The Joy of Painting With Music
The joy of painting with music has been intriguing me for many years and still is. Music has been a great part of my painting creative process. Many times I tried to paint without listening to my favourite music and the results were never the same.
Every time I think about the connection between music and painting, the following two quotes come to mind:
“All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music.” – Walter Pater (1839-1894)
“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing.” – Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
We all love music and we know that it can hold some magic moments that could take us anywhere we want in our own mind and imagination, any dream we like and any emotion we need. Music is much more than a composition of notes interpreted by musicians.
Music is a very powerful emotional stimulus. Music can easily makes us feel joyful, happy, full of positive energy and inspiration. It can also make us feel sad or irritated. Like all other art genres, music is a beautifully expressive language that communicates ideas, thoughts, beliefs and imagination. Music, in some sense, is similar to painting in that words are not always necessary to connect with people.
Artists, in whatever art genre, aim to create artworks that bring us the feeling of harmony, unity, rhythm, movement and balance.
Many artists (painters) are aware of the emotional powers evoked by music which can help the artist’s creative process.
The joy of painting with music is hard to describe in words, but I know it contributes tremendously to the making of my abstract paintings. I’m aware that my mind has been conditioned to my favourite painting music. The minute I hear any of my painting music, my mind automatically thinks about the creative process of painting. I’m sure that there is a direct link between abstract painting and music.
I came across an interesting article – Is music the most abstract form? I find the subject quite intriguing and I will be doing some more research.
The joy of painting with music process
Over the years I learned that I need to be completely present in my art world without any interference or distraction. At the same time, I have always appreciated that music is directly linked to the process of creating my paintings.
To create that productive atmosphere, the answer was simply to use my earphones and play loud music. I have a huge collection of music to last me a lifetime. (I touched on this subject in my other article Painting Your Feelings).
Aside from blocking the outside world, music has certain magic stimulating your innermost ‘self’. My favourite music playlist resonates extremely deeply with the true soul. Deep inside, I know I’m at the beginning of an exciting and amazing journey full of joy and contentment.
I don’t think words alone can clearly describe these fantastic art journeys that I experience every time I paint. There is no right or wrong, there is no fear, no pain, there is no doom and gloom, there is no anxiety or stress.
There is only you and a beautifully peaceful, harmonious and balanced world. It’s your world the way you want it and you are its master and its creator. It’s all yours and yours only. It is a world of ultimate freedom of visual expression and absolute contentment. It is the world of realising your inner peace within your own presence of infinite awareness.
This is your world where it ends all restless and anxious desires. There is nothing else but this moment.
Blank canvases don’t put me off. I like space and I like white colour because, to me, white means a new beginning. When I need to change an element of my painting, I paint it white and then start again with a different colour, shape or line. It is incredibly so simple when you understand the language of colour, shape and line.
Many beginner artists struggle with creating paintings. One of the main reasons, in my humble opinion, is the lack of understanding of the language of colour, shape and line. Like any other language, there are vocabularies, meanings, associations and endless descriptive words of colours, shapes, lines and all the elements of art.
Furthermore, understanding that such a language is subjective and is influenced by culture and personal experience, but could help you even further when creating artworks for different cultures.
If you are interested to learn more about the vocabularies of colour, please check this article Storytelling Through Abstract Painting.
Just let go and the music will take over. You hold the paintbrush but the music will lead the creative process. Let the brush convey your feelings in a visual dialogue. This has been my way of creating abstract painting with music for so many years.
And that is, simply, the joy of painting with music…
Here’s a selection of some of my music playlist:
- Year of the Cat – Al Stewart
- Sirius/Eye in the Sky – The Alan Parsons Project
- Turn of a Friendly Card – The Alan Parsons Project
- A Horse With No Name – America
- Sandman – America
- Ventura Highway – America
- Heroes – David Bowie
- This is not America – David Bowie
- Where Are We Now – David Bowie
- Come Undone – Duran Duran
- Save a Prayer – Duran Duran
Artists who paint music
Abstract painting with music is entirely different from painting music. Several years ago, I met a couple of artists, separately, and I was talking about my creative process influenced and led by music. To my surprise, both artists claimed that they actually painted music.
