Art and music

For my latest project I worked with the artist Ian Reddie who started producing abstract work well over a decade ago now, but  has been inactive in recent times for personal reasons. The idea was to present a retrospective of all the paintings, a chance to review where it all started and how his output changed over the years. This would allow him to take stock and decide on his next move.

I commissioned Edinburgh-based musician/composer Harry Bongo to create a sound tracks suitable to accompany Ian's paintings.  The sound had to evoke a dessert setting, bleached by the sun, rugged, desolate, but also beautiful and introspective.

Ian's work is very much landscape focused, imaginary landscapes that appeal to the emotions and feelings. A trip to Arizona and Monument Valley in 2019 gave a chance to re-interpret some of his previous work.

From Ian's website:
Ian has consistently developed his abstract style since the beginning of his artistic career. After exploring screen printing and digital collage, he began painting in mixed media. Oils, marble dust, concrete, grit and jute are amongst the materials he has used. Texture is a vital component of his style, with surfaces and colour being worked and reworked, scoured clear and covered over again. Elemental forms cut through these tactile landscapes, creating humanist reference points in the universal chaos of existence. Dynamic tension is created by the relationship of form and space, the exploration of edge – the boundary at which states alter; solid becoming void; the definite, ambiguous.These works invite the viewer to respond at an emotional level; to find their own orientation, and create their own personal narrative.

Check Ian Reddie's website here
Check Harry Bongo's website here