In 2008 Norman Perryman will celebrate fifty years of a passion for painting musical themes and musical celebrities (at least four hundred watercolours and oils and thousands of kinetic images for live performance with music). Probably more than any other known painter.

Norman Perryman combines the essential figurative appearance with abstract textures, graphic rhythms and explosions of sound. His works become more transparent and he turns to watercolour as an appropriate medium to convey the illusion of movement and the transient nature of music.

His painting is often a direct emotional response to the music, recorded with his brush in a kind of automatism. His aim is to help you hear the music in the painting.

Signing the limited-edition prints of
'Elgar's Dream'
Yehudi Menuhin, opening an exhibition of this work (Gstaad, 1972) described Perryman as "a musician, who makes music with his brush". One can see a direct connection between this work and Perryman's kinetic performance-painting ( see Kinetic Painting as Performance Art ).

In 1993, BBC Television made the fifty-minute documentary 'Concerto for Paintbrush and Orchestra', reviewing Perryman's life and work with music through painting and highlighting the Birmingham Symphony Hall Collection of Perryman's paintings on musical themes and of celebrities in music. (see Limited Edition Prints).

The unveiling of 'Elgar's Dream' by
Lord Menuhin
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, England,
October 17th 1996

The images below are excerpts from the main painting please click on an image to enlarge

Norman Perryman
Lomanstraat 61, 1075 PW Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tel/Fax: +31 (0) 20 676 6138 (home)
+31 (0) 650 294 233 (cell/mobile)