Harmony - The Blues

48 x 48 inches

Oil on panel

2017

SOUND PAINTING series

In art, blue refers to one of the three primary colours. In music it refers to a genre of music which invokes feelings of sadness. Blue being my favourite colour, I couldn’t resist.

I began by laying in a copper based phthalo blue background tone of texture inspired by blue azurite, a blue gemstone of copper ore. I then painted in a “sound wave” using brushes. I then added to the sound wave using paint soaked string. I then masked out a section of the middle third of the painting preserving the background. Using string I built up the paint on the remainder of the painting. I continued to build up these areas alternating between string and glazing techniques using brushes. Building up the paint with opaque cobalt pigments on the upper layers created depth giving the centre of the piece a lot of breathing space.

I found myself listening to Billie Holiday a lot during this process, influencing the fractured quality of the painting, reflecting the struggles in her life. I brought in the red element to reflect a feminine quality, and the “figure” in the centre represents “Lady Day” herself.