Kilford

Kilford (born 1975 in England) is a British painter based in London. Known as The Music Painter on account of his style of painting music live alongside musicians during their performances.^[1]

Techniques

Live Music Painting

Kilford’s paintings are physical representations of music based on the colours he sees when he hears music. Kilford's live music paintings are created live alongside musicians during their performances. The creation of the painting starts at the first note of the performance and ends on the last note.^[2]

Kilford is the first painter to paint live on stage at Knebworth,^[3] he has painted live alongside a wide range of musicians including Baaba Maal, Iggy Pop,^[4] Paul Weller, I Blame Coco,^[5] Buena Vista Social Club,^[6] Robert Plant,^[7] Damon Albarn, The Black Eyed Peas,^[8] Brian Eno, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, The Magic Numbers, Saint Etienne, Cerys Matthews, Deep Purple, Status Quo and The Charlatans, Ras Kwame, Tom Hodge, I Blame Coco, Akala, Alice Russell, Pendulum, Skunk Anansie, Rotten Hill Gang, Feeder, The Woodentops, Ernest Ranglin Noah Francis and Wu Tang Clan amongst others.

Paintings of single songs

Kilford also paints single songs in his studio, these are created in the studio during the process of listening to the song repeatedly for the duration of the painting process.

Music Sketching

Kilford sketches individual songs using a black marker. During the sketch process Kilford draws around the colours he sees during the course of a single listen to the individual track. Kilford has created thousands of sketches including every UK number one since 1995. Over 600 sketches are available to download for free from his website.

One Love

One Love is an art movement started by Kilford to represent the coming together of art and music. The origins of the movement are based simply on a single conversation that Kilford had with a friend, when asked what song he would choose to have painted, Kilford’s friend answered One Love by Bob Marley from that moment the pair used One Love as their signature to each other in email communications.

Kilford began to use One Love as his signature on all communications including his Facebook fan page. Then, in the same way that Kilford uses his painted finger to sign paintings, he used his painted finger to write the words One Love and posted the first One Love painting on Facebook in April 2009. Reaction from Fans was very positive and so, based on his “Art is for everyone” manifesto, Kilford decided to create 300 original One Love paintings each year and post them to fans all over the world for free. He also produced over 50,000 One Love stickers which were also posted to fans everywhere for free. Kilford continues to send One Love paintings and stickers to everyone for free.

The popularity of One Love increased and rather than putting his paintings in a gallery, Kilford decided to curate a monthly live music painting installation called “One Love” where people could experience great ^[9] live music being painted up close and live. The first One Love installation “One Love #1” took place 15 February 2010 and continues every 3rd Monday of the month at The Social in London. Bands that have played at One Love to date include Siskin, The Speak and Spells, John & Jehn, Angrydan!, Pope Joan, The Woodentops, Dan Clews, Tallulah Rendell, Stairs To Korea, Kurtz, Eliza Newman, Fran & Josh, Akala, Vices, Scarlette Fever, Laurel Collective, Claire Nicolson, Rachael Sage, Swami, King Charles, Gwenno, Left Step Band, Zarif, Alexander Wolfe, Charlene Soraia, Missing Andy

One Love does not make a profit, no-one is paid and every penny from the £5 door charge goes directly to The Sam Buxton Healing Trust, a charity that provides complementary therapy to cancer patients in the UK.

Early work

Although Kilford’s early work was created within the context of music, it had a strong focus on fusing fashion and art. For Kilford’s first public installation he installed a catwalk in the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai and showed 30 paintings using models to carry each painting down the catwalk.

Following this, Kilford’s donated painting sold at Elton John's White Tie and Tiara Ball in Cape Town. It was at this point that EJAF inspired the collaboration between Kilford and South African fashion designer Gavin Rajah. The pair worked on a number of projects, the most significant being the creation of an annual South African charitable event called Positive.^[10] Positive was conceptualized by Kilford and Rajah with a view to bringing art, music and fashion together as one to help combat AIDS. Sponsored by Sun International Hotels the event helps fund The Tapologo Aids Hospice which was founded by Bishop Kevin Dowling of the Catholic Diocese of Rustenburg.

The first Positive event took place 8 to 11 June 2006 at Sun City and incorporated fashion shows by Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Valentino as well as a headlining performance from SEAL. Kilford curated two exhibitions,^[11] during the event, the main exhibition called “Hope Healing and Compassion” including over 110 South African artists. The second exhibition was the ‘Wall of Hope’, this included a number of small paintings created by a wide range of leading bands, celebrities and children from the Tapologo AIDS Hospice on the subject of “Hope”.

Kilford is no longer involved with Positive.

References

1. ^ / Putting the rock 'n' roll into art, BBC, August 5, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8127502.stm /, retrieved 2009-08-13 
2. ^ / A new generation of pop artists, The Independent, August 31, 2009, http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/a-new-generation-of-pop-artists-1779534.html /, retrieved 2009-11-06 
3. ^ / MOBO Spotlight on Art: Kilford- The Music Painter, MOBO.com, August 12, 2010, http://www.mobo.com/news-blogs/mobo-spotlight-on-art-kilford-the-music-painter /, retrieved 2010-11-06 
4. ^ / Painting by numbers, London Evening Standard, August 8, 2010, http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23863760-painting-by-numbers.do /, retrieved 2010-08-09 
5. ^ / Kilford the Painter & The Art He Perceives In Music, globalgrind.com, November 5, 2010, http://globalgrind.com/channel/culture/content/1879708/kilford-the-painter-the-art-he-perceives-in-music/ /, retrieved 2010-11-06 
6. ^ / Painting by numbers, London Evening Standard, August 8, 2010, http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23863760-painting-by-numbers.do /, retrieved 2010-08-09 
7. ^ / Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation, Tightbutloose, September 14, 2006, http://www.tightbutloose.co.uk/rp140906.html /, retrieved 2008-08-14 ^{[dead link]}
8. ^ Kilford: Making Art From Music, Dazed Digital, July 24, 2009, http://dazeddigital.com/ArtsAndCulture/article/4163/1/Kilford_Making_Art_From_Music, retrieved 2009-08-13 
9. ^ / Painting by numbers, London Evening Standard, August 8, 2010, http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23863760-painting-by-numbers.do /, retrieved 2010-08-09 
10. ^ Positive unites artists against Aids, SouthAfrica.info, 9 May 2006, http://www.southafrica.info/news/arts/positive-090506.htm, retrieved 2008-12-22 
11. ^ Don't discriminate, create!, Tonight, May 26, 2006, http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=356&fArticleId=3264557/, retrieved 2008-12-22 

External links

• Official Kilford The Music Painter Website
• Official Facebook Fan Site
• Official Twitter Page
• Official You Tube Page
• The Sam Buxton Healing Trust

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Date of birth	1975
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