Beat (Rhythm) – Notes

 

Part of the Four Across series

 

Painted the staff first. Then the time signature and final bar, then the hi-hat note heads (both above & below the staff), then the snare & bass note heads, & lastly the stems. 

 

All 4 paintings were set to dry on the bed in the guest bedroom. The door was kept closed when the twins - Biggly & Covfefe - were staying over night. One night, however, the door was left open & Covfefe (Mason) discovered the treasure. Of the four paintings, he selected Rhythm. I saw him running down the hallway - treasure in hand – with the most gleeful look on his face. He was running way too fast! The look on my face was one of absolute horror, but these days, I get a good chuckle every time I think of it. I feared that Mason would trip & fall through the canvas. He did trip & fall, but somehow the painting hit the outside corner of the place where the entrance hallway and bedroom hallway meet. The scrape is noticeable on the left hand edge where the staff curves around the frame. Fixed it (as much as possible) with some black gesso over the silver paint that was part of the scraped section. I’m thrilled that Covfefe helped in the painting of this picture!

 

The drum beat groove was supposed to have only eighth notes for the hi-hat part. I used that groove in Four Loops & still think it’s one of the coolest (but simplest) beats ever. I changed the hi-hat part to 16th notes because I thought the spacing and increased activity would be more visually interesting. However, 16th notes tend to limit the groove possibilities because of the implied slower tempo. For those musically inclined, please know that I consider the eighth note groove to be far groovier than the sixteenth note groove, especially when it’s really grooving.

 

This took an enormous amount of patience and time to accomplish all the hard edge taping, sealing (2 coats) and painting (3 coats each color). Also, the tape for the hi-hat notes didn’t lift very easily and numerous fixes had to be made. In the future, avoid tape “cutouts” that require lifting in four directions at the same time. Hard edge works best when tape can be pulled away from the line in one outward direction.

 

This painting was one of the brightest moments of the summer-that-wasn’t; one of the most disappointing summers I’ve ever experienced!!!!