24 October 2008

Painting - The World of Ray Charles

Inspired by Ray Charles : the music and the man. Acrylic (titanium, black and gold) painted with the hands and scumbled brush on gauze-collage on loosely stretched unframed canvas. 102cm x 76cm. © 2008 W Roberts

10 comments:

David Lobenberg said...

Wayne: I like the piano keys at the top leading down into the musical abstraction. I went to your website. You are one talented Aussie! I'll be following your blog and will add it to my blog roll.

Nick said...

You know, I've seen many paintings people have done OF Ray Charles, and they always seem to reflect his colorful outer persona. Much more interesting is what a blind man sees while revelling in the world of musical sound. The visual and aural cacophony has to find order somewhere, and keyboard at top is the perfect metaphor. You might want to check out Jose Parla's visual "sheets of sound" also - another master dealing with density and rhythm.
I just saw the sleek new site for PON, and can't wait to get lost in there.!

wayne said...

David, thanks for your very kind comments + for visiting my blog & website. After having just visited your own blog I am blown away by what I saw: the figuration, the line, the colour, the tone, the composition...in three words— stunning visual art!

Thanks for the reciprocal blog link too:) ...am looking forward to following your art on the blog rounds...cheers & thanks again,
~W

perugina said...

Wayne, WOW, what an awesome work!
Can actually see your hand prints through this. Would love to see it IRL!

It’s delicate yet powerful!
In the dark reaching out for the light which is the music.
The movement and gold - indicative of joy and excitement.

I loved it immediately upon laying ‘my eyes’ on it.
Very classy piece!
PG
PS…I also checked out PON, I got lost for totally different reasons.
:)

wayne said...

Nick, thank you for your comment which contains some beautiful prose reflecting your personal understanding of and experience within a sound/light context.

Ray Charles is one who can See. In many ways Music is a form of light. As his music springs to mind there is a new kind of dawning. There is no horizon. The music finds its own 'landscape'. The painting, being intensely textural, is in that sense a landscape and a metaphor of music's shape and form. The canvas here is very loosley stretched, it has a springiness and a rebound 'kick' like the keys of the keyboard and ripples and rhythms of Ray's World.

cheers & thanks:)
~W

PS I'll check out José Parla's work...

wayne said...

Hi PG,
It's quite amazing and, once again, shows an intuitive 'readable' language of forms in art, in music, ...namely that while I was writing my reply to Nick or thereabouts (in which I referred to music as a 'form of light'), you must have been writing simultaneously (without my being aware because I had not yet checked my email notifications) your own comment (above) wherein Ray's blind but seeing world reaches out to ours, ...another artist's inuition... this time your's: Seeing (in the sense that Matisse described as so important to artists), similarly attuned and resonating in your own poetic words: 'reaching out for the light which is the music'. A profound and exquisite word-picture, PG!

Sincere thanks for such encouraging feedback,
best wishes,
~W

PS ..PG, Nick, ...Re: PON website: I recently updated the homepage. A good place to start, eh?! LOL The site is complete, but is set for transformations, extensions, elaborations of concepts...

William K. Moore said...

Wayne.. as a lover of the abstract, the random, and chaos in general - (except when it impacts bills, food, and paychecks), I am easily drawn into the swirling atmosphere of this world you have created under the keyboard. To paint the unseen effectively I find it usually necessary to have a grasp on the seen's structure and laws of physics. Then the rules can really go for a ride and be shaped into some real cool alternatives. I'm enjoying the ride here.. and I don't see any seat belts...

wayne said...

ω κ !

..your comment is much appreciated and colourful as always! I loved the ..'don't see any seatbelts' bit! It brings your own inimitable 'light, colour and Knowing' to bear upon the inky milieu of night. I can imagine 'unanchored seatbelts' as intellectual metaphors, ironic paradoxical icons, 'floating' somewhere in one of your paintings (replete with every form of language), anchored by the paint, providing a visual philosophy of our times, for those who would look and consider the meaning of signs.

Thanks for your wisdom and colour which enlivens the discourse here...

best wishes

Sandy Maudlin said...

Watching Ray Charles' hands was as wonderful as hearing his music, and I LOVE that you created this with your hands. I've been exploring your website for hours, so much to read, to see, to be inspired by. Thanks. I added your website to my blog. It shouldn't be missed.

wayne said...

Hi Sandy!!
I published your comment immediately when you first posted it but it didn't appear under my post when i'd clicked "publish" (way back then!!!) and i couldn't understand why! But now i see your kind comment is here!! And you may recall i let you know and thanked you for your most kind comment here via your own blog [because it wasn't showing up here, not that i could see, at that time]. Anyhow, just wanted to formally say here on my own blog, "thank you so very much for such kind and encouraging words". And also, please accept my sincerest apologies for such a delay! Best wishes,
wayne