I am not particularly drawn to abstract work, but occasionally something will resonate with me that speaks in terms of color and design without having a specific meaning or depicting a scene or still life. The paintings illustrated here are the Music Series. I have always loved music from the time I was a toddler, but unfortunately my efforts to play an instrument proved to be rather disastrous. I have often painted instruments but in this series I wanted to paint the music itself. Various types of musical compositions are the subject of this series. Two more paintings are planned: Nocturne and Tone Poem.
 

Music Series: Theme and Variations
Acrylic
36 x 48 Gallery wrapped canvas

Many years ago I designed this painting on a scrap of paper but it was abandoned and found later after I moved to Florida. I had it tacked to my studio wall for years and I finally  decided to paint it as the first of the Music Series paintings. Theme and Variations is exactly what it says; a theme or melody, followed by a series of variations on that theme involving changes in tempo, key, rhythm, and melody . Many composers used this device, among them Haydn, Bach, Beethoven, Handel, Schubert, Chopin and Britten.

$800

Music Series: Fantasia
Acrylic
36 x 48 Gallery wrapped canvas

Fantasy is an oft used device in musical composition. What comes to mind immediately are Bach's Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, as well as Mozart's Fantasia in D Minor, and compositions by Ralph Vaughn Williams, (Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis), Benjamin Britten, Chopin, and many others.

$800

Music Series: Fugue
Mixed Media (acrylic and organza ribbons)
36 x 48 Gallery wrapped canvas

The most well known Fugues are the monumental Bach compositions for chorus and orchestra, representing a triumph of sound unequalled (in my opinion) by any other device! A simple fugue is a Round, which we learned to sing like "Row, Row, Row your Boat" and each group would begin after the preceding group reached the word "Boat". The word Fugue means "flight" and in psychology there is a rare form of amnesia called "Fugue State" where the sufferer often wanders away from home. My painting is an attempt to picture this idea of flight because the ribbons will fly when the slightest breeze or movement disturbs them.

$800