It was the first time I come across such a statement, painting music, and I became very intrigued to find out more about it.
Synaesthesia
Synaesthesia is a perceptual condition during which activation of one sensory or cognitive route causes involuntary experiences in another. People who report a lifelong history of such experiences are referred to as synesthetes.
For example, synesthetes may hear colours, feel sounds and taste shapes.
One of the foremost common synaesthesias is seeing letters, numbers or sounds as colours. Synesthetes might also:
- See or hear a word and taste food
- See a shape and taste food
- Hear sounds and see shapes or patterns
- Hear sounds after smelling a particular scent
- Hear sounds and taste food
- Feel an object with hands and listen to a sound
- Feel a touch when seeing some other person being touched. (This is known as mirror-touch.)
You can find out more information about synaesthesia research which is published by the University of Sussex.
Here’s also a brief list of some of the artists who painted sounds.
And here’s a good video about “The Artist Who Paints What She Hears”.
This is entirely different from painting with music. I don’t paint music, I create paintings with music.
How does music affect the painting process?
There is strong evidence that people from all cultures correlate a higher visual value (degree of brightness) with a higher auditory pitch. The cross-modal association of pitch and brightness has been extensively explored outside of an artistic setting and is far less culturally subjective than features such as modality in music (which could correspond with darkness) or subject matter in art or programming music.
The relationship between visual art and music has become a central theme in art history and theory. The presence of music-influenced artists has been commonplace in the recent century.
Jackson Pollock, an abstract expressionist, and Stuart Davis, a cubist painter, both freely acknowledged jazz music as an influence on their work.
Andy Warhol, a pop artist, was heavily influenced by the Velvet Underground (an American rock band formed in New York City in 1964), a relationship that was reciprocated when he became their manager in 1965.
Even if visual art and music do not have overt influences on one another, they might share abstract elements without communicating directly.
Art and music are both culturally influenced and they may be influenced at the same time by localised societal forces (such as political movements) or technological breakthroughs like mass manufacturing.
I could easily spend 7-8 hours or even longer sometimes in my studio creating artwork. Therefore, my creative environment must be suitable to enhance the creative process.
The studio set-up, the space, the lighting and all my painting materials are all necessary and make up the creative environment that I need to create my artwork.
My music contributes tremendously to further enhancing creativity and experiencing the creative energy that encompasses the entire atmosphere. I’m careful to maintain such a positive creative charge for as long as I can.
Abstract painting with music is my way of letting the paintbrush do its magic. Music seems to awaken the creative side of your feelings and bring them onto the surface of your canvas.
I guess many artists are doing the same but may not consciously be aware of it.
Does music help you paint?
Music has a great influence on people and has the power to move people to tears of pain and joy. Therefore, it is not surprising that people claim that it affects the artwork. Both are sensory media that utilise our emotions, but how much does one affect the other?
There is no doubt in my opinion that music is a powerful inspiration. Many times I tried to paint without music and I could tell immediately that it wasn’t the same. There was a lot of emptiness and something was missing. There was no real connection with the painting.
Like many artists, I spend hours immersed in painting but I also spend a great deal of time looking at the painting. This process is what I call communicating and connecting with the painting as it develops.
Even when I’m just sitting and looking at the painting (with a cup of coffee, of course), my music is still playing. I believe music plays an important role in establishing and maintaining a connection with the painting process.
I know that each song on my playlist will, somehow, be involved, in this communication process and, in a way, influence the direction of the painting.
I noticed soft music, for example, would slow me down and the brush strokes take more of a gentler touch on the canvas. Hard rock or motivational music such as “Eye of The Tiger – Survivor” most definitely changes the painting strokes, movements, colour selection, shapes, lines and energy.
