Composer and landscape painter Marc Yeats's new book Music, Painting, Landscape and Me is out now, published by Vision Editions.
In February 2022, Dr Marc Yeats embarked on the journey to release his forthcoming book Music, Painting, Landscape and Me. He invited British Music Collection readers to join him and engage with his theoretical process, releasing monthly video diaries exclusively to the British Music Collection, which concluded in October 2023.
Music, Painting, Landscape and Me is available to purchase now from publisher Vision Editions. In the book, Marc embarks on an introspective journey, weaving together the symbolic realms of music and painting through the written word. This endeavour expands upon the immediacy of engagement with his compositions and paintings and what these artworks tell us, offering further understanding and dialogue concerning their interrelation. Yeats’s transformation of his inquiries and insights into text emerges from a conviction that the foundational questions—the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of being an artist and his creative exploration—resonate far beyond the confines of his personal experience, reaching out to a wider community of artists and those intrigued by the mechanisms of artistic expression.
Read some review extracts of the book below:
"Rarely can not only the act of creation, but also the wider processes surrounding and following such an act, have been conveyed in such a dynamic, compelling fashion, especially in the central chapters. Whilst the field of reference is large and diverse, little seems superfluous, concepts from hermeneutics to proprioception are always carefully explained and defined. Beyond being a text of practice-based research, this richly-illustrated book should be read as a type of art work in its own right".
— Prof. Ian Pace, pianist, musicologist, composer and Professor of Music, Culture and Society at City, University of London
"[...] it shines an important light on the ‘how and why’, not only of Yeats’ artistic practice, but that of creative individuals in general, and is an invaluable contribution to the understanding of the creative impulse and ‘what artists do all day".
— Frances Wilson, writer & publicist, The Cross-Eyed
"Most importantly, this book presents a compelling contemporary analysis of the intricate relationships between visual and auditory elements in creative imaginings, navigating their apparent irreconcilable differences with sophistication".
— Prof. Stephen Davismoon, composer, sound-designer, educator and author, Liverpool Hope University
"Considering effects from fuzzy logic to quantum theory, he ultimately seems most comfortable with an understanding of places as embodied experiences, “compelling performative expressions” that drive a creative response. This book will be of interest to anybody concerned with contemporary art and music practices as research".
— Dr. Alex Murdin, director of ruralrecreation.org.uk
To stay up to date with Marc, follow him on Twitter and Instagram or head to his website.
Music, Painting, Landscape and Me, Marc Yeats. Published by Vision Editions, 2024.