Visual music

Much of music is an up and down progression along a scale, something
like a xylophone or a pan flute, both of which leave me irritated and
dissatisfied. The beauty of music lies in its expressive range:
harmonies, tempi, breadth and force. Even the piano, which is no more
than a long ladder of notes, is capable of the greatest beauty and
emotion because it involves all ten fingers, and sometimes more.

The same thing happens in art. There are many paintings which are no
more than a rendering of the scale of light and shade over an area of
canvas, sometimes in monochrome, and sometimes in Kodakcolour.

For painting to move into the realm of art, requires exactly the same
as does music. The artist has to bring more to the painting than just
the barren correctness of tinted tone. We have to give energy, tempo,
drama, beauty, and expression. We have to make the painting slow in
part and fast in part, light and airy here and heavy and moody here,
establish contrast in one picture and harmony in another. And we have
to learn each one of these skills as a musician does. We have to know
the meaning of each term and how to achieve it. Then we have to teach
it to every young artist who comes to us for help.

Painting at its most boring is like newspaper prose; at its most
exciting, like an orchestral masterpiece.

(This post is getting a bit long. I shall continue in my next post with an example of what I am trying to express.)