Gallery One to hosts artists reception June 21

Gallery One announced its new show, Painting to Music, will be on display to the public from Wednesday, June 4, through Tuesday, July 2, at 32 Atlantic Ave., Ocean View.

The public is invited to an artists reception from 4 to 6 p.m., Saturday, June 21. This month, the Gallery One artists share pieces inspired by music.

Musical and visual artists’ works have always influenced each other.

Whistler’s ‘Nocturnes” painting was inspired by Chopin’s solo piano compositions of the same name. Bach’s choral works sparked Paul Klee’s geometric abstraction, “Polyphony.” Stuart Davis’s painting “Swing Landscape,” Piet Mondrian’s “Broadway Boogie Woogie” and Henri Matisse’s “Jazz Suite,” all avant-garde masterpieces, were influenced by the popular jazz music of their day.

Laura Hickman said her pastel, “Bossa Nova Beach,” brought back the memories and emotions of listening to music as a child. “When I was young, I loved listening to Brazilian bossa nova. I still do, and I often think what a wonderful place it had to have been in the ‘60s to produce this combination of samba/jazz genre of sophisticated, calm and swaying melodies.”

Lesley McCaskill was inspired by the music of Christopher Cross for her acrylic painting, “Sailing.” “The words and rhythm are smooth, and glide like the boats sailing in Lewes that I love to watch,” she said.

Dale Sheldon said painting her acrylic work, “Fields of Gold, Eva Cassidy,” brought back the memory of the magical golden fields found on the small back roads of the Eastern Shore in late April, with sunlight spilling across them. She said was also reminded of Eva Cassidy’s song, “Fields of Gold.”

Mary Bode Byrd’s acrylic, “Ladies Let’s Dance,” was inspired by the beat of a Mavericks album.

Cindy Beyer and Laurie Fields used music as inspiration just a little differently. Listening to island music while painting “Undersea Band,” Beyer said, “I was thinking about eight beats to a bar and eight counts in line dancing. Which led to ... Why not have a sea creature with eight legs be his own conductor in a one-octo band?” While creating “Sway,” a mixed-media work, Fields listened to music and melted the wax so that its movement matched the beat.