Water Paints the Sky is a composition for solo piano that I created as part of a collaboration on a music video project between myself and artist Steven Mairella. The video features 12 of his special paintings, including four watercolors that he created especially for this video. 

     Steven and I were classmates and friends back in grammar school at Lincoln School in Nutley and throughout our school years, until we graduated from Nutley High School in 1974. At that point Steven went to Brown University, and I went to the Manhattan School of Music. In retrospect it is somewhat amazing that from that point in time until very recently (early 2021) we didn’t have any interaction, since we both now share a very similar artistic vision. I guess we were on different journeys that were getting  us ready to reconnect further down the road. When we recently discovered each other’s artistic work on the internet, of all places, we both felt that it was no coincidence. When Steve asked me if I might be interested in collaborating on a music video it was almost as if he was reading my mind because I was thinking the same thing! 

     The first painting of Steven’s that really caught my eye and touched me deeply was Birds' Song #5 -- I Dreamt of a Bush Full of Cardinals in the Winter.  You can view this and other paintings of his and get  information about his specific paintings at stevemartworks.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

     He started listening to music from my CDs Kindred Spirits and When the 4 Winds Blow, and I started checking out more of his paintings, especially his beautiful landscape paintings, many of which struck an emotional chord in me. I have always been deeply inspired as a composer and spiritually uplifted by the majestic beauty of nature. I have also always loved landscape paintings, and in fact my father George was an amazing landscape painter and a great inspiration to me artistically. So I guess it was very natural for me to feel a kinship with Steven’s paintings. 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     At some point Steven started painting while listening to my music. I started composing Water Paints the Sky, which was inspired by the feelings that his paintings evoked in me. Our collaboration had begun in a very natural way, and when he heard the piece he got inspired to paint some new watercolors for the project. He painted while listening to the piece and every week he would send me a new painting. I liked them all so much that it inspired me to keep working on the piece, and complete it. The final step for me was to film and record the piece, and then edit and create the video. Although always a challenging job for me, the video editing for this project was a pleasure, and adding his beautiful paintings to the video was just a question of finding out where they already belonged!