Creating a painting to me is like writing a story using colours and shapes vocabulary. And the best way to describe playing different songs while painting is similar to writing narrative paragraphs in a story.
Why music is important in creating art?
Art and music are basic human functions. Humankind and art cannot function without each other. We have the burning desire to create art, whatever it’s going to be and however tiny or grand.
The interaction with sound is unavoidable, either to create it or show pride in it. People have always found music significant in their lives, whether for enjoyment in listening, the emotional response, performing or just creating.
Music can also stimulate the mind. There are many things in music to which you can listen and convey attention. You are mindful of the melodies or themes, the harmony, the driving or relaxed rhythms, the colour of the sounds, the activity of rhythm, how the sounds are produced or how all of them relate to one another, all while, possibly deciding how the composer conceived the piece.
Music is a powerful creative outlet. It enhances and enriches brain functions and imagination. Above all else, music brings immense joy to the soul.
Creating abstract painting with music is a perfect combination of creativity, imagination, energy and inspiration. I have been doing it for many years and I always know the minute I step into my studio is the beginning of an exciting joyful journey onto another dimension. Sometimes, I wish that journey would last longer and longer.
If you are not used to painting with music and would like to try it, give yourself time to get used to a new energetic atmosphere. It might take a few sessions, but after a while, it would become an integral part of your creative process.
What is the connection of painting with music?
I firmly believe that art and music, especially painting, are inextricably linked. The coexistence of music and artwork influences our creative approach. The environment we create our artwork such as colour, darkness, brightness, odour and noise activate our emotions and moods. It influences our artwork.
Famous Russian painter and art theorist, Wassily Kandinsky, was fascinated by the connection between visual arts and singing. He used musical phrases to name many of his paintings.
My music playlist includes a wide range of different music styles, high tempo, low, soft, hard rock, easy listening, etc. As I paint, I’m conscious of the sound effects on my mental mood (most likely the subconscious mind) and the various movements of the brush on the canvas as a response to music.
I’m aware that the brush movements are triggered by the music effects and I begin to paint in the same rhythm as the music. This rhythmic connection can last for a short or as long as the music is playing. In other words, different types of songs influence the painting process differently.
The same influence also affects my selection of colours, shapes and lines. The painting seems to depict the feelings I was experiencing while listening to the music. This could indicate that music can be interpreted through painting.
Different people interpret paintings in different ways depending on their emotions, feelings, and inclinations. When you look at a painting, it’s not just about how it looks. Great paintings are those that evoke emotions and retain deeply hidden meanings. These emotions and meanings are created by the viewer, they are his/hers, not the artist. And that’s what matters. You.
So, where do we go from there?
Is music capable of inspiring us to paint?
Is there a specific relationship between artwork and music?
Is it true that music might help you be more creative?
All of these issues were previously unsolved, but owing to science and study, we now have the answers.
Many individuals claim that listening to music while creating art is incredibly distracting and while this may be true to some, it is a matter of personal preference.
However, you might want to re-evaluate your choices because you haven’t yet discovered the ideal musical genre.
Understanding how music may aid us in the creative process, particularly when it comes to artistic decision-making in the way we choose colours, stroke our brushes and express our artistic intentions is crucial.
Because music and painting are both creative disciplines in the world of art, they have a special bond to most artists and viewers.
Music and painting can take you to a different place if you allow yourself to. They get you so involved in creating beautiful meaningful artwork. Let music and painting reveal your creative potential.
As artists, we are storytellers we communicate with paintings to engage the viewers’ imagination. I believe artists are so powerful in connecting with people, in revealing the beauty and wrestling with meanings and purposes as we live our own lives.
As you tell a more compelling story with your artwork you are inviting the viewer to participate with the work and may even consider their own context.
“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken“– Oscar Wilde.
Give it a try and see how your music may affect your painting on the canvas and begin to experience the joy of painting with music.
I would be interested to hear about your experience of painting with music. I’m sure it will be great fun.
