Posts Tagged ‘fine art’
Eric Clapton
Eric “Slowhand” Clapton is a rock and blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist from England. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame three times –with Cream, the Yardbirds, and as a solo artist.
After leaving the Yardbirds in the 1960s, Clapton played with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers before forming Cream with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce. He has also played with Blind Faith, a blues rock band he helped form, as well as various acts including Delaney and Bonnie and Friends and the Plastic Ono Band. Clapton achieved great success during his time in Derek and the Dominos with their hit song, “Layla”. During his solo career, he wrote classics including “Cocaine” and the more recent “Tears in Heaven”, about the death of his son.
Despite facing a number of personal struggles, Clapton is continually ranked on various lists as one of the greatest guitar players of all time. He has won 18 Grammy awards, a Brit award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, been awarded a CBE at Buckingham palace for his services to music, and founded a medical facility for recovering substance abusers.
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Jon Anderson
Jon Anderson is undoubtedly one of the most recognizable voices in progressive rock as the lead vocalist and creative force behind Yes. Anderson was the author and a major creative influence behind the ground-breaking album ‘Fragile’ as well as the series of epic, complex pieces such as “Awaken”, “Gates of Delirium” and especially “Close to the Edge” which were central to the band’s success. Additionally, Anderson co-authored the group’s biggest hits, including “I’ve Seen All Good People”, “Roundabout”, and “Owner Of A Lonely Heart”. In addition, Anderson had great success with a series of albums he did with Vangelis, and most recently released the critically-acclaimed solo album entitled ‘Survival and Other Stories’.
Jon was born John Roy Anderson in Accrington, Lancashire, England, on October 25, 1944 to Albert and Kathleen Anderson. Anderson dropped the “h” from his first name in 1970. In addition to music, one of Jon Anderson’s passions is painting, and he uses his at as yet another channel for his creativity and self expression.
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Ken Tobias
Ken Tobias is a Canadian music legend best known for songs from the 60’s and 70’s like “I Just Want To Make Music”, “Every Bit Of Love”, “Give A Little Love”, and “Dream #2”. He was also a cast member of the CBC series Music Hop and Singalong Jubilee in the 60’s alongside Anne Murray.
The Bells version of Ken’s song “Stay Awhile” sold several million records world wide; however, Ken Tobias is also a visual artist. For forty years Ken has been painting and selling his works. Over 200 of his 500 or so canvases and masonite works are hanging in homes all over North America with a few in Europe.
Ken is a self taught artist but has learned from every artist he has met as well as from nature and private study. His work in acrylic covers several genres. Still lives, land and seascapes, fairy and space paintings, nudes, and figure studies. Ken’s pursuit of beauty through light and shadow and three dimension are obvious. His sense of colour values is beautiful and consistent in all his works.
After years of successful songwriting and playing his music in Halifax, Montreal and Hollywood, Ken moved back to Toronto where he paid his dues in the Queen Street art scene and where he showed and sold his paintings in Bloor West Village for 13 years.
Ken is now back in his home town of Saint John, New Brunswick. He is still active with his music but spending most of his time now with his other love – painting.
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Thomas Russell
Singer songwriter, painter, essayist – Tom Russell earned a Master’s Degree in Criminology from the University of California. He recently received the ASCAP Award of 2015 for outstanding achievement in music journalism. He has recorded thirty five highly acclaimed albums, and published five books, which include: 120 Songs of Tom Russell, Tough Company – Letters with Charles Bukowski, Blue Horse Red Desert: the Art of Tom Russell, Blodsport – a crime novel published by Aschehoug, Norway, and – And Then I Wrote: The Songwriter Speaks, with Sylvia Tyson.
Tom Russell’s songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Ian Tyson, Doug Sahm, Nanci Griffith, Ramblin Jack Elliott, Iris Dement, Joe Ely and hundreds of others. His current 52 track “folk opera” on the West: The Rose of Roscrae, was deemed by UK Folk as perhaps most important Americana record of all time, the top Folk album of 2105 by Mojo Magazine, and hailed in top ten lists in two dozen publications including The Los Angeles Times.
“The greatest living folk-country songwriter is a man named Tom Russell.” John Swenson, Rolling Stone
“Tom Russell is the best songwriter of the generation following Bob Dylan.” The Montreal Gazette
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Ringo Starr
Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for the Beatles. He occasionally sang lead vocals, usually for one song on an album, including “With a Little Help from My Friends”, “Yellow Submarine” and their cover of “Act Naturally”. He also wrote the Beatles’ songs “Don’t Pass Me By” and “Octopus’s Garden”.
Ringo has been a visual artist throughout his music career. Starting out using acrylics and oils, Ringo was creating paintings for many years before he decided to start composing art on his computer in the late 90s. Compared often to Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, Ringo’s “pop art” is unique.
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Paul McCartney
Sir Paul McCartney British Artist: (born 18 June 1942) In the early years of The Beatles, John Lennon and former member Stuart Sutcliffe attended Art college, consequently Paul likely felt inhibited in his visual art by his lack of formal art training, and so only began exploring his creative visual art later in life. During the sixties he became friendly with art critic, John Dunbar and gallery owner Robert Fraser. Through their circle of influential friends and young artists, Paul became familiar with contemporary art, meeting people like Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton who were to later design covers for The Beatles’ albums. Sgt Pepper and Abbey Road were both based on ideas that Paul developed with them. Paul would spend lots of time at the Fraser and Indica galleries, helping with the installation of exhibits and feeding his enthusiasm for the medium. McCartney began collecting and bought a number of paintings by the surrealist painter Magritte, whose influence on Paul’s own painting is considerable. Since 1983 he has set up studios in the south of England and in the USA, where he has been continuing to explore the medium of painting.
