Tag: Abstract Expressionism

Sunflower Field

Yesterday I posted some of my paintings and a master copy of Khan’s Ground Fog to practice using large, simplified swaths of color to create abstractions of landscapes.

I like abstraction and simplification of things in paintings, but pure abstraction seldom attracts me. Recognition of whatever a painting is trying to depict seems to be essential for me to want to look at a painting, but as I study colorism / colorfield / abstract expressionism more, I find that sometimes pure color by itself can be enticing. I used to detest Rothko’s work, but now I am finding it quite entrancing as I appreciate the subtle qualities of color, and colors adjacent to one another, a lot more.

With this in mind, along with observing the work of Wolf Kahn, Richard Mayhew, Hashim Akib, and Andrew Faulkner, I painted this field of sunflowers.

I started out with big color fields for the sky, trees, and sunflower field using the basic colors of blue (sky), dark green (trees), and yellow and green (sunflower field). From there, I really worked to keep the foreground simple enough as the treeline, mountains, and sky do not beg for detail.

Initially I wanted to paint dots to represent the center of the sunflowers, but in the mindset of color planes, I didn’t. It paid off, but I was still not happy with how the sunflowers and foreground areas looked. Thus, some dabs – but bigger ones, brush strokes instead of dabs to be more accurate. Negative painting, too, and straight lines to represent the sunflower stalks. The buildings and poles were added at the end to add interest to a very horizontally oriented painting.

I am quite pleased with this painting. Goals were accomplished and my own style emerged here. I also did a lot of thinking about colors, how to paint a straight telephone pole (put a card down and run the paint brush along the edge), atmospheric perspective. Simplifying was difficult, but the broad swaths of color with variations within worked. In short, I have a bit of an abstract landscape in which the subject matter is recognizable, but not realistic. If I want a photographic rendition of something, I’ll just take a picture with my camera!

Color Planes

As I mentioned a few days ago, I am experimenting with swaths of color. Not simple planes of one color, but variations of color within that plane is the goal. A number of artists do this beautifully, and the graphic quality is elegant to my way of thinking, with the simplification being the subject and the goal and the voice of the artist. As I am a dabber, this is a big challenge for me.

To begin this, I decided to try my hand at exploring a painting by Wolf Kahn. The one I copied is called Ground Fog, and it is a simple study of grey, white, yellow, green, and variations of each within each area of color. Below is my attempt.

This was a challenge to try as he painted this in oil and I am using Golden fluid acrylics. Blending the colors was hard and required a lot of thought and movement rather rapidly since acrylics dry quickly, and the fluid acrylics even more so than heavy bodied acrylics. I got frustrated, let me tell you! Despite that, I did learn a bit about color – not quite sure what, perhaps just that subtlety is hard to achieve.

From there, once more a foray into fields of lavender and other crops, such as perhaps alfafa or wheat – no idea! I just know I see tawny colors and greens when I look at photos of lavender country.

While not especially low key or subtle, I was pretty pleased with the planes of color with the variations therein. The green and lavender are not too heinous when juxtaposed. I like the mountains and sky in the distance, as well as the trees. Sometimes nature is not subtle, and while bright, I think I did a decent job of catching a sunny day in a Mediterranean clime.

The lavender field with the green foreground was done with both large and smaller brushes. This one was done, for the most part, with a rather scraggly 2.5 inch bristle brush with a lot of scrubbing. In particular, you can see this in the sky. I applied varying layers of blue and white, painting up and down to use the brushwork to express the clouds in the sky. The same with the lavender field below. I used a smaller brush for the dried field area with trees, but worked to keep the brush strokes and colors to convey light and depth. I think it worked fairly well.

The study I did on Kahn’s painting gave me ideas on how to create the color planes, but of course I am not Wolf Kahn, and therefore have my own whatever method in creating such things. Acrylics, too, have qualities which oils do not, and blend differently. I am still learning them, and while I get annoyed and frustrated, each painting helps me gain skill and learn the language of the paints. These are invaluable lessons in technique and composition and methods.

Colorfield #1

Lately I have been playing a lot with color and trying to use it not realistically, abstractly, and so on. There are a lot of people out there known for their color usage. Andre Derain, Georges Braque, Mark Rothko, Wolf Kahn are a few of them. The name for their color usage varies, from Fauve, Abstract Expressionist, Colorist / Colorism, Colorfield. I rather like the word Colorfield as it seems more all encompassing and broader in content / context than many of the others.

There is a lot more to using colors abstractly than I have realized, probably because I am a bit of a realistic if not realistically realistic person when it comes to artwork. Harmonious colors are important to me, and playing with these as I have has been a very difficult situation. While I like stormy weather, gloomy paintings are not my cup of tea. I don’t like them a lot as they tend to be depressing – but that is dependent, too, on subject matter. Picasso’s Guernica is a good example of a depressing painting – as are many of his portraits during his “Blue Period”.

This painting, to my eye, is really depressing. There are parts of it I like, such as the sky and lavender land below it. Independently I like the red / lavender bushes. Below them, the navy and green just don’t do anything for me. Get rid of the bottom or change the colors may be something for the future, but I am pretty tired of this whole thing!

Colorfield – what do I want to do with it? When I did Into the Blazing Hills, I was much happier with the colors and certainly not depressed by them.

Looking at the above painting, I realize I like the lightness and warmth of the colors. The blob of blue and green in the top painting are cold and too contrasting in comparison with the rest of the painting. The orange bushes / trees create a hard barrier and keeps the whole painting from working well together.

These flowers are also more harmonious and pleasing to me. A busier painting than the top one, and less abstract than the second one, but it doesn’t give me a sense of depression.

This portrait, too, is not depressing even though it is a low-key color palette.

Colors here are also warm and friendly.

So, what does all this mean for me? It means that using colors – in say a “colorfield” style painting – that I like, that please me, are very important. While I like bright colors and contrast, how far should it go? That is really what this painting was all about – finding what works, what doesn’t work.

Play is a way to learn. I learned I need to pay attention to colors especially if I am using large areas, such as with this study. The teal / yellow sky is okay; the lavender land beneath the sky is also okay. The lavender / orange trees are fine too. But, that green and blue do nothing for me except repulse me. It is “not me” if I were to say anything about it. It is ugly and not harmonious. There is not a sense of balance in any part of the painting – rather it is a bunch of stuff stuck together to see what happens.

Not a happy camper with the results, but pleased with my analysis.