out, thereby clinging to his mother’s skirt .
These works came about after I had been browsing a book of Degas’ work on ballet, and I realised
that despite being so familiar with these works, I had no idea what the music sounded like. What were
these dancers actually dancing to? I tried to think of paintings that conjured up a sense of sound when I looked at them, and kept coming back to Titian’s ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’ which to me does give a sense of the cacophony of sound
(more ‘rough music’ than any specific melody) that accompanied Bacchus on his arrival in Naxos. It’s
quite a theatrical painting with dramatic gestures and lively rhythms in the composition that help
create the noisy atmosphere. I had some short-pose life drawings with expressive gestures, and started to pair them up, hoping that paired figures would create rhythmic structures between them, equivalent sensations to the
Each of these artworks have been inspired by the visual appearance of the musicians and their alter egos'. The initial inspiration however, comes from listening to music non stop whilst working on my art. Musicians inspire me through there skill and there lyrics, so much so that I will inevitably end up painting them. I have to paint to music as it enables the flow state that I enter when creating. I see music as an escape just like art, you can exist in your own reality, be as creative as you wish and live life to your own rhythm. I believe it is important to create art inspired by the music you love as it creates the visual connection between two creative human expressions.
Our house is one of guitar music and art. Here, in these drawings, the artist, through observation, catches the fingers of the guitarist, Jim Sloane, working hard on the fretboard, as the music rings out. You will, however, have to imagine the sounds yourself!
Through the piece 'Rebellion' I take inspiration from a piece of music from 'Hadestown' by Anais
Mitchell et al, namely 'Chant (Reprise)'. By separating the different layers of the piece, such as the
voices and rhythm, into individual colours, I have created a piece that can capture the entirety of the
song. For example, I deliberately chose to use metallic paints as the music surrounds the industrial
nature of Hadestown. I use gestural movements with both my hands and paintbrush to create the
painting, these movements are inspired by the music's beat, tone and regularity, this dynamism helps
the work tell the story of the music piece.
David Ian Bickley
artist musician
David is an award-winning media artist whose body of work spans the primitive technological of the 1970’s to the digital cutting edge of today. His media work has manifested as television, installation, electronic music and video art. His work has been shown in many major
museums, galleries and festivals around the world; including the CICA Museum, Korea; Science Gallery, Dublin; A & I GALLERY, LOS ANGELES; HAUN TIE ART MUSEUM, BEIJING; The Electric Picnic and the Glucksman, Cork. LUX London distribute his video art along with [S]edition online. In the early 1980’s Bickley’s video work won 1st prize at the Sony UK Festival and after a move to Ireland in the early 90’s he was fundamental in the evolution of Irish electronic music, earning a Hotpress award in the process. Besides producing video art Bickley has also made important arts documentaries including The Man Who Shot Beckett and the Celtic Songlines. His themes reside in mythic and folklore motif and often use landscape as a form to reflect and process these ideas.
Maps
Collaboration with artist Hina Kahn based on large scale ink drawings on paper / textile. Soundtrack constructed using
Pakistan folk elements digitally process and augmented.
Inspired by the Canadian band Rush song The Trees where the Oak tree and Maple tree have a disagreement but I have turned it around and the the rhythm of movement through their leaves goes down to the roots where scientists have proven trees communicate to each other via root systems spreading and touching each other. I love the idea they will sing together and their branches and leaves could possible dance. I wanted to incorporate my love of printmaking but using Oak and Canadian Maple leaves which can be very delicate so I introduced an ink pen and wanted to add the intro to the song as a base to the image.
The painting takes its name and character from a neo classical music work by Harold Budd “She Dances By The Light Of The Silvery Moon” a piece off the 1991 album “By Dawns Early Light”. The music from the album has no edges. Sounds are merged with poems. It is perhaps best described as “impressionist, ambient, minimalist”. The music creates atmospheres relating to locations. This is a landscape painting. A night painting. There are no edges because nightfall blurs shapes and softens edges. There is a pervading ambience. The location is a beach. An empty beach, wet with rain.
