New Handpainted Vinyl Records for Pop! Goes The Easel Show
Kerwin Fuses Music and Art With Two New Series of Jackson Pollock-Inspired Handpainted Vinyl Records for 2023 Norwich Exhibition
For my Winter 2023 art exhibition, Pop! Goes The Easel, at the Crypt Gallery in Norwich, I created two new series of Limited Edition, handpainted and framed vinyl records. These are an exciting fusion of music and art – reflecting the theme of my ‘By Kerwin’ art brand, and make for stunning and unique pieces of art.
My Pop! Goes The Easel art exhibition ran from 21st November to 4th December 2023 and was the most exciting collection of my pop art-inspired artwork to date. To complement the large collection of portrait paintings and prints on display, I created these new series of handpainted 12” and 7” vinyl records and also had these on display and for sale.
One of these series was striking yellow and green, Norwich City FC-inspired – as a thank you to my loyal Norwich customers and fanbase (being from Norwich myself). The other was a series of multi-coloured records, featuring 14 different shades of splattered acrylic paint. This series reflected my use of all different colours in my By Kerwin painting collection – and is a true nod to the spirit of pop art.
Fusing Art and Music – Using Real Vinyl Records
To create these individual works of art I repurposed real original vinyl records – in both the 12” and 7” sizes – featuring popular music from the last few decades. These works of art therefore contain a sense of timelessness within them, as well as reflecting the value of recycling and re-use in a fast-moving consumer world.
How Do I Create My Handpainted Vinyl Records?
Once I have the original vinyl records, I will choose the best-preserved records to use, and also select those with the most interesting coloured labels. For the Norwich City-themed records I used yellow, green, black or white labels only. For the multicoloured series I selected as many different coloured labels as I could – so that the label colour alters the overall ‘feel’ of each record.
I then clean these before laying these on the floor and doing my Jackson Pollock-inspired action painting over the top. I’ll throw layers of acrylic paint down, letting these partly dry in between layers to prevent them blurring. Once all layers are dry, I varnish these and sign the reverse, before neatly presently them in tailor-made vinyl record frames.
Each framed record is signed on the white card mount, for a strikingly stylish work of art. The different layers of splattered paint work effectively against the black of the record, so the colours really pop. Framing these circles of chaos and energy within the white mounts of the frame then captures these works perfectly, as if the moving paint is suspended in time.
One-off, Unique Pieces of Art
What I absolutely love about these records is that each is a completely unique, one-off piece of art – no two are the same, and they are never to be repeated. The action painting technique means the layers and colour combinations are splattered randomly, so each record composition is different to the next.
Moreover, the different coloured record labels give the records different appearances, and the records contain different music and artists. People visiting my Pop! Goes The Easel exhibition therefore had much fun choosing with record was their favourite and most personal to them.
I was very excited to see several of these records heading off to new homes. These really are the perfect piece for any music and art lover! Contact me to enquire about purchasing one of your own records from these Limited Edition collections.
Previous By Kerwin Painted Vinyl Record Collections
This wasn’t the first time I’d captured the spirit of music-inspired art with my handpainted vinyl records. I previously created a Limited Edition series for my 2022 Norwich Crypt Gallery exhibition, and also a USA, ‘Stars and Stripes’ inspired series for my 2022 New York art show appearance, which was my first international art show.
These records also represent a more affordable way to purchase an original By Kerwin painting than an original portrait painting, and are therefore a great addition to my collection. Contact me to enquire.
Which series of my handpainted vinyl records is your favourite?!
Explore and shop my full range of music-themed Pop Art paintings and prints in my online shop at www.bykerwin.com
Read my full Pop! Goes The Easel exhibition story here. You can also explore the rest of my blog posts about music and art here.
My full range of Jackson Pollock-inspired acrylic paintings can be viewed at www.bykerwin.com – the originals and prints of these are available to purchase, with worldwide delivery. You can follow my art progress on Instagram and Facebook.
