A dissonant landscape: Translation of the work from the artist’s notes

Fine art can be considered a language. Ideas and emotions can be powerfully communicated through purely visual means.

But you do not need to understand art in order to enjoy it. In fact often the artist has no greater intention than work intuitively giving free rein to expression and the physical joy of painting. One can enjoy music without knowing music theory or how to play an instrument. The same is true regarding the visual arts.

Still, many people find that an understanding of the artist, his techniques and influences adds greater value to their enjoyment of his work. This brief treatise, (a summary of my sketchbook notes and principal muses) is offered to those people.

My “Muses”

Three people have had a profound influence in my artistic career. They are: My grandfather, Bert Berry (distinguished watercolorist from whom I learned many life lessons and to love painting); my father, Ken Berry (jazz musician who began to play professionally at age 15) and Jesus Christ, my example, mentor and savior.

My grandfather painted colorful landscapes of the American South-east. He loved the impressionists, especially Van Gogh. He rarely used black and strived for brevity of design and a freshly painted look.
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My dad played a very sensual kind of jazz comprised of complex chords and melodic lines. He was an emotionally sensitive person. He liked innovation and improvisation. I remember he was one of the first North Americans to play the “Bossa Nova”.

I am not ashamed to say that Jesus Christ is very present in my way of seeing and interpreting the world. More than 30 years ago He rescued me from the chaos of a self centered, destructive and insensitive lifestyle and gave me instead one filled with purpose and meaning. Christ never looks on the outward appearance of a thing but goes straight to the heart. I am humbly trying to do the same thing. Many of my paintings have, as a result, a double meaning that can be defined as “prophetic”.

Artistic Principles

In a “Dissonant Landscape” I wanted to explore the concept of dissonance, which is common to jazz music, and apply it to painting. Dissonant chords and notes are common in jazz. These are sounds that stand out. In fact often they are not resolved as in more traditional forms of music. A bar of jazz will often contain complex chords such as major 7th, 9th, 11th etc.

This produces a rich tonal palette. I wanted to explore color in a similar way. The palette is very high chromatically, nearly pure in fact. This was pushed farther by the use of 2 pairs of complementary colors (red-green and blue-orange). The result is a combination of both tension and harmony.

Rhythm creates a musical texture. The “back-beat” or “swing” is often rich and varied. I use texture as my bass section, sometimes in the background giving strength to the whole, and sometimes heavily to emphasize a specific element. ................................................................................................

The theme of “A Dissonant Landscape” are the fields,towns and cities of Castillia La Mancha, Spain. This, land of Don Quijote, has been my home for the last 10 years. This Spring 2007 there was an abundance of rain. The wheat fields were especially lush and filled with bright read poppies. In general the forms were simplified and reduced to geometric shapes.

Sketchbook Notes

The “La Sagra Series”: There are 6 paintings of the wheat fields and countryside just north of Toledo. Red-Green tension is especially evident here. In a metaphoric sense, green often symbolizes life, prosperity, abundance, hope and promise. Red provokes thoughts of blood, struggle and a cross. I am reminded that w/o the Cross the promise of life and abundance cannot be realized.

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Mirando la Cosecha (Looking at the Harvest):

The promise is there, but there is a price to pay

to get it, (“the Harvest is white but the laborers

are few”).How many spend their like only looking

at it from a distance rather thanpursuing the dream?
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El Mundillo del Conejo (the Rabbit’s World): The silhouette of Toledo is on the horizon but Mr. Rabbit can’t see it. His world is the small bush where he lives. It may be a pretty bush but it’s a small vision.

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Mi casa = un altar (My home = an altar): The neighborhood is dark and asleep, but one house shines. There an altar (a place where God and man meet) has been established.

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Salto del Negativo (Springing forth from the Negative):

I wanted to emphasize the negative (dark blue) space.

This makes the geometric orange forms seem to jump out.

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Si los muros hablesen (if these walls could talk):

The 2000+ year old city of Toledo has seen its share of history. What would the walls tell us about what they had witnessed?

Toledo, Spain; July 4, 2007
Linwood K. Berry