Synaesthesia
Below is a selection of paintings from my 2010 exhibition inspired by songs by contemporary Scottish artists
Each painting focussed on a particular contemporary song, which I listened to throughout the entire time I worked on the piece. I would often work on multiple paintings throughout the day and could spend months before a work was finished. I must have listened to each song hundreds of times. At the Union Gallery exhibition opening each painting was numbered and we supplied MP3 players with the correlating songs so viewers could ‘experience’ the painting with the song that it was inspired by.
Admittedly, I’m not a synaesthete and so for this series of works I employed a colour music code created by 19th century Australian artist, Roy de Maistre as a guide to creating my palette for each song. It became a creative exercise in balancing my subjective interpretation and emotional response to the song with de Maistre’s quasi-scientific colour music code.
Harry’s in Heaven, mixed media on board, 122 x 122 cm (Music by Martyn Bennett) 
Swim Until You Can’t See Land, mixed media on board, 61 x 61 cm (Music by Frightened Rabbit) 
Composition 6, mixed media on board, 30 x 30 cm 
Country Girl, mixed media on board, 61 x 61 cm ( Music by Primal Scream) 
Milk, mixed media on board, 91 x 91 cm, (Music by Garbage, Shirley Manson) 
She’s Coming Down, mixed media on board, 122 x 122 cm (Music by Elkin) 
Swim Until You Can’t See Land 2, mixed media on board, 61 x 91 cm (Music by Frightened Rabbit) 
Hold On 2, mixed media on board, 91 x 91 cm, (Music by KT Tunstall) 
Who’s Got A Match, mixed media on board, 61 x 91 cm (Music by Biffy Clyro)