The Winged Messenger
(Mercury)

For an exhibition at a science fiction convention I produced a set of seven paintings based on the pieces in Holst's Planets suite. The pieces were not based on the planets themselves, or the mythology which inspired the music, but the music itself. Of course it would be an indictment on the music if it weren't to engender some of the attributes of the planet that it itself is about, but I wanted to firstly see how far inspiration by inspiration could go, and also make the audience of SF fans think about the cosmos in a more abstract manner.

This piece represents Mercury, The Winged Messenger. As I stated above, the intention was to have the paintings informed by the music, not the subject of the music, and Mercury makes a good example. It is heavy, dark and foreboding, which doesn't well represent one of the smaller bodies in our solar system, and the closest to the sun. But to me the music was rich, and the melody emerges slowly and unwillingly, making me think of the messages Mercury could be sending. The yellow 'sprites' emerge from the dark background in an attempt to capture this.

I did have an interesting discussion with one viewer who adamantly asserted that this was more representative of the Mars piece musically. I didn't really feel a need to contradict them - that they engaged with the piece and thought about the link between art, music, and a distant world was enough for me.