Jack Coulter’s earliest memory is of sitting on the sofa in his childhood home in Belfast, closing his eyes and listening intently to the sound of his heart. “I don’t remember much from being a kid, but that? My God!” he recalls. “It was so silent in the room that my ears homed in on my heartbeat. It’s usually black when you have your eyes closed but I could see colours. I opened my eyes and the colours were there, pulsating in front of me – bright yellowy-orange, then circles of colour, like orbs. My own heartbeat was where all this started.”
Coulter has synaesthesia, a neurological condition that causes sensory crossovers, such as “tasting” colours. Pharrell Williams, Joni Mitchell, Jean Sibelius and Vincent van Gogh are, or were, fellow synaesthetes. In Coulter’s case, he “sees” sound. Since childhood, the Irish artist has translated the colours he sees and the emotions he feels from listening to a song or composition into beautiful abstract paintings. “Everything in my head is colour,” he explains. “If I’m on the street or anywhere, it’s relating all sounds to colour. If I’m overstimulated, I’ll see colours so much more heightened and I’ll see pulsations. That’s day-to-day. But when I’m painting, I see the colours so apparently.”
This is quite a magic thing. So many people have synaesthesia in the creative arts
Coulter’s connection to music has become a two-way street. Paul McCartney describes him as an “exciting, energetic talent” (Coulter has painted the Beatles’ Yesterday). Elton John, who has Coulter’s take on Candle in the Wind hanging in his home, has said he “magically takes the influence of music on visual art to a dazzlingly colourful and inventive new level”. Billie Eilish, Post Malone and the Freddie Mercury estate all also own Coulter’s paintings.
Synaesthesia may sound like a gift but, for Coulter, it’s a double-edged sword. “It used to scare me when I was young. I thought that’s what life was like, but then I realised it isn’t, for most people. The more I learned, it was, like: ‘This is quite a magic thing.’ So many people have synaesthesia in the creative arts. But I’ve always struggled with migraines, and sometimes my sleep’s affected by it. I’m not able to do certain normal things – going to the cinema is a crazy thing for me. New sounds and new songs can give me sensory overload and a migraine.”
I want to paint ‘feeling’ first. I feel music and art so much. I want that to be expressed in my work
Coulter was introduced to art at an early age. His aunt, Christine, was a painter – Coulter grew up with her work hanging in his family’s house. He developed a love for abstract expressionists (Pollock, Rothko, De Kooning) and impressionist and post-impressionist painters (Van Gogh, Monet, Matisse), as well as the art and music of Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain.
Softly spoken, Coulter says he was shy, nervous and emotional as a child and teenager, and that he remains so. “Music and painting saved me. I always felt there was something I needed, even when I was really young. Every day, I listen to music for hours. Art and music have always been like friends to me.” At his studio in Earl’s Court, west London, he works quickly, he tells me, never leaving a piece until it’s finished. “I want to paint ‘feeling’ first,” he says. “I feel music and art so much. I want that to be expressed in my work.” Canvases are placed on the ground. He rarely uses a paint brush – if he does, he uses the “wrong” end, the wooden point – preferring instead to utilise objects he finds lying around, including the backs of CD cases. As well as paint, he has experimented with turpentine, vodka, whisky and Coca-Cola.
His paintings have been inspired by a wide range of artists (David Bowie, Miles Davis, Vivaldi, Amy Winehouse, Hans Zimmer …), with no shortage of pop (Harry Styles, the Corrs …). He is also a proud Swiftie. “I love the Clash and I love Taylor Swift. I think a lot of people are like that – they just wouldn’t say it. I saw Taylor Swift recently at Wembley. It was incredible. I definitely had PED – post-Eras depression.”
Coulter also writes songs and music. He played violin, piano and guitar when he was younger, and later started recording ambient scores on his laptop. He has an idea for an album, though no firm plans. “In years to come, I’ll probably go back and start painting my own scores,” he says.
Putting out a book has been a chance to reflect on the hefty body of work he has produced, and the fact that the musicians whose songs inspired him are now, in turn, fans of his. “It’s really funny to think about it all,” he tells me. “I’m always so focused and busy that sometimes I don’t think about some of the things that have happened. But maybe when I’m 60 I’ll be in the shower and it’ll just hit me, and I’ll start screaming with joy.”
Walls of sound: five song canvases
Candle in the Wind (Elton John), 2022
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“This is one of my favourite pieces. It was included in the Sotheby’s show in London. I had a real feeling about this piece, and then Elton John bought it, which was really bizarre. There’s such weight to that song for people, so I knew that painting needed to be everything. It was the original version of the song I listened to, but it’s funny – in this piece, there’s almost like a silhouette, if you zoom in, of Princess Diana.”
If I Should Fall From Grace With God (The Pogues), 2022, by Jack Coulter and Shane MacGowan (main image)
“I love that it has Irish written in it – it means ‘For God and Ireland for ever’. Shane had synaesthesia, too. I knew Victoria Mary Clarke, Shane’s wife, so, I thought something might be possible. Victoria emailed after Shane regained his strength after being unwell and she said he was ready to work together, so I shipped the painting over to him from where I was working on it in London. Shane was painting in a wheelchair – there’s a video of him doing it, and he’s painting to Fairytale of New York, If I Should Fall from Grace and many other Pogues tracks. All the stuff in the back is mine, and then all the madness, the Irish and the big eyes are by Shane.”
Nothing Compares 2 U (Sinéad O’Connor), 2023
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“This is my favourite painting I’ve ever done. This painting cracked a code – everyone seems to love it. It’s the cover of my book, and it was in my Sotheby’s Dublin show. Sinéad passed away when the show was still on, and people were coming in listening to the song, looking at the painting and crying.”
Gloria (Patti Smith – Live in Germany, 1979), 2020
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“Anne Hathaway bought this painting and another one. Anne Hathaway is a huge Patti Smith fan. I think this painting is in her house in New York, unless they’ve moved. The paint was scraped and swept across with the back of a CD case. I wanted that sense of movement.”
Future Generations, 2021
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“I had Greta Thunberg’s ‘Our house is on fire’ speech from the World Economic Forum 2019 in Davos playing while I painted this. It’s quite a different piece for me. There was so much in the news about climate change; I was fed up. I couldn’t do anything about what was in the news, so I did this and I put it up for auction in aid of the Greta Thunberg Foundation.”
Paintings by Jack Coulter is published by Setanta.