180x300cm acrylic, collage, oil pastel on linen. Unframed.
The painting here is my interpretation of Prelude no.15, commonly known as the famous “Raindrop Prelude”. But Chopin didn't title his works and hated when others did it for him. He was often angered by such reductive and facile descriptors. His partner George Sand wrote in her memoir:
“He was even angry that I should interpret this in terms of imitative sounds. He protested with all his might – and he was right to – against the childishness of such aural imitations. His genius was filled with the mysterious sounds of nature, but transformed into sublime equivalents by musical thought, and not through slavish imitation of the actual external sounds.”
When prescriptive titles are set aside, a whole other world opens up, both aurally and visually. I wanted to express all that I feel and sense when I listen to this piece, bypassing as much as possible verbal descriptions and the limitations of language.
