A Song For the Eye— At West End Gallery
The melancholy river bears us on. When the moon comes through the trailing willow boughs, I see your face, I hear your voice and the bird singing as we pass the osier bed. What are you whispering? Sorrow, sorrow. Joy, joy. Woven together, like reeds in moonlight.
–Virginia Woolf, The String Quartet (1921)
When I finished this small painting (8″ by 8″ on canvas) for my current West End Gallery show the title that came to mind was A Song For the Eye. The eye, symbolized by the sun/moon, is the theme and included in the title of the show, Eye in the Sky, and the violinist seems to be serenading the moon here. The ribbons of the night sky provide a visual backing rhythm.
But I also thought the painting’s title also referred to this painting and others, as silent visual representations of music. I believe that paintings that reach out to people do so in much the same way as music, having rhythm, flow, and tone.
I think its title works in both ways and I like that.
Here’s piece from violinist Joshua Bell that I think fits well with this painting and has a similar title. It’s Song to the Moon from the 1901 opera, Rusalka, from Antonin Dvorak. It’s a good way to kick off the week.
Redtree Times 