In 1995 I was invited by the Kentmere House Gallery in York, to be the resident artist at the York Early Music Festival. This was the beginning of the road to linking my combined interests in painting and music.
The early work was figurative based, however when I had the opportunity of a second residency at York during 2010, one of the key events for me was the Sixteen’s performance of the Monteverdi Vespers. It was then that I decided to paint the music, rather than the performance. To gain more insight into this huge composition I attended a workshop formed to give singers an opportunity to sing through the vespers themselves, and later in December I exhibited my Vesper paintings.
Last year I was again at the York Festival, but during the intervening time my thoughts and ideas on Music and Painting had developed. Feeling driven to portray music more precisely, I believed that there were common elements that would help me find richer and more fulfilling ways of expressing a visual understanding of the art form. Starting by looking at various musical elements that might aid me, for example motifs, modulation, instrumentation, rhythm, phrasing, melody, words and duration, I then looked for possible visual equivalents. A mass of small drawings was created which I called music lines which looked at various methods of interpretation. These are some of those drawings.
The early work was figurative based, however when I had the opportunity of a second residency at York during 2010, one of the key events for me was the Sixteen’s performance of the Monteverdi Vespers. It was then that I decided to paint the music, rather than the performance. To gain more insight into this huge composition I attended a workshop formed to give singers an opportunity to sing through the vespers themselves, and later in December I exhibited my Vesper paintings.
Last year I was again at the York Festival, but during the intervening time my thoughts and ideas on Music and Painting had developed. Feeling driven to portray music more precisely, I believed that there were common elements that would help me find richer and more fulfilling ways of expressing a visual understanding of the art form. Starting by looking at various musical elements that might aid me, for example motifs, modulation, instrumentation, rhythm, phrasing, melody, words and duration, I then looked for possible visual equivalents. A mass of small drawings was created which I called music lines which looked at various methods of interpretation. These are some of those drawings.
 |  |
 |  |
I felt there was the whole history of modern art to fall back on and was totally unconcerned where my investigations took me, feeling free to investigate whatever style would help direct me towards my goal.
 |  |
 |  |
One major hurdle soon encountered was that music has duration whereas painting exists outside of time. I did start to consider film as a more accessible medium with which to practice my obsession, but due to the time involved in learning a new discipline this has been put on hold. Instead I have examined more attainable means. We are programmed in the western world to read writing from left to right, as it descends the page, this being a parallel of speech in time. I also was aware of biblical stories told by Renaissance and Pre-Renaissance artists by the means of pictograms, notably Giotto’s frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel at Padua, and of course there is also the Bayeux tapestry. This is the linear device that I have generally used.
The music lines made me aware of the different ways in which drawing and colour could help me. Drawing had the ability to express elements such as musical rhythm and phrasing, whilst colour opened up possibilities of expressing harmony, modulation and instrumentation. Looking at this in visual terms you could say that one was tangible and the other intangible, the latter being the most challenging.
I chose a short and straight forward piece of music for my first foray. It was a piece written by a friend Andrew Campling for soprano and piano. In order to try to achieve the colour aspect I completed a series of about a dozen paintings till they gradually developed into the form I desired. As well as using ideas from the music lines I used a modular approach.
Time was spent equally listening to the music, and going through the manuscript, in order initially to determine the size and proportion of the planned work and then to develop it. The resulting paintings formed the starting point for my exhibition last year in York. To these I added more paintings based on music performed at the Festival, including Triste España played by the Rose Consort, Purcell’s Variations, three parts upon a ground by young musicians at Jumpstart and Concerto Grosso by Locatelli performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Andrew Campling and I had been discussing a collaboration, a concert/exhibition similar to one we had held in 1999. We decided to go ahead choosing two plainsong melodies Stabat mater and Ave maris stella, chosen for their beauty and simplicity, as themes forming the base of a musical composition and a series of paintings. We decided to return to Conway Hall as the most suitable venue for the cumulation of our respective journeys. The available space suggested an opportunity to show my longer journey in music starting with Vespers - Entry, I added to this mini retrospective canvases and watercolours based on the selected plainsong melodies. Moving from the relative complexity of Locatelli to the plainsong was quite a jump, the plainsong being only one line of music. I sought out extra possibilities within the text, incorprating letters of the text in the subsequent paintings. The colour was more restrained, change in tone reflected movement. What I liked was the way that a painting could resemble what I called a songboard, a reference to when monks would sing from the same single large, often illuminated manuscript.
Stella induced the feeling of light on the sea, the deeper pitched notes sinking into the canvas the higher ones flickering like fish above. As is often the case, the restrictions in the subject stimulated the imagery more rather than less.
The music lines made me aware of the different ways in which drawing and colour could help me. Drawing had the ability to express elements such as musical rhythm and phrasing, whilst colour opened up possibilities of expressing harmony, modulation and instrumentation. Looking at this in visual terms you could say that one was tangible and the other intangible, the latter being the most challenging.
I chose a short and straight forward piece of music for my first foray. It was a piece written by a friend Andrew Campling for soprano and piano. In order to try to achieve the colour aspect I completed a series of about a dozen paintings till they gradually developed into the form I desired. As well as using ideas from the music lines I used a modular approach.
Time was spent equally listening to the music, and going through the manuscript, in order initially to determine the size and proportion of the planned work and then to develop it. The resulting paintings formed the starting point for my exhibition last year in York. To these I added more paintings based on music performed at the Festival, including Triste España played by the Rose Consort, Purcell’s Variations, three parts upon a ground by young musicians at Jumpstart and Concerto Grosso by Locatelli performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Andrew Campling and I had been discussing a collaboration, a concert/exhibition similar to one we had held in 1999. We decided to go ahead choosing two plainsong melodies Stabat mater and Ave maris stella, chosen for their beauty and simplicity, as themes forming the base of a musical composition and a series of paintings. We decided to return to Conway Hall as the most suitable venue for the cumulation of our respective journeys. The available space suggested an opportunity to show my longer journey in music starting with Vespers - Entry, I added to this mini retrospective canvases and watercolours based on the selected plainsong melodies. Moving from the relative complexity of Locatelli to the plainsong was quite a jump, the plainsong being only one line of music. I sought out extra possibilities within the text, incorprating letters of the text in the subsequent paintings. The colour was more restrained, change in tone reflected movement. What I liked was the way that a painting could resemble what I called a songboard, a reference to when monks would sing from the same single large, often illuminated manuscript.
Stella induced the feeling of light on the sea, the deeper pitched notes sinking into the canvas the higher ones flickering like fish above. As is often the case, the restrictions in the subject stimulated the imagery more rather than less.
 |  |
In the earliest work entitled Vespers - Entry ( see illustration at the top of the blog ) the music line was still subjected to a non sequential approach mixing elements obtained in the form of a collage. I have included this as I expect to return to this method when I have fully explored the linear one. It allows more visual freedom but at the expense of accurate portrayal. It would perhaps also give me the opportunity to incorporate other elements that interest me which have a more random visual track.
In conclusion you can disregard all of the above as I believe that paintings must speak for themselves. I suppose that I am just trying to convey how exciting it has been for me being inspired from such a wonderful sounds. The ideas have left their mother music for a new form.
Alfred Huckett 2015
In conclusion you can disregard all of the above as I believe that paintings must speak for themselves. I suppose that I am just trying to convey how exciting it has been for me being inspired from such a wonderful sounds. The ideas have left their mother music for a new form.
Alfred Huckett 2015
RSS Feed
