Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman
I fell in love with Sweet Addiction the first time I heard it.
It was a couple of days before Christmas… and La Belle Femme was in the early stages of conception. I had received a commission for a large nude painting in landscape format. So not being someone who does things by halves… I decided instead to paint three! [I know... I know]
As I was sketching out ideas… and deciding on how I would approach the series… this piece of music dropped into my email inbox via Facebook. I had it playing in the background on my laptop… and listened to it over and over again. I never tired of it. Before long I was completely beguiled by the sound. It was indeed a “Sweet Addiction” [grin]
The making of the Music…
Sweet Addiction was created by Daniel Marolla… a young man who is definitely going places! He created and recorded this piece of music one afternoon in mid December using [keyboard drums and base guitar] an Mbox and Garageband… then shot his video for You Tube from the built-in camera on his laptop and edited it in Final Cut Studio. If all that sounds like double dutch… well… don’t worry. Just listen to the music… it will speak for itself!
The making of the Art…
The first in this series was initially a commission. The paintings were relatively large for watercolour at 76cm x 38cm – [that's 30" x 15"] with the figures approx. 1/2 life size. It was so much fun working wet into wet in the initial stages… just allowing the paint to flow and directing it where I wanted it to go.
It’s fast… it’s fluid… it’s free and wow… you just gotta love working in watercolour!
Willow charcoal of course… adds another dimension. It’s a style I have been working on for a couple of years now especially in figure and life work.
Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman
The pics were taken on my humble little Panasonic Lumix and assembled as a slideshow in iPhoto. I purposely kept the photos edgy and a bit blurred by movement with [perhaps] some “debatable” degree of success!
And of course… iPhoto is no precise science but that’s about the extent of my techie expertise at this time. I am however willing to learn. Note to self: Get Final Cut Pro… there has GOT to be a better way! [Grin]
By the time the three paintings were done… the music had weaved it’s incredible magic into them all.
Consequently… what you hear and see here is the end product of an [unintended] creative collaboration between paint and music. It was entirely unintentional of course.
Daniel could not have known that his music would so happily “belong” to these paintings that afternoon in December when he brought this music to life! He was afterall on his own creative tangent … and the paintings did not [as yet] exist! But somehow… still… the paintings and the music seemed strangely made for each other!
Enjoy the clip! Let me know what you think… leave a comment here!
For availability of original artworks
and to see more… contact
Jean Burman Galleries [click here]
La Belle Femme – Artwork & Images © 2010 Jean Burman
Sweet Addiction – Music © 2010 Daniel Marolla
All Rights Reserved
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Jean – Wow !!! Your right the music and the paintings “mood” really fit. I loved it – dare I say it, but I am envious of the fact that you are such a clever and talented lady. It was great to finally see this peice of work. Jackie
Beautiful paintings, Jean, and you’re right, the music is inspiring (thought I have to admit that when I’m painting – or indeed writing – I tend to block out all external stimuli). And your video montage is delightful. While your work is getting bigger mine gets smaller. I’m planning a Los Angeles panorama from the Getty Center, from the snow-peaked mountains to the east to the Pacific to the west as a triptych, each painting 10″ x 20″. Nuts, huh?
While at the Getty last week I was introduced to some breathtaking small Dutch and Flemish watercolor landscapes. Not sketches or field work, but exquisitely detailed finished works of art. I never knew these existed.
Thanks Jackie!
Now… don’t say that! You needn’t be envious cos I can’t do what you do no way no how… so there. 
For instance I don’t head up a top ranking award winning publication but I’m great friends with someone who does! And that makes me smile and feel proud… usually a lot and often! LOL
Thanks John… so glad you liked the paintings and the clip. So much fun to do
I know what you mean about not being able to think with too much “incoming”. But when painting I seem to need the music now more so than ever. The MusoMagic workshop really reinforced that as well… and reminded me of how important music really is to me. I had almost forgotten. I’ve had music with me all my life but somehow forgot (at least to some extent) the joy of actually making it. I’m not in a situation to make it quite yet… but surrounding myself with people who do is probably the next best thing… even if it is long distance and sometimes even over the net! LOL
Your LA panorama sounds magnificent… and as a triptych 10 x 20 sounds just about the right size to me. Any bigger and I’d imagine it would take too long and lose some of the spontaneity in the detail. What a great project! I’m looking forward to hearing all about it… and watching progress even [especially] from way over here.
Re working larger. I’ve been working larger mainly because I love to let the washes flow and of course over a bigger area you can really do that. There’s a lovely freedom [albeit a controlled one] in large fluid washes… [as you already no doubt know so forgive me preaching to the converted! LOL]
I do think however… that a lot of the time bigger isn’t always better. It’s just bigger. And with a very great majority of art out there being IMHO less than brilliant… perhaps it would be wise for artists to be prudent about size unless they can assure the art world that the large work they are about to embark upon is actually going to ADD something to the already large body of work out there in the world today. Better a small piece that speaks volumes than a large piece that screams ordinary. But maybe that’s just me.
