News / Neil Young

"Oh I am a lonely painter. I live in a box of paints.  I'm frightened by the devil,
and I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid."

 

I know the life of an artist requires lots of hours of being on your own. The way I paint it does anyhow. Twelve hour days at the easel is not for everyone. I am so lucky to have Jeanette as a partner who also requires a lot of time to make her art as well. We understand it. It can be lonely in a way. I usually like to listen to music when I paint. Over the years I have realized the faster the music, the faster I paint. So I'll play loud bands for most of the layout, and base colours, and generally acoustic for detail work. I first remember hearing the music of Neil Young in 1977 over the Christmas holidays. It was my friends older brother who had just got the album "Decade". I looked at a 3 record set for the first time in my life, and thought, "Look at all these songs! This must be all this guy does." I was blown away that he rocked it with the best of them with his band Crazy Horse, and he had beautiful slow music too. I was ten, and I've loved his music ever since. So in those long days in the studio I spend quite a bit of time with Neil. His style usually blends perfectly to the environment. I felt like painting a scene I envisioned of Neil's journey leaving Canada to make it in L.A. with Bruce Palmer 50 years ago in that old hearse. I don't think any images of that trip exist, so I sketched out a scene in my head, and created one. Hanging with Neil and Bruce and Mort II these past few weeks has been awesome, and I wasn't lonely one bit.