Visual artists often talk about music, yet rarely think about its “performative” aspect. In this article the author attempts to show why the consideration of this aspect of music and, in particular, of the way performing musicians respond to time, could be of benefit to painters - even to those who deal with traditional (purely spatial) themes. The author also explains how the notions of linear and continuous time, on which the article is based, influenced his latest work, Out of Doors .