Synaesthete Painter Jack Coulter Turns Songs Into Color for New 25-Work Show
Irish artist Jack Coulter has synaesthesia — when he hears sound, he simultaneously "sees" vivid color, which he translates into abstract paintings. His new solo exhibition, With Every Light and With Every Song, features 25 new works, each one mapped to a specific song, spanning artists from Amy Winehouse and Olivia Dean to David Bowie and Harry Styles. This year he also completed a collaborative piece with Elton John inspired by "Tiny Dancer," with proceeds from its sale donated to the Elton John AIDS Foundation.
The songs behind the paintings
According to Far Out Magazine, the works named in the exhibition include:
- Amy Winehouse — "Tears Dry On Their Own"
- Olivia Dean — "Dive"
- Harry Styles — "Pop"
- David Bowie — "Watch That Man"
- Tears For Fears — "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"
- The Supremes — "You Can't Hurry Love"
- The Beatles — "Paperback Writer"
- The Smiths — "Panic"
- Radiohead — "Let Down"
- Paris Paloma — "Labour"
How he paints: canvas on the floor, paint chasing the music
Coulter says how an image forms "depends on what I'm hearing or feeling." He always paints with the canvas laid flat on the floor, which makes him feel "more a part of the painting" and lets him move his body more freely, especially when working with highly fluid paint. "I like the paint to move with the music, rather than just staying fixed once it's down."
His response to songs is mostly intuitive: when a piece of music sparks an image, he starts painting right away. "If it's a new song I'm hearing for the first time, I want to paint it while I'm still in that discovery stage — that's when my inspiration is strongest." While painting he usually lets the song keep playing, aiming to capture the overall "feeling" of the whole track, only focusing in on particularly intense passages when they arise — sometimes the painting is finished before the song even ends.
He cites Sinéad O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U" as an example, saying the song stirs deep emotions and childhood memories for him — "it's almost like painting the emotion of that song using color, in a musical way."
The "Tiny Dancer" collaboration with Elton John
On the day they worked together, Elton John played an instrumental version of "Tiny Dancer" beside Coulter, improvising variations as he went, with each artist's creative process reflecting the other's in real time. Coulter described it as "that moment between him and me," concluding: "There's no silence in the work." Elton John, in turn, said Coulter has a rare gift for "turning music and emotion into vivid, energetic paintings."