It is part of a series of paintings called ‘The Jazz Series’. This series of paintings has been inspired by listening to the music of Miles Davis and this particular work has been inspired by one of Miles’ most enduring and innovative achievements, “Sketches of Spain”. Saeta can be defined as an improvised Andalusian song of lamentation or penitence sung during religious procession. It is understood in southern Spain as a spontaneous outburst of religious feeling. It is a revered form of song, whose form and style has evolved over many centuries through flamenco culture. Saeta’s evoke strong emotion and are sung most often during public processions. Miles Davis’ musical work is based on an Andalusian folk song, about a woman who encounters the procession taking Christ to Calvary.
My first range 'Nimrod' are taken from Edward Elgar's Nimrod. The Nimrod responses are very much like the musical piece, in that they are controlled with clean lines and accurate ‘tones’ eg. no vibrato. The lines communicate the sustained duration of notes from the string section of the orchestra, punctuated by the diminished 7th intervals which seem to cross above and below the sustained texture, the crescendo driving the form I imagine to grow from nothing.
A Case of You by Joni Mitchell felt much more like a painting when I recorded my initial response. The surfaces were developed as a canvas for expressive mark-making and colour responses. Here, I saw a much more varied colour palette and mark-making/sgraffito reflects the harmonies between voice and accompaniment.
The third submission responds Mozart's Laudate Dominum, a song I have performed on many occasions and loved by myself and my late mother. These vessels are constructed in black clay as recognition of my grief for her passing with the decorative impression a subtle addition to the outer surface.
I am an experienced collage artist, and the two submitted use images of historic portraits with
pictures of famous album covers inserted in a way which 'fits' the original image of the paintings. In
doing this I have made a single work from two distinct art forms, making an unlikely 'marriage' in the
process.
Horsing around
Screen Print
20 x 20 cm
£95
Halloween Portrait
Collage
15 x 23 cm
£180
Sticky Elvis
Collage
29 x 21 cm
£SOLD
Camry Ivory
musician artist
I am an audiovisual/transmedia musician and visual artist who has long been fascinated by the symbiotic nature of music and visual art.
Driven by my desire to merge the two disciplines, I created a unique instrument called Coloratura that uses paintbrushes as midi controllers, allowing me to paint and create music simultaneously. Each of the 12 paintbrushes in the instrument interface plays a different note in the musical scale (or a different rhythmic tone) when touched to the canvas, and a foot-controlled pedal board allows me to
switch to various instruments, change the octave and loop notes to create polyphonic soundscapes. Traditionally, my work has focused on the relationship between colors and musical notes, but I have begun to experiment with ways to paint and create atonal rhythms. Each of the submitted pieces explores variations on visual representation of rhythm.
Nebulae, contains both rhythmic and melodic elements, both of which are
represented by color.
Jaime McGlinn
artist
These works are a record of my journey listening to DJ John Digwood during lockdown. His livestreams seen people connect worldwide to listen to his live streams. His music is very inspiring to paint as it's full of magic and different tempos and emotions. The feeling of people connecting through music with a common love inspired these landscapes. It's kind of my recording of the place I ended up at while \I painted live to his music.
These are two of around forty works that followed that process. The Bunker series. Some now hang in the studios of DJ's and fans across the world. Jamie is also represented by a gallery in Paris and has work in an exhibition in Madrid as well as having had work in exhibitions in The Saatchi gallery London.
Edward is living with dementia and used to spend “making days” with me at my home. Our routine began by making cheese scones.
“I can’t make scones” and he would hold up the whisk and ask what it was. He would then bash it against the mixing bowl and the music would begin. He used the utensils and cooking implements as instruments and we would make up tunes together as we made food.
While the scones baked, we would chop vegetables for our soup lunch. “I can’t make soup” he would say and bash the potatoes together making a different sound. He would sometimes line up the vegetables and strike each one with the chopping knife as though he was hitting chime bars. The regular “chorus” from Edward was - “Come on, we need to get them in”. He had lost interest in the activity and needed to go outdoors. I am still not sure who we were getting in. I can only assume the cows from his farming days. The risen scones taken with our morning coffee would always be a welcome surprise for Edward (who insisted he had had no part in making them.) The soup ready, we would walk the dog first. Edward would hum as he walked and we would play “name that tune” He whistles like the sound of a bird in greeting strangers and if we engaged in conversation he would sometimes strike up his chorus-
“We need to get them in”, and I would know it was time to move on. After lunch he would tell me “I can’t make blackberry pie” but soon a different set of instruments would be played and we might dance too. Edward didn’t like the pastry on his hands so it was my job to mix and he would roll, but not before he played the rolling pin on the work top or off the side of the sink and bonked the top of his head! Singing, “Yeah yeah we’re all shook up”- ever the Elvis fan. We would “get them in” a few times during the afternoon while painting or sewing as the pie cooked. He would often use the paint brushes as conductor sticks if we had decided to have background music playing. If I heard him say, “Arrh I like it here” when moving into the lounge for afternoon tea and pie, that would be music to my ears. He felt at home and it usually meant he was tired enough to sit down. Just occasionally I would hear him snoring. ZZZZZ
Edward taught me dementia isn’t about living in the past but very much about living in the now. The more present I could be with him the more fun we shared.
