From Music to Paint: Jack Coulter On His Unique Synesthetic Style

Heart of Glass (Blondie and Philip Glass – Crabtree Remix) Enamel on canvas 24 x 16in.

I can definitely discern a correlation between the spiky, metronomic disco pulse of Blondie’s Heart of Glass and the crystalline painting, the enamel looking like shards of light from a disco ball!

I love how it represents that for you! I didn’t think of it that way. Painting should transcend the artist, that’s what I’ve wanted for all of these works. It’s not about me, it’s about you — exactly how music is. Subconsciously the metronomic disco pulse feeling could’ve resonated from Debbie Harry’s vocal, as it’s synonymous with the original song. There’s definitely a correlation as you said, in a medium sense — the use of enamel can be very sharp and piercing. That’s exactly the visual that was needed for this as it’s the orchestral remix.

Vincent (Don McLean) Enamel on canvas 24 x 18in.

Likewise, Vincent, McLean’s ode to Van Gogh has some definite sunflowery yellows going on!

Yes! That’s a special element to this work. I mentioned earlier about certain songs having associated tones, well, it really worked out perfectly for this. I didn’t even realise that about the sunflowery yellows! I love that. The swirling vocal nature needed to sync up visually with the guitar, this was quite a complicated aspect to portray, due to the song’s stripped back composition. Those deep blues and yellows were going to be most present, the other layered sounds that appear in the song are softly seen underneath and subtly spread throughout. I used enamel and water to create it, I thought by using these together it would visually integrate the song’s main arrangement.

It Ain’t Necessarily So (Mary Lou Williams) Ink and acrylic on canvas 16 x 12in.

It Ain’t Necessarily So is one of my absolute favourites here. It swings and glides, just like those swooping dynamics in the song. I love how jazz is long, cool sweeping lines

It’s one of my favourites as well! It’s the most minimal work in terms of structure. I’ve been working from jazz ever since the beginning and I needed to pay homage to Mary Lou Williams. It’s a painting that truly highlights sound in a clear and direct way. Those sweeping lines represent the never-ending changes in jazz, as a whole and this track really parallels my process. The complex movements, intricacies, and softness. It’s always a performance working to jazz, I actually look like a painter who’s painting for once - it’s absolute madness!

World Without You (Belinda Carlisle) Oil, acrylic colourant, household paint on canvas 45½ x 37½in.

World Without You by Belinda Carlisle, shows off your vivid dramatic backgrounds beautifully. It’s incredibly emotional, with the colliding aquamarines, blues and pinks.

The background in this piece is heavily layered. Belinda Carlisle’s music is so exciting to depict visually. After painting Heaven Is A Place On Earth for my debut auction last year, I wanted to relive it a bit! I loved that painting; so it was a conscious decision to capture a similar visual with another track from the Heaven On Earth album. The colours arose very fluently, it’s layered with oil, enamel, acrylic colourant and household paint. The wavelike middle section that meets the acidic teal green area is the verse and chorus transitioning. I wanted it to be a reflection in every sense. On a surface level, I used a lot of water which allowed its dream-like visual to come alive. This painting is a statement of love — not being able to imagine a world without the person you love.

Jack Coulter and Shane MacGowan, If I Should fall from Grace (The Pogues) Acrylic, household paint, enamel and ink on canvas 60 x 48in.

If I Should Fall From Grace: An amazing experience, to encounter this kinetic, energetic piece, that beautifully reflects that harum-scarum, hurly burly tune. How long did this take? The eyes, the lettering, this is Shane, right? How did Shane enter your world and what was it like working with him?

Incredible! Collaborating with Shane on If I Should Fall From Grace With God was surreal. I grew up hearing his music and now we’ve done a painting together. I watched the Crock of Gold film and learnt that Shane had synaesthesia. That was one peculiar link, then his manager emailed on Christmas Day, 2020. He said that Shane and myself should collaborate. I floated the idea of something similar to Norman Bluhm and Frank O'Hara’s Poem-Paintings, which would highlight both of our fields. Then! I discovered Shane was also a visual artist. That changed everything really, I knew it would then be a kinetic piece.

Flash-forward to September, 2022 and [Shane MacGowan’s partner] Victoria Mary Clarke got in touch and said Shane wanted to chat about doing something together. I had already painted If I Should Fall From Grace With God for the show, it was the perfect opportunity to let him work over the original painting. You can very clearly differentiate our sections — Shane’s layers are on top with the eyes and lettering as you said, I loved what he did. Victoria sent videos of him working, he had the entire album playing whilst he worked. That was fantastic to see, as our process was linked in that regard. One of my favourite aspects is his musical note, it tied the collaboration together in an audiovisual sense. My section didn’t take very long, I worked solely from the title track. Shane also worked to that song and many others including: Fairytale of New York & Turkish Song of the Damned. Victoria’s clips showed Shane working with those tracks playing, it was magic!