Curtis_Long's_Online_Art

Young Mozart

Mixed media (acrylic paint & mediums, vintage papers) on Gallery-Wrap Canvas

48" x 36"

I didn't plan to paint a series of grand pianos -- this is #5 -- but I'm having fun with them! I love the simple geometry, the vast areas of canvas for 'improvisational' painting, and the opportunity for color experiments. I also enjoy selecting the vintage papers that I collage to the canvas before overpainting. Behind the blue (scroll down for detail images) is sheet music from Young Mozart for the Young Pianist, Vol. II, published in 1966. The editor for this edition writes:

The original piano works of the young Mozart herein presented are those which he wrote between the ages of five and eight. They can be played by students of the same age group, in their first two years of piano study. Young Mozart was the only genius to compose at such an early age.

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		Young Mozart Mixed media (acrylic paint & mediums, vintage papers) on Gallery-Wrap Canvas 48" x 36" I didn't plan to paint a series of grand pianos -- this is #5 -- but I'm having fun with them! I love the simple geometry, the vast areas of canvas for 'improvisational' painting, and the opportunity for color experiments. I also enjoy selecting the vintage papers that I collage to the canvas before overpainting. Behind the blue (scroll down for detail images) is sheet music from Young Mozart for the Young Pianist, Vol. II, published in 1966. The editor for this edition writes: The original piano works of the young Mozart herein presented are those which he wrote between the ages of five and eight. They can be played by students of the same age group, in their first two years of piano study. Young Mozart was the only genius to compose at such an early age. v v v v Scroll down to view details v v v v

The ivory keys are backed with pages photocopied from The International Library of Music for Home and Studio, Music Literature Volume 1, The History of Music, copyright 1925. This particular selection is the chapter about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, written by -- get this -- Edvard Grieg! It's a fascinating piece, in which Grieg draws parallels between Mozart and Wagner.

As illustrated below, this piece features a combination of loose, watercolor-style painting (yellow/orange/red) and many-layered, transparent, palette-knife textured impasto acrylic (blue).