Musical notes on the pages:- All Shook Up - Lean on Me - Food Glorious Food - Tell out My Soul - All of Me - Let it Be - The Sound of Silence.
To me Rhythm comes through movement stimulated by music. As the music plays and the dance begins the Rhythm takes over be it the wild beats of earthy Morris or the joyful vintage feel of jazz that I've tried to capture through the movement of my pens on paper.
Mad Morris
Mixed media
29.5 x 35cm
£75
Vintage Rhythm
Mixed media
29.5 x 35cm
£75
Jane Shimmin
artist
Lullaby on the shores
Acrylic mixed media on paper
76 x 48cm
£275
Memories of an early evening spent watching the sunset by the shore.
A symphony of different layers. The background constant - rushing of the wind in the dune grasses. For the rhythm there was the lapping of the waves on the sand and flapping of the sails on the boat rigging . The chiming of the masts and the intermittent calls of groups of curlews and oystercatchers formed the melodies which combined with the gentle rocking of the resting boats in the shallows formed a soothing and gentle lullaby.
The psalms of the Old Testament come from a collection of sacred songs in Hebrew scripture, forming the prayer book of ancient Israel. The writers’ emotive language and imagery may be quite visceral - full of anguish, fear and warning, but also reassuring, thankful and jubilant. To me they seem to proclaim much about the human condition which surpasses time, language, belief and culture. In Christian liturgical prayer the verses are sung by a cantor. The congregation, in turn, sings the repeated response. When I take part in this rhythmic, melodic call and response, the words often resonate more deeply. I have tried to translate something of the contrasting themes felt through hearing and singing the psalms: Lament; Hope; Rejoice.
James is a Lancaster-based artist and musician. In recent years his bands have included The Convulsions, Get Carter, Heroes of She and North Sea Hijack. He plays Hammond Organ and Tenor Sax. His musical career started in the 1970s playing sax in the Pharaohs in Lancaster and then going on to record two albums as a member of the Two-Tone band the Selecter and later to play piano for Madness in live work, festivals and TV in the UK, the continent and America. He then composed music for theatre, dance, radio and film for many years whilst also developing as a specialist architectural painter/gilder and mural artist. He now paints full-time while music remains a continuing passion. “People use the same words to describe music and the visual arts – words like tone, rhythm, colour, mood, balance, composition, dynamics, harmony, theme, structure etc. I know if I’m working on a particular canvas there is definitely such a thing as appropriate and inappropriate music to be listening to.
Étude series are drawings based on choreography scores on musical composition. I am interested in the visualisation of the auditory and how we can also symbolise different visual elements. I’m exploring choreographic scores with musical elements such as a rhythm, musical notes, composition and classical music theory. The musical notes consist of various connotations that instruct us how to articulate certain ideas. The various signs on the note without the sound will contribute towards the construction of imaginary narratives.
The choreography scores without the performance make the viewer draw their own imaginative movement. This interaction with different senses creates the virtual performance piece based on their unrealised rhythm. In this Étude series work, the Labanotation, a system for analysing and recording human movement is created based on musical composition notes. The transformed Labanotation makes new performative scores. It will be practiced in the viewer's mind and will also be used to create visual rhythmic poems. In this journey, it could create various creative elements, such as rhythms and compositional structures.
This piece is thinking about vibration and sound waves, the horizontal strands of wool being a sensitive plane to respond to sound. The variety of mark and image have emerged from listening to several Ligeti etudes. In the Ligeti etudes there is a real exploration of the sound of the piano. The wool lines suggested things before I added the colour, but I quite like the stage this painting has reached, leaving some of the white background. I have thought about rhythm so there are vertical
lines but have perhaps emphasised the relation of colour to sound.
