Posts Tagged ‘abstract paintings’
The Quick Draw
The part of Plein Air-Easton! that is the most fun for the locals is the Quick Draw. Everyone who wishes can participate. There is a Quick Draw for children 5-12 and one for adults.
The Quick Draw for adults is along a 2 block section of Harrison St. in Easton, MD. Participants must have chosen their view, set up and be ready to paint at 10 AM. At the stroke of noon, all must put down their brushes, frame their work and display it on an easel for public viewing and purchase. Many paintings will be sold but not removed before the judging at 1:30. All will leave at 2 PM.
As I walked down the street about 1 PM, I saw many red tags, signifying that the painting was sold. This was truly a mark of courage, persistence and stamina because the temperature today was 103 with a heat index of 110!!!
Using the Art Tracker
Recently, I wrote about a book I had received, “Starving” to Successful, by Jason Horejs. He is the owner of Xanadu Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ, www.xanadugallery.com .
I ordered his software, Art Tracker, which helps an artist keep track of the inventory, and began getting acquainted with it. For each painting, I need an inventory number which, when once chosen, automatically increases by one. Then I need to enter the name, size, type (oil, acrylic, etc.), price, and date created. He says to not put the date created on the back of the painting. This is where I am now.
Later I will record the gallery in which it is hanging, the sale price and date sold or returned. If I had started this a few years ago when I began to be serious about oil painting, it would have shown a clearer picture of my growth.
The Office
My friends and I had planned to do some landscape painting today, however the weather was not just cloudy, it had a heavy cloud cover with no possibility for sun to come through, and rain was in the forecast. If it is just cloudy, the sun usually shines through occasionally, at least enough to see where the shadows are, but that was not the case today. So we decided to give it up for today.
I spent a long time working in my office and a while working on my web site. The office had not recovered from my trip from Florida, but looks much better now. Perhaps with another day’s work it will really be organized. I just can’t figure out how it can get so messy so fast!
Snow Hill Paint Out – Day 4
Last evening I finished my third and last landscape painting for the Paint Out. The background trees were just not the right color and some of the other paint was thin or streaked, so I repainted most of the picture. This morning I planned to frame the 3 paintings, take them to Snow Hill and hang them. But I had a big problem! The frames for these paintings are new to me and a different kind of wood than that to which I was accustomed. It was oak and needed a drill before a screw would go in! I hadn’t planned on that happening and my drill was not charged! Time was running out and the drill just did not charge fast enough!
A friend made several calls for me and Bill, the owner of the Auction House, was kind enough to use his drill to make the holes and put in the screws. I got to the show site on time and talked with many of the other artists, old friends and new, but didn’t sell a thing!
Shape, Value and Edge
If you stop to think about it for a minute, you will realize that when you look at anything, three parts are involved: shape, value, and edges. You will probably recognize the shape at once. Is it a pear, a box, or a silo (or, whatever)? The value is the color you would see if the image were reproduced in black and white. Is it inky black or almost white, or somewhere in between?
When looking at something nearby, you are probably aware of the sharp edge that exists between one shape and another. When looking at something far away, the edge between two shapes is less distinct.
In landscape paintings, what matters to the viewer is whether the distant mountains seem to be far away, and the objects in the foreground seem close. To the artist, it’s a matter of shape, value, and edge.
The Break from Realism
For most of human history, realism was the pervading influence in visual art. Even before “realism” was given a name by academics, people were attempting to document what they saw around them by painting it or sculpting it. Of course there was some imagination involved, but for the most part the rules of art were rigidly defined and few dared to stray far outside the box.
That changed to some extent in the mid 19th century, when the impressionists provided a response to the rise of photography. Suddenly paintings could not represent the physical world as well as this competing medium. Fortunately, painters were forced to imbue their art with more emotion, imaginative flourishes and outrageous colors. Abstract art took that idea to a whole new extreme. In some cases it would be impossible to guess an abstract artist’s inspiration just by studying the finished work. Other times the work will deviate only slightly from a realistic depiction.