Growing up in the 1980s was just too much fun. Yes, we had the Rubik’s Cubes and the parachute pants, but we also had the real beginnings of the summer blockbuster. It seemed like every year there was a new, *original* movie to enjoy, with great characters and a great story. And many of those movies were scored by the legendary composer John Williams.
I remember getting a Star Wars soundtrack on vinyl back in the day (which I’m still looking for in all of my boxes in the attic). It was my first introduction to film music, and to John Williams in particular. Since then, I’ve amassed a healthy collection of film scores from all sorts of composers, and it makes up the bulk of my music library.
I decided to create a painting honoring Johnny and all of the magical contributions he’s made to film over the last 60 years!
When I start a new painting I go through a lot of sketches, trying different combinations to see what I like. Here’s a short video of that process for this painting:
And here’s a video where I’m working on some of the orchestra players below, deciding how I want to place them:
He has tons of musical projects to choose from, so I had to narrow it down to the ones that had the most influence on me growing up. Can you name them all? Here’s a short video showing the final piece:
His music was definitely the music of my youth, and continues to be a big part of my adulthood as well. Prints and canvases for the painting are available here.