Music & Literature

This week, I share a painting that had a big goal: to achieve a similar effect to uplifting music.

I think that all painters envy musicians because music can make great emotions flow in an instant. Music can make us feel that the world is expanding into the universe and at the same time, shrinking to the size of a heart.

When I listen to Luciano Pavarotti sing Nessun Dorma, his complete self-confidence makes me, who is a mere listener, feel almighty too. And Avicii’s Levels is often my choice when I want to celebrate an achievement, for example, a newly completed painting.

But even if we painters envy musicians, I also think that musicians also envy painters. Music is experienced in a fleeting moment, but a painting can capture that more permanently.

Music I Listen to While Painting

When I start a new painting, I often listen to Kaija Saariaho‘s music. It is art music, and I don’t find it entertaining at all. But it helps me to think more spatially and paint a 3-dimensional space instead of a 2-dimensional surface. (See the video of my first encounter to Kaija Saariaho’s music from 2015!)

I try to avoid letting the music leak ideas into my paintings. I don’t want the music to create the illusion that the unfinished painting is better than it is. The music’ should mainly’s main function is to entertain my impatient side while my patient side paints.

As the painting progresses, I gradually move to lighter music. First classical piano and violin concerts, then entertaining music television shows that play pop and rock.

When the painting is in the finishing stage, I listen to dry talk programs such as political analysis.

Music helps me to keep going. It takes many sessions to finish a big painting.

I painted this painting in 7 parts and as you can see from the pictures, it changed quite a lot over the months. I started in early August and the painting was finished in late November.

My painting called Cosmos is a flower arrangement, but at the same time, I was aiming for much more. I wanted to express both meanings of the word cosmos – both the flower and the universe. So I was aiming for the same thing that music can give: the expansion into a larger whole and the contraction into a single moment.

Details of Cosmos

The blue flower was the most difficult to paint because I wanted it to be modest and small and still refer to the universe. It had to be simple and delicate, but still strong enough. I rarely use Cobalt Blue this much. It’s my most expensive pigment and not very good with historical pigments that I mostly have. But in this piece, I think it perfectly represents the universe.

One of my favorite details is the flying orange petals. I think they look like a little melody playing in the background as the song slows down.

Some areas come more easily than others. The top right corner was finished early, and it was a lot of fun to paint. I prefer dark backgrounds over light ones, but dark paintings can be difficult to sell, so I try to be moderate with dark colors.

The red spot is both a supernova and a flower.

I love painting bowls and vases, especially when I can just freely compose them from strokes and shapes.

I also love to paint water. Here, the vase disappears under the waterline.

I often paint a flower so that it’s partly quite sharp and partly blurry or invisible.

Music can use echoes as an effect, while visuals can have mirror images. The echoes and mirror images can differ slightly. I played with this idea when painting the red flower and its dark echo.

Ornaments and ornamental strokes inspire me a lot. I think that when you have found out how you want to draw a single line, you are really close to finding your style.

Lines are like musical notes that a mind can interpret and sing. They have the painter’s voice.

What kind of music do you listen to when you paint or draw?