Rain Drops 1
acrylic on wool on canvas
30x24cm
£120
This is made in a similar way to work number 1, from listening to Ligeti etudes, I have added the different title because of the suggestion of place when I dripped white paint over the wool lines.
Rain Drops 2
acrylic on wool on canvas
30x24cm
£120
This work has been made while listening to Ligeti etudes. I started with a grey gouache to alter the tone and suggest weather. It is sort of half way been a picture and just abstract sound.
As a musician, I am quite often `seeing` colours and shapes in my work. I work and produce in the ambient genre especially using field recordings and natural drone sounds. However, this doesn`t mean there is not rhythm in my music, it is just a little less discernible. My rhythms are the long term cycles of nature, the accidental patterns of waves and the complicated harmonics that appear as one
note melds with another.
The visual art links into the way that repeating a melody is never predictable or even-sounding as the energy of each sound wave reaching our ears is `coloured` by the remnants of the previous one as well as the natural sounds that alter it on the way from the instrument or speaker on it`s way to our ears.
My music is mostly improvisational or at least working around a few given notes at the beginning of a piece. Twice this year I have played in an art gallery, responding to the imagery around me. My music is also meditative and quite often used in the arena of wellbeing, although just as valid to enjoy as music alone.
Literally letting my pen dance to the music on the radio. No initial sketch, just seeing where the line decided to wiggle, repeat and flow. Sometimes the lyrics influenced the motif but most of the time the patterns were abstract but very connected, partying with the rhythm.
For this opportunity I explored the work of “Linear” an American freestyle music trio which incorporated linear progression with a rhythm beat. The outcome was a fluid line composition tending towards the figurative which is often a feature in my work.
(Linear progressions prolong harmonies through elaboration, or filling-in with dissonant notes, of a leap between two consonant notes from different voices in a chord.)
The first music that we all hear is the heartbeat of our mother. It is this rhythmic sound that gives us life. It is subliminal, yet it is a constant which follows us out of the womb. The cord is cut, only at the point when we begin the journey along our own rhythm of life.
The Rhythm of Life
Media - mixed media textile, print and stitch on Box canvas
84 x 34cm framed
£poa
Rhythm Interupted
Media - mixed media textile, print and stitch on Box canvas
84 x 34cm framed
£poa
Rhythm Transposed
Media - mixed media textile, print and stitch on Box canvas
This short piece made in 2015 was filmed on the banks of the River Thames between Westminster Bridge and Southwark Bridge. The soundtrack written by musician Lucy Lu was made solely using sounds recorded by Ronay on the banks of the river Thames between Bankside and the South Bank on a hand held mp3 recorder. Ronay gave Lu a piece of text written to convey her responses to this numinous element felt in these liminal places and asked him to compose a soundtrack. Lu imported the sound files into Logic 9 using a sampling software, and created playable instruments of each sound; some are tuned to concert pitch such as the fog horn or the screech of the train wheels heard beneath Hungerford Bridge while others like the lapping water and clink of chains remain textural. Both Artist and Musician were born close to the River and spent most of their lives working and living very close to it. Through a conspiring of circumstances neither remain. Emma now lives in Cumbria and Lu in Catalunya
Listening to music whilst painting in the studio is part of my daily routine. Recently I’ve been listening to Tems a Nigerian singer/songwriter, her music is about story telling and moments in time. Through layers of textured paint and washes I try to express my own experiences and moments in time
‘Swell to Great’ is about the influence World War II had on the painters who formed the School of Fantastic Realism in Vienna shortly after the war. Vienna has been called the World Capital of Music, thus a replica of a Jacobus Stainer violin (likened to being the Stradivarius of Austria) has been used as the focal point. The violin is collaged in images of Sigmund Freud whose controversial philosophies were also influencing the artists at that time.
Let's Talk Art and Music
mixed media sculpture
72 x 40 x 12cm
£485
This assemblage artwork incorporates three-dimensional symbolic objects often repeated, to depict the rhythm of music and the bling of performance in a visual art form. I have used vintage organ stops and keys to represent music itself and my own past experience taking organ lessons as a child and also to represent my mother who was a piano teacher and also played the organ. The brush represents the visual arts. The two are assembled together as one - the chains link all creativity. My experience as a multi-disciplinary artist is that one creative form quite often leads into another.
