THE BEATLES COLLECTION

WORKS BY PATRICK GUINDON
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, CANADA
COMPLETED 2023-2024

Couldn't make the show, or live away from the island?

I've got you covered with a virtual video tour, and a close up on each of the thirteen pieces in the collection, including the Artist Statement about each piece.

I was late to Beatles Mania – partially because I wasn’t born until 1985, but also because in the analog days of the 90’s, we listened to what was on the radio, or what we had in the cassette player. My parents listened to country music, and my pop choices on 93.9 KoolFM didn’t play Oldies.

I remember getting to know a few of their songs in high school, but it was really later when streaming was common and easy that I started to take them in.

As a teacher, they were an easy band to play during art classes.

And over time, I got to know their music more personally.

When I realized how much my spirit connected to their music – to the sound of the music, the often-bizarre sounds used in their songs, the simple, poetic lyrics, the storytelling, the texture and colour … that’s when I realized, truly realized the art in their music.

I thought for a long time about making a Beatles Collection, but I wasn’t ready yet. I was still thinking literally. Imagine: a collection with a yellow submarine, an octopus, a painting of Penny Lane using a reference photo I found on Google. It just wouldn’t have had the heart and soul that art should have.

So, I hope this collection shines some light on the effervescent beauty of their music, and the reflection of it through my heart and soul, onto the canvas.

Click to expand image & artist statement.

Don't Let Me Down

This was the first piece created for this collection, painted in March 2023. Shortly after it was completed, we decided to sell our house and move to our dream property – a process that was overwhelming, stressful, and scary. It seems only appropriate that this song was streaming in the back of my head the entire time: the tune is hopeful and nostalgic and sad, all at the same time.

Don’t Let Me Down feels green and blue, with pops of colour. The emotion-fuelled chorus paired with the mellow verses, and the layered bridges, translate into this painting for me.

Yellow Submarine

I’ve always loved this song, even before I really understood who the Beatles were. In the height of the pandemic, while we tried to maintain a sense of normal, this song became one of our regular nightly sing-along songs, with the kids belting out the words they knew.

This happy go lucky song, a celebration of the ideals of community and utopia, felt vibrant and obviously, yellow. While I tried to not fall into anything too literal with this collection, it would have been a mistake to paint Yellow Submarine without a focus on the colour; one that pairs so beautifully with greens and blues and pinks. A true community of colour, diversity, and hope.

Paperback Writer

As a writer, I’m semi-obsessed with this song. It’s a query letter, something I’ve spent the last four years teaching people how to do in my side job – which, for the record, I no longer do. If you’re not a writer, or if you’re not a well-informed writer, then you may not realize what an absolute shit show of a query letter this is. It’s funny to me because of this, but damn it’s catchy and fun. The Beatles really can do whatever they want, can’t they?

I paired it with Brave New World, a copy of the book I’d stolen from my Grade 11 English class (sorry, Ms. Mac), because I couldn’t get enough of how messed up the story was … and yet, in 2023, I seemed to be living in a world headed that way.

I’ve always been a writer – maybe it started when my parents would make stories up so I would stay on the potty (they were usually about Dolly Parton, my girl), or maybe it was all that Boxcar Children/Goosebumps/Gordon Korman goodness I stumbled upon through school. Regardless, I’m always telling stories – even through art. I love words, and I love what’s left in the space when certain words are left out. The same thing goes for paint.

Anyway, point is. I want to be a paperback writer.

Let It Be

It may seem cliché these days, but I really do find this to be the greatest mantra to live by. I struggled with control for so long, especially when I was teaching. I wanted to be able to control outcomes and situations, but that’s just not the way it works. When I learned I could only control my own responses is when I started to grow as a human.

So now, when I struggle, I lean into the words of wisdom from The Beatles: Let it be.

This was the hardest piece to paint for this collection. I struggled to figure out how to reflect and represent the song. In reality, I just needed to let it be. Layers and layers of paint, trusting in the process, listening to the song on repeat, I was able to find the song in the painting.

All You Need Is Love

What would a Beatles Collection be without this song in the mix? And yet, it looks nothing like I imagined it would. It is so much more wistful, like a beautiful spring day.

I firmly believe this song is gospel truth. If we could just love more, love harder, love love love … it’d be all we’d need. Want to cure the hurt in the world? Love. Want to feed the hungry? Love. Want to feel better? Love.

In a world that doesn’t resort to love, but to fighting and defenses and ego-driven decision making, the answer to all the problems is really quite simple:

Love.

Love is all you need.

Someone tell our leaders, and in the wait, act through love. It’s a game changer.

