Posts Tagged ‘abstract paintings’
Doing an Abstract Painting
Yesterday in class, I chose an abstract painting by Hans Hofman to reproduce. It has a red slab and a green slab at the bottom of the painting, with black on top of each, giving the appearance of depth – large rocks. There’s blue in the upper left and red at top right and a big splotch or yellow in the middle, and in between is thick white paint.
I didn’t have thick white paint, but as I’ve looked at my rendition for a day, I decided I really want to learn to create my own. In speaking with my daughter, an artist, tonight, she suggested I look up the works of Alexander Colder, Gustav Klimp, Egon Schiele, Wassily Kandinsky, Joan Miro and Paul Klee. The two I liked best were Colder, who first created whimsical mobiles, and Klee who has very whimsical paintings. I guess I go for whimsy!
Abstract Art Class – Winter 2012 – #4
The photo is my last painting which I promised 2 days ago. It’s a small part of another abstract painting, done in the colors I like.
For today’s class, teacher gave us a large sheet of paper with 6 squares on it, each about 4” on a side. She asked us to paint our emotions when she mentioned 6 words and gave us about 2 minutes to paint each one. The words she chose were: calm, stability, movement, excitement, buoyancy and confusion. Since I had never done anything like this before, I had to think a bit! At the end of the exercise when we put our papers on a table and looked at the paintings of the other class members, it was interesting to see what others had done.
Teacher then showed examples of abstract paintings done by famous artists. We could try to reproduce one for ourselves or create our own abstract painting.
Finishing My Abstract Paintings
Work needed to be done on some of my latest paintings to finish them. The last abstract painting, “Bubbles,” needed to have the white painted around the edges and a signature in order to be finished. I now have done that.
For the new painting which was begun last Wednesday, I repainted most of it because the paint, when dry, was just too sparse. Along one corner I tried to make it appear as if there were pipes or tubes with rounded surfaces. That’s difficult in acrylics because blending is not easy. It’s much easier to blend when working in oils. Anyway, I finished all that, but still have the finishing marks to add and a signature. Hopefully, I’ll post it tomorrow or soon.
Abstract Painting from Lesson #2
Teacher gave us a sheet of paper with 12 design types of abstract paintings and our assignment was to create a painting using one of those designs. I decided to use Circles because I just think they are fun. I found some lids, plates and cups usable for templates and drew a variety of overlapping circles. The next step was to erase the pencil marks. A previous time I had used pen and was unable to cover the pen marks. This time I not only erased the not needed pencil marks, I covered those areas with gesso. Gesso works as well as white paint and is less expensive. I seem to have a lot of trouble with lines showing through.
The attached photo showed my creation, but the dark green was too dark after applying many layers to get the paint uniform. I decided to use a lighter green, but rather than apply it directly onto the dark green, I covered the dark green with gesso and then painted with a lighter green and changed one circle to yellow. There is still one more question: Should I leave the outside white? I’ll get that answered tomorrow in class and keep you posted on the final painting.
Abstract Art Class – Winter 2012 – #2
Last week teacher promised to show us a method of creating texture in abstract paintings and she began the class with this demonstration. We will put tissue paper on canvas or on 140# or 250# watercolor paper and she passed around samples of each for us to feel. She also folded the 140# paper to show that 2 or 3 foldings are necessary in order to tear it successfully. Also a little water on the edge weakens it making it easier to tear.
When applying tissue to paper or canvas always use craft tissue, not the tissue used for gift wrap. Apply a coat of matte medium to the paper or canvas, wad up a sheet of tissue and put it on the surface, allowing it to wrinkle in many directions. Be sure to cover the entire surface, using more tissue as needed. Using the matte medium again, paint over the entire surface, pasting down any loose parts. Put it in the sun to dry and it is ready for paint.
Abstract Art Class – Winter 2012 – #1
My long time friend, Thelma, stays with me in Florida for the winter. She also is a painter and together we take classes in abstract art at the Center for the Arts at Bonita Springs. Last Wednesday, was our first day of class this year, and class went something like this:
The teacher, Shirley Blake, welcomed her 12 students and we all introduced ourselves. She explained the class procedure: critique on any paintings completed since last class, lesson of the day, painting time and quick critique at end of class. She will show us a variety of methods of creating abstract paintings. We will be using acrylic paints.
The lesson began with teacher demonstrating creation of an abstract picture from a photo, and she had a variety of photos from which we could choose. The first step was to draw the general design of the objects in the chosen photo in a rectangle. In the second rectangle, enlarge some parts of the original drawing, diminishing or omitting other parts. Repeat for a third rectangle, and the picture is becoming abstract. Repeat again in a fourth rectangle and by this time, there should be no recognizable object in the drawing. In abstract art there must be no recognizable forms.
Tracking Cash Flow for the Oil Painter
In the December 2011 issue of the Professional Artist, Robert Reed, PH.D., wrote an article entitled, Planning Your Art Business Part 3: Tracking Cash Flow. Oil painters as well as others could use it. Two versions are built on Microsoft Excel (an earlier and a later version) and a third version for the Mac is built on Numbers. All are downloadable and free from www.yourartisyourbusiness.com.
In the magazine article, Dr. Reed discussed three of the worksheets available: The Income Worksheet, The Expenses Worksheet, and the Depreciation Worksheet. After I downloaded my copy, I found other worksheets are also available. The discussion seemed pretty straight forward so I’m looking forward to keeping better track of my income and expenses – and it’s just in time for the new year!
Art Walk Night
The third Thursday of the month is Art Walk night in Bonita Springs, FL. Tonight was the night and I decided to attend. Besides, my Abstract Art teacher has a studio there and I wanted to see where she works.
The Promenade in Bonita Springs is an uptown area that is part of a mall. Part of the mall is still open but many shops have been closed, mostly because of the economy of the times, and are being used by artists to display their works and use as a studio. What a wonderful use for those unused spaces.
During my walk, I saw beautiful paintings, some in acrylic, some in oils. There was also stunning fabric art like no other I had ever seen, by a lady whose mother and grandmother were also fabric artists. A lady who formerly did fashion design had absolutely beautiful jewelry. She also made the most delightful wall art from found objects like dresser handles and other antiques. Someone else had created large mobiles out of plastic of some kind – very colorful and amazing. I finally found my teacher’s studio and the art she had to display and had a wonderful time walking through the Promenade for December Art Walk.
My Abstract Art Class #4
Last week, the lesson in my Abstract Art class was about symbols. We thought of a bunch of symbols, some of which were heart, $, #, hand, star, @, !, yin yang, cross, +, =, fish, x o. An artist could make one or more paintings with each of these in mind.
Teacher then showed us photos which she had collected with some of these symbols in mind. Most of us used one of her photos as inspiration to make our own painting. This is the painting I made from one of her photos because my son was in a band for several years and that photo reminded me of him. I might even send it out to him as a gift!
My Abstract Art Class #3
Last week’s lesson in my Abstract Art class was creating a purely abstract painting. The teacher gave us each a large sheet of paper with 4 rectangles on it (assuming our canvases were rectangular). We were to put our left hand (if we were right handed) on two of the horizontal lines of a rectangle to mark where the rectangle was and close our eyes. With the other hand we made whatever kind of marks we desired. We repeated this exercise for each of the other 3 rectangles.
We then chose the design we wanted for our painting and drew it on the canvas. We could alter the design, if needed, to make the design more pleasing, and colored in the various shapes whatever colors we chose. Mine looked pretty good, no matter which side was up (we check each painting in this way) – but I may have to do something about “Snoopy”!