Exploring with a response to music

Exploring with a response to music

I only used sponges, cardboard, my hands and a palette knife while painting to music. I listened to several different tracks while working on it. As I am new to painting abstract, I think I found myself thinking too much at times instead of fully trusting the making process. That said, I was still responding instinctively to the different pieces of music as they played.

Looking back, I feel I may need to be more selective with the music I respond to within a single painting. The tracks I listened to were quite contrasting, and I think this has resulted in a slightly confusing visual outcome. There is a softness in the background, with colours gently swirling and blending together, which feels calm and fluid. In contrast, the black, agitated mark-making that cuts diagonally across the piece introduces a much more intense energy.

These darker marks did not begin with such force, they started off softer, using my finger nails to spread the paint. As the music changed towards the end of the process, becoming more intense and angry, my mark-making responded directly to that shift, using a palette knife to chop up the black paint on the MDF board. This piece has helped me realise how strongly music influences my gestures and decisions, and how important it is to be mindful of how different emotional tones in music can shape the overall feel of a painting.