Heidi…
…exploring the potential in what lies between live music and painting – Donegal-based French artist Heidi Nguyen and I have been enjoying collaborating and discovering together.
We met thanks to a Visual Artists Ireland initiative; as an artist more interested in process than result, Heidi was curious to see if, and how, her response to live music might shape her work and approach. Even though Heidi doesn’t making a conscious effort to listen and engage with me as she paints, we’ve discovered that her creative language is subtly informed by variations in the styles, sound-worlds and textures in my playing.
Watch Heidi’s response to my playing a movement of solo Bach in this YouTube video in our first session together.
She’s holding up the resulting painting in the image on the left.
Our next get-together was a weekend intensive thanks to the MAC in Belfast, and was a totally different experience - it didn’t us long to realise that improvisation is at the heart of our creative collaboration. Violin, viola, painting, drawing - all 100% improvised, free-flowing and responding to each other in the moment.
Click here to watch Heidi navigating some caffeinated violin playing…and here for a calmer experience with the viola - just two examples from our hugely productive and promising weekend together, which also led to Heidi joining the Fingerprints project for our premiere event at the MAC in March 2026, for two very different shows in one afternoon.
In a leap of faith, Heidi became a performing artist for the day, free-painting in conversation with two improvising musicians at at time - violin and trombone during the first show, flute and percussion for the second - with audience / spectators surrounding us from all sides for an intimate, live experience.
Watch this for a beautifully-shot and produced overview by Chris McCann, including interviews with us both.
Heidi and I are currently collaborating on a new shared body of work reflecting the four seasons in real time, a slow-burn project conceived during a shared residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Annaghmakerrig in April ’26.
Heidi was in the Print Studio layering gossamer-thin leaves of abstract ink and paint, while I alternated between drawing in my own artist’s studio and working on improvisation in the music space. A combination of Heidi’s layering, my playing and drawing, the very changeable weather that week, and moments from our conversations together inspired a new approach for both of us; passing sound, material, visual, and conceptual fragments back and forward, we plan to take a whole year or longer over the project - with at least 3 full months for each season as it unfolds in real time.
Heidi in the amazing Print Studio, a week’s worth of drawing in mine, and our cute cottages for the week!
Keep an eye here or on the news page for updates on our progress…