Earlier this month I helped judge visual art works for a prize and, prior to seeing them at first hand, I viewed a number of the images on-line to try and obtain some kind of short-list before having to make my final decisions. However, having formed preliminary opinions about these works, once I had actually seen them I had to completely reject all my earlier conclusions. I became convinced that it is impossible to assess the merits of a work from an image of a painting, sculpture or photograph (of a photograph) which is uploaded to a website.
In most cases, it is not possible to judge an artwork in this way and there is no substitute for seeing the real thing to obtain the visual impact and true quality of the object. The originality, technique, composition, shapes and colours can only be accurately determined when physically confronting the work. I referred to this concern in my last blog and I am now totally convinced that it is wrong to judge preliminary rounds of national and international art competitions in this way. Although I show my own works on this website and a facebook page from photos, I find that inadequacies as a photographer limit the ability to show really accurate depictions of the paintings, as in many cases the images do not show the more subtle colour effects visible when they are viewed in person.
The title of this website is ‘Art and Music’. For years I have absorbed, played and listened to an enormous amount of music. I love many forms of music and have always been immensely interested in those who create it – songwriters, composers and musicians. When I retired from my career in the music industry, I started trying to educate myself about the history of music and art as they had both figured so prominently in my life, yet I knew relatively little about the development of either. I researched the lives and works of great artists, composers and songwriters and looked at links between the different art forms. I became particularly fascinated by the artistic developments in Vienna and Paris at the beginning of the twentieth century and aboriginal art.
I set no limits to this project and recorded much of my research in scrapbooks and sketchbooks. Some of this work has been developed into a few of the portraits in the ‘People’ gallery and other aspects, where I have been influenced by sounds of music, have found their way into the ‘Abstracts’ section. The composers and songwriters range from Berlioz, Chopin, Gustav and Alma Mahler, Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams and Stravinsky to Kate Bush, Debbie Harry, Enya, Lily Allen, Mick Jagger, David Gilmour, Pete Townsend and Guy Garvey.
Lily Allen
Mick Jagger
David Gilmour
Just recently, a talented songwriter, David Mindel, who I have admired, respected and known for some time, wrote the UK entry for the Eurovision Song Contest . I’m delighted to see that it’s received many plays and widespread publicity, deservedly so, as it’s constantly going through my head! I also discovered that an artist friend of mine , Daniel Shadbolt, grew up with one of the performers of the song, Alex Larke – yet another connection between creators in the fields of music and art! Daniel too, is an artist who has painted musicians and I’ve just acquired one of several paintings he has done of a very gifted young violinist, Alan Parmenter.
Finally, as our house is about to be rewired and a certain amount of decorating will be needed afterwards, there may be an enforced setting aside of my art paint brushes and their replacement by more robust ones required for house painting!