Yes I know. There’s a grammatical error howling in the title of this blog. Apologies to all my English teachers. I loved and listened to all of you. I blog of inspiration and the rhythm of working a painting. To all of you who don’t paint, yes, painting is work. It only looks like we sit and think most of the time. That’s how a painting becomes successful.
Many people listen to music while they paint. The choices of music styles vary, but have no doubt, it affects the finished product. The same is true of my background noise, movies. Huge dramatic movies like Lord of the Rings, result in vivid colors and sweeping brushstrokes. Do not watch The Omen or Christopher Walken going all Angelic in The Prophecy while you try to render a tranquil landscape. Do I watch John Wayne movies while I paint The Cowboy? Yeeha! You bet!
Dun dun... dun dun...
Jaws is another big favorite. My husband once asked me how many times I had watched Jaws. Honestly, I can’t remember. If the music and images were helping me paint, I’d just hit replay. Since I can paint up to 16 hours at a stretch, we can kindly estimate that I have seen Jaws a lot.
There’s clearly a fairly dramatic theme to the movies I watch when I paint, but I think what I find so easily focuses my work is the sound behind each of them. LOTR has sweeping strings, Jaws has soft water sounds. Painting is like meditation, and when I put one of these on, all I see is canvas. I don’t even hear my phone!
So what are your favorite movies to paint by?