All 3 pieces relate to ‘ Sketches of Spain’ by Miles Davis and ‘ my memories of Spain’ through colour and print. Deep velvety purple’s of the night, flashes of yellow and clashes of thunder light up and resound around our valley in Andalusia. Daylight brings hot orange’s, yellows and the white heat of summer. Layer upon layer of colour that shifts and changes with the beat and tempo of ‘ Concierto de Aranjuez ‘ uniting both music and print.
Botanic Synthesis is a series of digital works, including a sound reactive digital installation accompanied by two digital prints of compositions produced by a rhythmic reaction to my favourite musical pieces. The digital installation reacts to sound, creating a composition wholly decided by sound and rhythm around the piece. I grew up surrounded by music of all kinds, which created a
passion for music. My Mother with varied and extensive music taste, and my Father, a talented musician who plays multiple instruments exposed me to music of all kinds. The piece is inspired by how I feel about music and the synaesthesia I experience when I close my eyes listening to music. Botanic Synthesis is a visual representation of symphony and musical composition. Each element reflects the variety of sounds produced in a musical piece coming together as a whole to create a composition.
Artist, musician and carpenter, My practice explores emerging material relationships and the rhythm of human and more than human agencies. Sound, thought of as vibration, is a keystone of the practice used as a relation-maker and an investigative medium that reveals material relationships between things, spaces and ourselves which are often left unconsidered in the perception of our environments. I am a classically trained musician and have played in many orchestras as I grew up. I was in a touring band playing the bass guitar for 10 years which immersed my life in the live performance of music. This side of my life is now coming out through my artistic practice, exploring
the physicality of sound and the merging of sound generation and sculptural materials.
Klingen;klang iii, Granite scrubs Sound sculpture
Green oak, mild steel, contact microphones, loud speakers
This picture is a whimsical play on the ever popular "Lark Ascending" by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The music is famous for its beauty, evoking pastoral scenes of the rolling British ountryside. It is breathtaking and transcendent, the violin portraying the flight of a skylark as it soars and dips. The landscape in my picture is far from rolling countryside and the lark is trying all means possible to get airborne, the complete antithesis of the musical sentiment in the composer's work.
This picture is based on how rhythm inspires movement and dance. Any
Age, any type of noise heard rhythmically, we all have the urge to move to the rhythm, whether a toe
tap or a choreographed routine.
This piece concentrates on the primal urge to move to any rhythmic sound, illustrated by the young children dancing to a toy monkey clapping the cymbals.
L’amour rebelle explores sexuality and conflict by reimagining Carmen from Georges Bizet’s classic opera. Rhythm visual and sonic) is integral to the piece, which began with one of opera's most famous arias (Habanera). It is a collaboration between Figuration animation studio and Electrifying Opera.
In this new project, Roy Joseph Butler plays Carmen, disassociating the character from their gender, race, place and time, leaving a 21st-century figure and the opera’s oiseau rebelle (rebel bird), two alter egos competing for love. This struggle leads to rebirth and a new future.
The project includes a historic NFT collection, with unique vinyl records, original charcoal drawings, a film in two parts, as well as a Time Capsule created and sealed at the world premiere of the live opera on 29 March at NFTLA, Los Angeles.
Please note full credits: Directed & animated by Leo Crane Musical arrangement by Zachary Whitney
After 3 years of no travel, I escaped the country this year to relax in hotter climes and was unexpectedly hit with inspiration for a new collection of drawings, the first live music I had experienced since the pandemic restricted us to our homes and starved us of access to the joy of seeing performers at their very best - in the flesh ! There is nothing more infectious than hearing the beat of live music in the great outdoors, and I was struck by the amazing skill of the artists, converting notes from a score into something that gets into your soul and makes you want to move to the rhythm.
Soulmates
Drawing in ink & watercolour on rough grain 300gsm watercolour paper
40 x 28cm
£325
Captured in his rehearsal studios here Pete plays his own touching composition 'Soulmates'
Acrylics on Handmade Frame and Stretched Canvas triple Primed.
152 x 122cm
£600
'On Sunset' is named after an Album by my favourite Musician Paul Weller. I have used a broad palette that I have used successfully in the past. Line, Rythym, Flow, Labour and Patience all cross over into the Musical sphere for me too.
