Harmony - Fragmentation

Oil on panel

40 x 60 inches

2018

SOUND PAINTING series

In art, fragmentation refers to a separating of two art elements. In music it refers to various instruments playing different tones of a melody.

Using the colour of sapphire as my starting point, I painted in a soft texture expressing ambient sound. On top of that, I painted in a sound wave sequence representing a melody. Using paint soaked string, I then worked up the wave sequence which I later glazed over using a blue red mixture, effectively pushing it into the background. Finally, using string, I painted over it using cooler blues, in order to create the vibrations which represent sound.

I masked off areas of the painting in order to preserve sections of the background. Using brushes I began glazing sections in blue greens inspired by the stone turquois. By using red/blues in the background, and green/blues in the foreground, I was essentially using complimentary colours to create vibration, while still maintaining the harmony of analogous colours. I alternated opaque and transparent pigments in the glazes in order to emphasize the different melodic tones.

The next few layers consist of alternating between string and brushes to create the texture on the outer edges representing yet another layer of musical sound. I glazed the right side using genuine lapis lazuli to really emphasize the visual fragmentation since that colour doesn’t appear elsewhere in the painting. I added the violet colour of amethyst at this stage to broaden the range of sound. In order to keep the colours clean, I added one layer of colour each day.

I primarily listened to instrumental music while painting this piece in order to be really true to the concept of fragmentation. The colours range from violet to blue green, keeping the colours analogous maintains harmony, while the change in temperature creates the vibration necessary to illustrate music.