Violinist needs a good home

Violinist needs a good home

Julia Fischer, watercolour 80 x 50cm, 2006

It's eight years since I painted the now world famous violinist Julia Fischer. I wanted to avoid the rather smooth sweet girlish images used in much publicity and CD packaging today. I saw here a very determined young woman with amazing range of musical skills. She came to my Amsterdam studio (with the dress over her arm) and practised first Bach (if I remember rightly), then Tschaikovsky for an upcoming concert with her mentor the late lamented conductor Yakov Kreizberg. 

There's something about that profile that shows her "going places". As with every musician, you have to be careful to get certain things right - her 1742 Guadagnini, her bow arm, her cool poise and strong presence. I made her skin-colours a little darker, closer to the golden tones of her violin. As I painted, a sort of V-shape emerged, balanced right on the point where the bow touches the strings; then another one, formed by the elbow and fingers of her left hand. In fact there's a whole geometry in my composition that reflects her own composure.

Then of course, the painting has to vibrate with energy, to sing! I believe it does. But you know what? That sound has been stifled for the past eight years, because the painting is still lying a dark drawer in my studio, waiting for a good home! Anybody?