Norman Perryman : artist

In 2011 Norman Perryman celebrates fifty-five years of his passion for painting musical themes and musical celebrities - at least four hundred watercolours and oils and thousands of kinetic images in painted live with music - probably more than any other known painter. Yehudi Menuhin, opening an exhibition of this work (Gstaad, 1972) described Perryman as "a musician, who makes music with his brush". His painting grows from a direct emotional response to the music, recorded with his brush in a kind of automatism – hopefully you will hear the music in the painting. Norman Perryman combines the essential figurative appearance with abstract textures, graphic rhythms and explosions of sound. His works become more transparent in his watercolours, the medium he finds most suitable to convey the illusion of movement and the transient nature of music. 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.
				The unveiling of 'Elgar's Dream' by Lord Menuhin Symphony Hall, Birmingham, England, October 17th. 1996