Eleanor Rigby

This song encapsulates my biggest fear: being forgotten.

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?
All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

And so, the painting had to capture this feeling, too. Each person, a beautiful existence, a hopeful possibility; yet without one another, their loneliness dulls their beauty.

Eleanor Rigby died in the church
And was buried along with her name.
Nobody came.

Relationships, connections, and community are powerful, and this piece serves as a reminder that even though I often want to squirrel away into a cave alone, I can thrive when I connect with others.

The music sounds both joyful and sad, a contradiction I feel so often my world. This exploration of loneliness and the spectrum of feelings when you’re a human was cathartic to work on.

When I'm Sixty-Four

Doing the garden,
Digging the weeds,
Who could ask for more?
Will you still need me,
Will you still feed me,
When I’m sixty-four?

Heading into our eleventh season of marriage this summer and our eighteenth of being in lurve, there’s just something so right about this silly, goofy song from the Beatles. The music and the beats and rhythms just sound like my relationship with my partner.

And so, translated into a painting, pulling some of our favourite flowers and some from her wedding bouquet, this hot mess reflects all of that love, chaos and colour that we have for each other and with our kids.

While the song includes a throwaway line about gardening, love and partnership really is like that: doing the garden, digging the weeds. It’s work – hard work, and beautiful work.

And in different seasons, it blooms and grows.

Hopefully, well beyond 64.

Here Comes The Sun

Here comes to the sun
(It’s all right.)

That moment between hard times and ease.

That flitting moment of hope.

That’s what I hear in Here Comes The Sun — and that’s what I see in this piece.

Growing isn’t always easy. But the rain will always come, the sun will shine again, we’ll blossom – and rest.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

This song is such a party. I wanted to capture the fun, bizarre storytelling and meta-fiction of the song through a vibrant, high contrast piece.

With high energy meandering guitar licks and hefty, goofy drums, then throw in the horns … that sounds to me the way this painting looks.

We’re Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,
We hope you will enjoy the show.

We named our Frenchie Sgt. Pepper, so this has become his theme song, too.

A Little Help From My Friends

I get by with a little help from my friends.

I’ve never had many friends, but I’ve been lucky to have amazing friends. And my best friend married me, so I am a lucky one.

For me, friendships are based on trust and authenticity. Deep and meaningful connections take time and effort, but they don’t require constant presence.

As an introvert, I need time for myself. But I really do get by with (more than a little) help from my friends.

This piece features two lupins reaching out to one another — supporting their group of friends along the way.

Hey Jude

If you’ve listened to Sir Paul McCartney talk about this song, you’ll know it’s a salad of a song. It’s about this, then it became about that.

In his podcast, A Life In Lyrics, he talks about how he wants the audience to interpret songs in their own way – and in that moment, I realized what a true artist he is. (I mean, obviously – but you know when something you “know” really explicitly hits you? It was that.)

When our third child was born, we named him Jude. Jude hates this song – hates when we sing it, hates when we mention it, just hates it.

So I asked Jude, “Would it be okay if I painted a painting called Hey Jude? It’s a hopeful song for me, and you’re a beautiful piece of my heart and my life. I want to make something that honours you, and plays with the song.”

Jude agreed, and that’s when I learned why it’s a hated song: it sounds too sad.

Cue the heart break. My sweet, heart-forward five year old doesn’t like a song because the music speaks too strongly to his heart.

This piece is, for me, an ode to Jude, and to the song. To hope, to possibility, to chasing the bits of gold in the moments that swirl around us.

I wonder what it will mean to you.

Penny Lane

I love the diversity and beauty of a place.

The different people:

Their life experiences when you zoom in …

The collage and melody of them when you zoom out …

That’s what Penny Lane is about.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

It took me a long while to interpret this song. It was when I learned the intention behind the song that it all clicked:

The song is essentially a message to the entire world, the upset that George Harrison felt in regards to the unrealized potential for universal love.

It dialed me right back to All You Need Is Love, and the simplicity that world peace could have: Love. All we need is to love, universally.

Imagine if everyone did.

And so I shifted my original urge to paint it a depressing array of blues, and instead made it a hopeful medley of flowers – including peonies.

Peonies are named for Paeon, the physician of the gods in Greek mythology. Paeon is known for deep healing, even with the worst of wounds. The peony represents a promise of healing and renewal, a balm for the soul.

And with that healing, perhaps we can move closer to universal love.

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

(back view of the guitar)

This show runs May 24 & 25, with an encore day for students on May 26, at Creative Rebel Studio in Montague, Prince Edward Island.

All pieces are available to add to your collection. Visit the shop to see availability. To request a commission, please go here.

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