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Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol is known primarily as a major visual artist and a significant filmmaker. He was not a musician, and probably knew little about the technological processes by which music is recorded. He nonetheless made notable contributions to rock history as a producer and manager of the Velvet Underground. He managed the Velvets until about the summer of 1967, and was credited as producer of the bulk of their classic first album (self-titled, but known as “The Banana Album”), which was largely made before they got a record deal. As is sometimes the case with good production, his contribution probably consisted of not interfering with the music and letting the band be themselves. Warhol also did artwork for several rock album covers including the zippered pants on the sleeve of the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers.
Born Andrew Warhol (August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987), Warhol was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, and advertisement that flourished by the 1960s. After a successful career as a commercial illustrator, Warhol became a renowned and sometimes controversial artist.
Warhol’s art used many types of media, including hand drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, silk screening, sculpture, film, and music. He was also a pioneer in computer-generated art using Amiga computers that were introduced in 1984, two years before his death. He founded Interview magazine and was the author of numerous books, including The Philosophy of Andy Warhol and Popism: The Warhol Sixties.
Warhol has been the subject of numerous retrospective exhibitions, books, and feature and documentary films. He coined the widely used expression “15 minutes of fame”. Many of his creations are very collectible and highly valuable. The highest price ever paid for a Warhol painting is US$105 million for a 1963 canvas titled “Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)”. A 2009 article in The Economist described Warhol as the “bellwether of the art market”. Warhol’s works include some of the most expensive paintings ever sold.
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Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall “Jimi” Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942 – September 18, 1970) was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as “arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music”.
Bob and Kathy Levine, Hendrix’s publicity agents in the U.S., say that Jimi carried sketchpads and art boards with him and was often seen drawing his vivid images. Some of the paintings appear to have begun as small doodles which he developed into intricate highly involved images. Those familiar with his method of painting say Hendrix worked with 5 or 6 watercolor pens held between the fingers of his right hand as his other hand deftly created the amazingly intricate designs.
Jimi’s outlook on art took a different turn when in 1965 he met Arthur Lee, the creator and producer of several psychedelic record albums. This experience, along with his use of acid and other hard drugs, began the change in Jimi’s style of dress and his expressions in fine art. His paintings represent brightly colored figures and inventive forms in various sizes, with the smallest being about 4 inches and the larger ones approximately 18 inches. All are powerful, highly creative and unique hallucinogenic works of art. Jimi’s art works are always immediate, intimate and precise is because he was extremely nearsighted and never wore glasses. Oddly, his biographers report that as a young boy in school Jimi displayed special talent in art, but had no early interest in music.
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Gilson Lavis
Gilson is one of the most experienced and talented musicians still working at the forefront of the music business today.
As an original member of Squeeze he enjoyed considerable success around the globe performing their global hits “Tempted”, “Black Coffee In Bed” and “Another Nail In My Heart” at the most iconic venues: Maple Leaf Gardens, Madison Square Gardens, Hollywood Bowl and The Royal Albert Hall.
He has spent the last 25 years drumming with Jools Holland on his UK Late Night TV show and for internationally famous performers including, Adele, Eric Clapton, Barry White, Cher, Ronnie Wood, Steve Windwood, Joe Cocker, Tom Jones, Kylie Minogue, Paul McCartney, Al Green… the list goes on and is still growing. Gilson resumed his painting career a decade ago. He explains:
“Art has been an anchor in my life. It played a key role in my rehabilitation from addiction and is a calming and peaceful place for me to return to whenever I can. In the privileged position I find myself, working regularly with many of the best artists in the world I have tried to capture the essence of their performance. A tall order but I am very proud of the results.”
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Martin Tielli
Martin Tielli is best known as a songwriter, vocalist and guitarist for the Rheostatics. In their 20 years from 1987 to 2007, the band released 11 studio and 4 live albums, two of which – Melville and Whale Music – have been have been cited in numerous critical and listener polls as among the best Canadian albums ever recorded. Martin has also released 4 solo albums, and 2 with the band Nick Buzz (Tielli, Hugh Marsh, Jonathan Goldsmith, Rob Piltch). He also collaborates with Jennifer Baichwal and Nick de Pencier of Mercury Films, having written music for the documentaries Act of God, Payback, and Watermark.
Martin began his art career as a scientific illustrator for the Royal Ontario Museum’s Department of Paleontology at the age of 18. He has created the cover art for over 40 albums, and was nominated for a Best Artwork JUNO Award for the Rheostatics’ The Story of Harmelodia. He has also done illustrations for the Etobicoke Guardian, Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and several books. In addition to a number of solo shows, Martin’s paintings have been included in the Collector’s Series – Happy Mediums (guest curated by Kevin Hearn) at the Art Gallery of Ontario, June 2010, and at the McMichael Gallery’s Autumn Art Sale, October 2014. His recent work featuring landscapes, birds and plants reflect his lifelong interest as a naturalist. Volumes of field sketchbooks serve as a source for more finished paintings. He uses most mediums but as of late is focusing on Oil and Casein Tempera on wood.
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