Rebel MC
Acrylics on Handmade Board and back Frame, Ttiple Primed.
122 x 92cm
£400
'Rebel MC' is a jump into a world of Chromesathasia. Where Music meets Sound and Sound Meets Music.
'Bolero' represents rhythms of light and life in a terraced garden on the Mediterranean: a dance to celebrate the heat of summer.
Acorn Prelude
Acrylic on canvas board
54 x 54cm cm including frame
£650
'Acorn Prelude' represents rhythms of light and dark on a hot day in the shade of the great oak trees that mark the entrance to Acorn Bank near Penrith.
I am a drummer and artist. I play with punk band The Members. As an artist I make collage using advertising hoarding material and am inspired by the Nouveau Realists. These drum heads were used by me and usually would be landfill when discarded. The collage elements are cut to fit, each piece tessellating with another, i,e the pieces do not overlap.
We all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper. - Albert Einstein
Everything in the universe resonates at its own individual frequency. These resonant frequencies that form the basis of sound, music and rhythm harbour a hidden world of form and structure. Via the medium of ceramics, I explore these invisible worlds, in an attempt to offer an alternative perspective of sound and music, making tangible that which is beyond our reach. Through my research and utilisation of cymatics (the study of wave phenomena), I have devised a technique of capturing these frequencies and manifesting them into three-dimensional forms. The methods I employ are a fusion of modern technologies such as 3d modelling and CNC machining, coupled with the more traditional technique of mould making and slip casting.
I always listen to music as I work (either jazz or classical), and use it as a source of energy and rhythm to accompany and influence me as I draw. I literally find myself at times drawing faster or slower as the music progresses from track to track times to inspire the vigorous pencil slashes across the paper. This is tempered by collage elements more carefully placed after the graphite marks to
create the compositional structure that I feel works for the piece. I am constantly seeking to represent an abstract distortion of reality based upon my own shortsightedness and, as is often the case with abstract art, based essentially upon natural forms and elements.
The mixed media images made with graphite, paint and/or collage, are comprised of apparently confused multi-layered marks that relate to the ‘glasses’ format and which invite the viewer to untangle them.
I am less concerned with topographical detail but much more interested in the overall rhythm, mood and atmosphere of live performance. Whenever possible I prefer to work from life and will sketch members of a band during the sound-check and the live show. I only produce work inspired by concerts which I have attended, feeling that first-hand experience of the atmosphere is crucial to my work. “Artist-in-Residence” The Great British Rhythm & Blues Festival, Colne. Lancashire.
As “Artist-in-Residence” at The Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival in Colne, I had sketched Troy Redfern during his appearance in a small venue in 2017. I had been looking forward to seeing Troy grace a main stage at the Festival. This painting is one of two inspired by the band’s performance at
The Hippodrome Theatre, Colne during the 2019 Festival.
This work is inspired by a powerful performance at Manchester Apollo. The band played a set of Blues based heavy rock. I had sketched the band at a previous gig in Manchester but I was unhappy with the quality of the stage lighting. I was determined to see the band again under more inspiring lighting conditions and their gig at Manchester Apollo provided me with the opportunity to produce this painting.
Stage Lights
Acrylic on canvas,
51 x 61cm
£850
This canvas is inspired by the Mick Ralphs Blues Band at The Met, Bury, Lancashire. Occasionally the stage lights momentarily seemed to bleach out the band and the light reflected through the audience creating rhythms of light across the floor of the concert hall.
This is my visual response to the music, using bright colours, repeat shapes, and rhythmic lines to express the liveliness of the dance. The musical score itself is overlaid by my immediate, drawn linear interpretation of the music as I listened to it.
Every two months, Manchester based music producers Joey T and Levi Love send an original tune of theirs to each other. They have until the end of the month to remix it, and I have until the end of the month to create the cover art for the EP based on those four tunes. Each final artwork is named after the two original tunes and, whenever possible, is created live in Levi's studio whilst the remixes are
finished. Whether we like it or not, the outcome is released through the label Bambanani on Bandcamp. This project deliberately pushes each of us to the limit, and is an exercise in 'just doing it', not being precious or caught up in the details. Each month we raise the bar for each other, get incredibly stressed out and have loads of fun in the process. Oh, and create something to be proud of! This is our creative rhythm and emotional exchange. We aim to release a compilation on vinyl next year.....if our nerves can last that long.