Jean, I think your triptych gains enormously from being larger, both because of the subject matter and the beauty of those washes of yours. There’s something silky and sensuous about them that would get lost in a smaller format. Some works cry out to be large. Who can imagine “Guernica” 24 x 36, say, or the work of Jackson Pollock, which would lose the athleticism? On the other hand, I think a lot of abstract expressionism is huge just for the sake of being huge, though I have to admit that even smaller much of it wouldn’t impress me.
John… to tell you the truth I hadn’t thought of this series as a triptych… but yes… I guess it could work! The first painting in the series was a commission though so I may be one down there. LOL However I loved doing them and know there will be more where these came from.
And of course… with the miracle of modern reproduction processes works on paper can now be reproduced on gallery wrapped canvas and hung in any size… and any configuration I guess. And for a very large wall… a triptych would certainly work for these. Good thinking 99! Grin.
Re large or small. Artists working large especially on a rigid support that can’t be rolled… are I think duty bound (to try at least) to create something extraordinary.
I don’t know why it bothers me so much. Probably because I’ve done it myself [we probably all have]… produced really ordinary stuff and wondered what the heck to do with it. My solution? Burn it LOL before someone gets hold of it and does something really stupid with it like put it in a retrospective somewhere after we’re dead (((chuckles)))] And this does happen.
But honestly what on earth is the world going to do with all the ho hum art that’s being produced… especially these days when almost everyone’s doing it… and not always all that well.
At least works on paper and canvas can be rolled or shelved flat and out of the way until someone decides it’s time to dispose of them. But huge art lacking insight and inspiration has to be stored somewhere… god help us that it should be stored on walls! LOL
Jean, this makes me chuckle, because it reminds me of when I was in college and working in our small on-campus theatre, Theatre Intime (it was Princeton, so we snotty little Ivy Leaguers pronounced it the French way). In the basement there were some huge framed canvases painted a muddy black that I assumed were sets. I suggested to someone that we toss them, and I was told with alarm, “oh no, those are Frank’s paintings.” Frank was Frank Stella, a senior then, whose huge minimalist canvases would eventually sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
My point, clumsily articulated, was that too much late 20th century modernist and post-modernist painters gained attention because their canvases were huge, disguising the fact that it wasn’t (isn’t?) very good or interesting. Not that a lot of them weren’t capable of doing better, just that they found a quick and dirty way to cash in on a trend. It was Andrew Wyeth who once said, “abstract art is made by the inept and sold to the ignorant by the unscrupulous.” I’m saying that while lots of people were taking up abstraction, the ones who gained attention and financial success were the ones who were doing it in a huge format.
I guess making them large makes them hard to miss (and/or to ignore) LOL Love the story of “Frank’s” paintings! It’s kind of arrogant of artists who can do better to foist lesser stuff onto the market. They do it [because they can]… and because people are willing to pay for what someone else tells them is good. Which is a whole ‘nother topic I guess… but until the art buying public learn to discriminate… ordinary stuff will still be out there… and people will still pay heaps for the hype.
A seductively sensual experience for all…. of the senses. Is that redundant? Beautiful clean work Jean, and a creative combo with the charcoal. I especially like the two with the angled poses. (you might enjoy Chris Duffy’s work, another Oz artist) Love that house/studio too, looks like you are way too comfortable – perhaps you’d like to trade for my rat-infested garret! And thanks for you visit tovarish!
Okay Nick… now you’re speaking code! What/where/who is tovarish? [Just checkin on my whereabouts... in case I've been somewhere I didn't know about yet] (((chuckles))) Re the house/studio…hmmm well… comfortable is not a place I know about yet… but soon maybe. I hope.
Thanks for the great comments about my work. I googled Chris Duffy… very interesting work. His stuff is quite erotic I think as opposed to sensual. It certainly pushes the boundaries of human expression and is cleverly done.
My aim here was a little different. I wanted to keep it nice… to honour the beauty of the human female form without placing it into any sort of implied or perceived exploitative context. Hence the plain white ground.
So often the female form is depicted in a way which sells our gender short I think. I wanted it to be different. Clean simple straight-forward… unadorned. The beauty of the form in it’s purest sense… in an almost architectural way [but with deep heartfelt meaning]
And without suggesting anything more… nor less. I hope I pulled it off. Something in my heart tells me I might have and for that I am both pleased and grateful [to the source!]
Addendum. Okay… just checked with my Russian connections and got a translation on tovarish. It’s not a place at all! And I am chuffed and honoured that you would consider me such. Thanks Nick!
privyet! I just checked his site, hadn’t seen it in a while. I think it is the flowing lines and shapes of his Klymphs & Nymphs series I was reminded of, but I understand the distinction you draw. (I like it all!) David Burge (Perth) also has a lot of wonderful watercolor nudes, and probably my favorite figure artist besides Kanevsky would be David Kofton…not sure if he’s even still got a website…but his work might be too graphic for some. See you soon in Tovarishtown!