Peer Gynt in the Air

Oil stick on paper.    I continue to draw thumbnail sketches from works by Chaim Soutine then using oil sticks I create a new work loosely based on the sketch.  Using bolder colors with contrast in addition to working quickly with my fingers manipulating the oil sticks are my goals.

 

While creating this image I heard the music of Edvard Grieg and his Peer Gynt Suites, actually the last of the second suite.  The music affected my work and then only afterward did I investigate what and who Peer Gynt was.   The music was for Henrik Ibsen’s play of which the genesis was a Norwegian fairy tale.  In the air the music created a transparent layer of heaviness, foreboding and left me with a feeling that I should “look over my shoulder”.  The mood punctuated the final image, even if Peer Gynt and Ibsen were brand new to my little consciousness.  In the end it worked.