Monotype. with chine collé. I used monotype to achieve velvety, spaghetti-eqsue lines for Joey's Naked Spaghetti Sunday. The two overlapping faces are a response to Levi’s tune about the idea of duplicity - Banyana Ba Ke Bafana - ‘these girls are acting like boys and these boys are acting like girls’.
Owls/Devolved
Monotype
33 x 24cm framed
£100
A4 monotype inspired by Joey T's tune 'Owls' and Levi Love's tune 'Devolved'. Layering stencils to achieve devolved owl shapes, and colours that represent Levi's home of South Africa.
Birdsong has long been an inspiration for classical music and remains a constant background soundtrack in all our lives. These two images are made up from wildlife photographs I have taken and brought together to celebrate the joy they bring to our lives.
A limited addition photo montage image printed on 310 mg Fine art Hahnemuhle paper
40.6 x W 50.7cm
£125
Offenbach’s Can-can music, specifically the Galop Infernal, has been used regularly in TV and film throughout the years. Although scandalous at the time, the sight of a chorus line high kicking in unison is perhaps the very embodiment of Rhythm.
The Reed Section
A limited addition photo montage image printed on 310 mg Fine art Hahnemuhle paper
50.7 x 40.6cm
£125
There is an emotional correlation between animals and music and individual instruments have been used to represent different animals and characters. Birds would undoubtably come from the reed section, where notes create highlights against a background rhythm, similarly birds create movement and song within the natural rhythm of reeds in the wind. The Great Crested Grebe depicted here does of course build its nest amongst the reeds.
Music and art are my life! As a professional musician I play piano, saxophone and sing. I also compose and arrange music, and perform improvised music. My art is always inspired by music one way or another. Creating music and creating art are inextricably linked for me.
I create what I call ‘BeeMAP’s’ (music art poems) where I combine all the disciplines to produce one work.
The working title 8-1-1 is based on the atomic numbers of the elemental components of water. As a producer & an artist I wanted to paint a piece for my album artwork. The two track album has a water theme with samples of water flow through each track. I had the album on repeat in headphones, whilst outside I let the rhythmic beats transfer into my paint brush & hands to create the flow on the canvas. Layers added over time are a visual representation of the wave forms. I attempted to get into a meditative state during this process, allowing the subconscious to control the splashes. Rhythmic dancing.
I started this spiral of repeated colours during the first lockdown on 17th May 2020 whilst listening to The Planet Suite by Gustav Holst. I listened to it over and over. There are so many moods; so many colours; so many rhythms in it. Mars, the red planet, forewarns us of pending anger and War. Greens whisper into our ears; telling of Venus and Peace. Swift, bright yellows evoke Mercury, the Winged Messenger. Browns and greys subtly creep around us and take us into Old Age. Blues and purples invoke magic and Mysticism; beware Uranus and Neptune.
Kandinsky tells us that, “The artist is the hand that purposely sets the soul vibrating by means of this or that key. Thus it is clear that the harmony of colours can only be based upon the principle of purposefully touching the human soul”
All disciplines of the creative process have an innate affinity. One of Diaghilev’s epic spectaculars, The Firebird, brought together great painters, composers, dancers and choreographers to create an overwhelmingly colourful, dramatic and musical experience. I finished the painting accompanied by Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity.
Chances are it was a morbid tale of 16th century religious fundamentalism, persecution and murder. “Three Blind Mice” was the only tune I ever learned. In this 21st century cover version; the mice, tails docked and now corporate rather than heretic, occupy a space between the swinging blade of socio-political reckoning and the mass media sweet trolly of influence and control. Notice how the whole mechanism, in balance and dependant on the spliced mouse tails that once represented satanic possession in the original version. Elsewhere in the painting we celebrate colour coded musical notation.
I nearly always work my video art with creative commons music. The process starts with collecting visual material, then finding music that I feel would relate to it (which can take just as long), and the visuals are then tight edited with the music. I use a broad range of music from classical, jazz, folk and contemporary, where rhythm, pulse or space are important. This is one where rhythm is most
apparent in the music, and the editing works with it. I have used the band's work in two of my pieces of video art - their approach is very much like mine, often mixing and blending material across time and influences.