The Landscape of Guitar, an animated painting concert experience, will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Recital Hall at the Doudna Fine Arts Center.

The show is a combination of the Patchouli and Terra Guitarra projects of vocalist and guitarist Julie Patchouli and guitarist Bruce Hecksel.

Patchouli said the performance will consist of the duo’s guitar music as well as original animated acrylic paintings done by Hecksel on a video screen behind them.

“We love sharing (The Landscape of Guitar),” Patchouli said. “It’s really fun. It’s been our dream.”

Patchouli said the art of The Landscape of Guitar show stemmed from the duo’s Terra Guitarra project.

“(Hecksel’s) first graphic artwork was the guitar hills with a guitar river coming down through it,” Patchouli said. “From there we started making more and more of the records and making more and more of the art, and he experimented more with the guitar shape as a symbol of the art and how it could be portrayed and how nature could be conveyed in guitar shapes.”

During a performance, the music goes along with the animation, Hecksel said.

“Each animation is made for each song,” Hecksel said. “Then we have to perfectly time everything that we’re going to do and what we’re going to say to go along with the animation.”

Hecksel said following such precise timing is a bit of a challenge for the show.

“We have performed over 4,500 shows in our career,” Hecksel said. “This is a new program, so a lot of the times we actually get to just do whatever we want and say whatever we want and be very stream of consciousness, but for these we have to be very specific and precise.”

One of the reasons Patchouli said she was excited for the show was the facility.

“We went into the Recital Hall where we’ll perform the show,” Patchouli said. “There was, I think, a trombone trio working on a piece, and so it was really fun to see the campus alive and the arts happening when we happened to stop in.”

Patchouli said she hoped both students and community members would attend.

“We really hope that this experience would broaden (a student’s) art experience, especially since it’s in the visual as well as musical arts,” Patchouli said. “That’s what’s fun. We are doing this performance in lots of theaters. Not all of them are on college campuses, but when they are it’s really fun for us to get to offer that up.”

Hecksel said he too was looking forward to the performance and hoped attendees will enjoy the show.

“It makes a real colorful, joyful experience,” Hecksel said. “That’s what we’re really going for.”

Mercury Bowen can be reached at 581-2812 or mjbowen@eiu.edu.