In addition to being a truth I was recently blinded by the profundity of, yes, that’s a Portal 2 reference. 🙂 But I’m writing about art today.
I have long found it inexplicably difficult to paint in a certain abstract way. While it seemed perfectly straightforward and understandable in technique, for some reason I could not bring myself to do it, even though I wanted to and tried to. It’s a free and loose style of abstract painting, if you can call the broad swath of abstraction that I’m referring to a ‘style’. My attempts to paint this way would invariably veer either toward my usual crisp, careful lines, or to abstract landscapes.
Some examples from other artists of the kind of thing I’m talking about:
"Rainbow Prism Colors" by Teo Alfonso
unknown artist
"Influence" by Chidi Okoye
Most of the above it seems are being sold as ‘decor’, but personally I think they’re much more than that and I would not belittle them with that term. They’re abstraction without a quickly determinable theme, if there is any, and that just seem a free and loose composition of colors and shapes. And they’re stunning and beautiful!
Try as I might, my own attempts at this sort of thing always missed the mark, imo:
Mother's Day Painting, Acrylic on 12" x 9" canvas paper, May 2011
Andlega Landslagi, acrylic on 11" x 14" canvas, November 2011
Vaimse Maastiku, Acrylic on 11" x 14" canvas, January 7, 2012
PatternsThatConnect does this ‘sort of thing’ fairly often, so out of my own frustration I asked him pretty much straight out how he does it. He graciously answered, “I think it helps that it is small and on paper. It is easier then to feel like it doesn’t matter what it is or whether it is any good.”
In the immortal words of Keanu Reeves, Woah. (‘immortal’ because he never stops saying it)
That was exactly what I needed to know! I grabbed an 8.5″ x 5.5″ pad of paper I had and dashed out half a dozen small paintings on paper that don’t matter! In a weekend! And though there were a few missteps and regrettable color choices, they all came out pretty well I think! It was a flood of creativity unleashed! Finally I was doing ‘that sort of thing’!! 🙂 It was liberating! It felt great!
Here are the first two:
Small painting #1, "Whale Shark" acrylic on 8.5" x 5.5" paper, February 3, 2012
The black shape, especially with the gold dots, seems to evoke a whale shark to me, giving the whole thing an underwater feel…
Small painting #2, "Woosh!" acrylic on 8.5" x 5.5" paper, February 3, 2012
These could be clouds, or underwater, or things on the beach as a wave washes back out into the surf… Whatever it is, it seems to have a lot of “Woosh!”