The young Irish painter who sees sounds and hears colours talks about embracing his synaesthesia through artwork.
Jack Coulter first saw sound when he heard his own heartbeat at the age of three. He recalls the silent room, his eyes wide open as colours pulsated in front of him — yellowy-orange, then circles of colour, like orbs.
Synaesthesia is a neurological phenomenon in which information meant to stimulate one sense stimulates additional senses, as well. Some call it nature’s genius button. Pharrell Williams, Charli XCX, Vincent Van Gogh, and Kanye West are among those known to have lived with the condition.
“It’s not the same for everyone, which is very interesting, and you can see so many others’ expressions in varying forms,” says Jack Coulter on synaesthesia.
A painter, he moved to London from Belfast two years ago and is now constantly commissioning paintings from his studio in Earl’s Court.
Jack, now 30 years old, isn’t very different from how he was as a teenager. He is still quiet and shy, yet wild and ambitious.
In his teen years, whenever he was overstimulated, painting and music were the only things that soothed him and made him make sense of everything, he says.
Now, his paintings have been bought by Elton John and are hung up at Anne Hathaway’s house and the Freddie Mercury Estate.
“Painting has wholly made me embrace my synaesthesia, and it’s what brought everything together in all areas. It has allowed me to build a visual and musical vocabulary to express myself,” he says.
Being an independent artist, the road to success has not come easy to him. “I think the ‘art world’ has changed now at the core as attitudes and dynamics have changed—the internet has been a hugely contributing factor to that.”
He has been uploading his work on Instagram for years. Nowadays, his followers are notified more about exhibitions than artwork.
It was a video of him painting Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor with the London Chamber Orchestra live at London’s Cadogan Hall in 2018 that went viral and gained more than two million views.
People couldn’t get enough. Everyone seemed curious and intrigued. Coulter painted in a nearby room set-up with his canvas complete with plastic sheeting around. A huge screen hanging above the orchestra showed his work in progress.
Speaking about the experience, he said, “The difference between a painting and a live performance is immeasurable. The surrounding factors, such as the audience, exterior sounds, feelings, and reaction time, greatly impact the piece.”
Being Irish, some of Jack’s earliest memories are of hearing Sinéad O’Connor and The Pogues. “Their music is seeped into my skin,” he says.
A painting inspired by the song, Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinéad O’Connor, is also the cover of Jack’s first book, a collection of his artwork published earlier this year.
Talking about the painting, he said, “The weight of this song is incomparable, and I knew it had to be everything. It felt like something was working through me with that work, and it’s my favourite piece.”
This artwork raised £21,420 for The Greta Thunberg Foundation.
Speaking on the acclaim gained in the art world, like being featured in Forbes 30 under 30 list, being mutually inspired by musicians, and having exhibitions at Sotheby’s and BVLGARI, Jack quotes Taylor Swift: “There’s never a thing that happens that I take for granted. I have always loved what Taylor Swift said: ‘I get tired a lot, but I never get tired of it.’ I think that’s the most perfect way to describe it.”
Featured image courtesy of Jack Coulter.