The piano has been drinking (again) by Lee Ellis
Explore Mondoir Studio
Medium: oil paint, oil pastel, acrylic and spray paint on canvas
Dimensions: 112 x 137 cm
Year: 2025
Status: available
"The piano has been drinking (again)" is a visual symphony inspired by the raw, gritty world of Tom Waits. His music has always been a journey for me, a blend of melancholy and whimsy, much like a late-night stroll through a dimly lit bar. This piece captures that essence, with the playful chaos of stepping on a piano, as if the keys themselves have stories to tell. I used oil paint, oil pastel, acrylic, and spray paint to layer textures and create a sense of rhythm and movement. The vibrant colors of the shoes and socks against the stark black and white of the piano keys evoke a feeling of unexpected joy amidst the mundane. It’s as if each step creates a note, a melody only the heart can hear. I hope viewers feel the music in this painting, the way it dances between the lines of reality and imagination. I want it to remind you of those moments when life feels like a song, imperfect, beautiful, and utterly unforgettable.
Why collect this work?
A steeply tilted keyboard turns bodily pressure into visual syncopation, holding comic disorder within a composition governed by grids and repeated marks.
- Ellis states that his practice uses bright colour and pattern to mask darker themes. Here, ornate socks and glossy shoes bring wit to an action that can read as playful, disruptive, or both.
- In the supplied photograph, two cropped legs cross a diagonal sequence of piano keys. The tiled grid above and regular pink circles below establish competing rhythms, while abrupt spatial shifts prevent a stable viewpoint.
- The catalogue documents oil paint, oil pastel, acrylic, and spray paint on canvas. Their combination permits broad fields, drawn contours, and layered highlights; these contrasting marks keep shoes, keys, and patterns visually distinct.
- Dated 2025, the work is artist-reported as inspired by Tom Waits. It provides a concrete case for considering how painting translates music through repetition, interruption, and compositional rhythm rather than depicting sound literally.
About the Artist
Lee Ellis
Lee Ellis is an artist on Mondoir Studio. Artistic discipline: painting. Based in Bristol, United Kingdom.
Nationality: British
Themes I explore within my work are depression and addiction, how they affect people and the ways in which they are masked through 'bright' colours...
