Tiny Tuesday!

Now I can share this painting because it has been received by the person whose gift it is.

“Muse Garden No. 1: Need You Tonight” is mixed media on an 8×10 canvas. The painting’s inspiration came from the lyrics of “Need You Tonight” by INXS. Lines and words from the song are printed on the stems and leaves of the flowers. After I painted the canvas, each flower was individually hand-colored by me and applied.

The recipient has great affection for the late Michael Hutchence, Australian musician, singer-songwriter, actor, and co-founder of INXS. The center of the sun is a bottle cap from manufacturer Carlton & United/Carlton’s Crown Lager and says, “Australia’s Finest,” an apt description of Hutchence.

I was inspired by art I found on the Internet that used Spirograph drawings. I found them when doing research for this excerpt from the Neverending Saga.

She browsed the shelves and tables until a notebook caught her eye. The colorful flowers on its cover reminded her of ones she and her best friend used to draw. They’d start with her Spirograph, color the shapes and patterns with markers and pencils, then cut them out and glue them on things like the covers they made for their school books, her 45 records boxes, and notes they wrote to each other. They gave the shapes stems and leaves so they became flowers.

To create both a painting and fiction inspired by someone’s art and someone else’s music is extremely gratifying to me.