An Abstract Composition Inspired by Bach, Schubert and Arvo Pärt
Music is one of the most important driving forces in my painting. I rarely paint in silence. It is interesting to see what comes from doing so, but I find painting with music more exciting. I am not trying to translate one art into another. I absorb thoughts, enter the flow of the music and let conscious thinking recede. As a painter inclined to philosophy, I sometimes need help with that.
Johann Sebastian Bach is indispensable to me, as is Schubert. More recently, I have been listening especially to Arvo Pärt.
For this triptych, I took up the musical idea of a theme and variations: three works that belong together while developing different movements and emphases.
Chinese calligraphy remains central to the construction of the paintings, while colour and the broader movement of the brush have become more prominent again. In the first panel, red strokes sweep across the upper space, above darker forms and a green passage.
Telling a story in an abstract image, without concrete objects, is a challenge. It also opens unexpected possibilities. In the middle panel, smaller dark marks and pink strokes spread across the paper, giving the eye a different rhythm to follow.
For many years, I have wanted to paint expressively while still conveying calm, or to suggest chaos through a carefully ordered composition. The third panel is more restrained in colour: a broad dark arc above, with separated forms below. How far can these three paintings differ while still holding together?
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Triptych “Mountain”: The Finished Series · Triptych Variant: A New Version in Ink · Theme and Variations
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