11 March 2022 @ 8:16 pm
Yes! I truly believe that music helps open up new pathways for creativity to flow, thus enriching the overall artistic output. Energy responds to music in fascinating ways, and this is reflected in the colors, patterns, strokes and depth of the painting.
However, what brought a HUGE smile on my face is finding Duran Duran on your playlist!!! I never expected you to like them at allllll 😂 Brings back sooo many childhood memories ya Khalo!
12 March 2022 @ 9:28 am
Thank you so much for your beautiful comments. Music is a fascinating world and has a tremendous influence on our lives. Music can easily embed itself subconsciously in our subconscious mind and remains there, perhaps hidden, for a very long time. And I think this is exactly what happened with Duran Duran music. I never paid much attention to it before, but somehow it was there all the time. But, what triggered it back now, is something that remains unanswerable.
12 March 2022 @ 10:18 am
Totally agree!
Looking forward to reading your new article and viewing your latest beautiful artwork! 💖
12 March 2022 @ 11:45 am
I’ve recently added more oil paintings and currently preparing to add some more next week. Creating oil paintings is entirely different from acrylics, yet an amazing art journey. The process demands to slow down and take your time. I created these oil paintings in 2020 and left them to dry and cure for over 16 months before applying a thin coat of varnish.
12 March 2022 @ 12:59 pm
Wonderful! I can’t wait to take a look at the newly added oil paintings 💖 Can you provide the link, please?
Ofcourse, the process takes time but nevertheless it’s an extremely rewarding experience ⭐️ And it shows in your beautiful artwork: how it’s full of emotions, thoughts, and words beyond the paint. Actually there are a few paintings where I can hear you speak. Others are gentle like a summer breeze. And some look like you were in a fun mood.
I love how abstract paintings are like a Rorschach test; each person views and understands them according to his/her own perspective. I bet it would be awesome to have a conversation with each viewer to discuss how they perceive each painting and what’s going on in their mind.
I have a request please. I would like you to write a post showing how different emotions reflect on your paintings. For example, which ones were done when you were happy? And when you were angry? And when your mind was heavy with thoughts? Also, take a photo of them side by side to show the difference. I think this would be a very interesting experiment 😄
12 March 2022 @ 8:36 pm
I’ve just updated an older post, Who Was The First Abstract Artist, having researched, reviewed and analysed several historical records over the past 4 months. Art, in general, is a beautiful expressive language and I find non-representational abstract painting provides total freedom of visual expression without rules, restrictions or limitations. It is the language of feelings. You communicate with feelings and you read it with feelings. Can you imagine painting your feelings with your feelings!
I would be more than delighted to publish your post. Some of my oil paintings and acrylic paintings are available in the ‘Gallery’ section. The whole purpose of the blog posts is to share views of such an interesting subject as abstract painting.
10 April 2022 @ 5:25 pm
Hi Suhail,
I so related to the part in this post when you said you are impacted when you hear your painting music when you are not painting. That happened to me the other day with writing music. I often work on my book while listening to the score of Harry Potter or The Hobbit softly in the background. And the other day I heard that music in the background of an instructional youtube video I had on while doing the dishes. I felt so calmed and transported and didn’t know why for a second…my brain was saying oh we are writing now. (But i was doing the dishes.) Music can be a wonderful companion to creatives right? Music can set the table for us and pull out a chair for us, to begin the journey into the unconscious, never alone, but with a melodious friend. Thanks for the reminder. 🙂
11 April 2022 @ 10:24 am
Music has great effects on our moods. It can make us happy and joyful. It brings back a lot of memories. Feeling positive and energetic must also trigger creativity in whatever we do. So, creativity is not only for artists. It might also work when doing the dishes – I’ve never tried it myself as we use a dishwasher 😊. But I know that my wife the minute she goes into the kitchen plays her favourite music, whatever she is doing.
To me, music is an integral companion to creating my abstract paintings. Without music, the paintings are missing something.
Thank you so much for your feedback and I wish you all the best with your new book.