The Audacity Painting

“I feel every opportunity must be taken to draw the eye to the art of W.S. Cranmore.” Elvis Costello (Singer/Songwriter) Considering the centrifugal role that music plays in W.S. Cranmore's process in making Art, there could be no greater accolade than that from a musician and one of W.S. Cranmore’s musical inspirations. W.S. Cranmore’s artworks are known for their distinctive geometric patterns, bold lines and borders, and nontraditional composition. At the intersection of Expressionism, Geometric Abstraction and Pop Art, W.S. Cranmore’s artworks meld early modernist with later post-modernist influences. His art invites subjective interpretation, emotional introspection and personal appreciation, telling personal stories and re-imagining memories in a uniquely unconventional way. But it would be incorrect to say these artworks are created with a specific goal in mind. Instead, Cranmore focuses on the process, letting the paintings imagine themselves into being along a creative journey that starts and ends with music. W.S. Cranmore’s approach to Art is to let the image come to him and for the image evolve through a completely abstract process – led by emotions and feelings evoked by music. Cranmore harnesses the power of creativity-inspiring ‘white noise’ sound – ambient tracks with no beat, understated melody and no lyrics. Like the blank canvas before the artist, the music is a starting point from which the painting expresses itself. “Ambient music in particular is like the musical equivalent to abstract expressionism and some of my most inspired work has been created to ambient music.” Music remains core to the process throughout, with a particular track that ’speaks to the emergence of the art’ played until the painting is done – or until it has fully expressed itself. “I paint with a piece of music that connects with the art. It’s through the music that I will find out the rest of the painting.” The importance of music is extended to the viewer of the painting – who is also sometimes invited to play a particular piece of music while viewing an artwork. This being how Elvis Costello came to own one of W.S. Cranmore’s paintings. “I happened upon ‘Our Lady of the Signal’ with the enigmatic footnote that the image should be paired with my old song ‘Kid About It’ – a melody composed of that wretched day on which John Lennon left this earth.