abstract painting – Ink, Yarn & Beer

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.

Upward to the Beyond

What is the “right” way to hang an abstract? Is it the artist’s choice – the viewer’s choice – the hanger’s choice? The painting “Into the Blazing Hills” is one thing – the title telling you what I see. Inverted, I see “Upward to the Beyond” – moving toward the other side. What is the other side?

Putting my digital signature on this one gives it a different sort of reality – the signature grounds the painting and says “this is the bottom so upward is the top.” What is the top? What is the bottom?

Sideways, the painting does nothing for me, with the yellows on the left or right, but yellows on the top or bottom create a totally different feeling, but somehow the feeling is right. I will say, the yellows on the bottoms are more disconcerting and unsettling to me than when it is on the top. So, upset or comfort?

If I were to critique this at all, I would find this painting bottom-heavy in yellow, and moving upward it seems as if there are trees silhouetted against the sky. However, there is all this stuff in between, and it lacks the harmony, I think, that “Into the Blazing Hills” has. Perhaps it is the ability for me to recognize my surroundings – the hills of California – with either a sky and brilliant, blazing sunset – or a wildfire encroaching a bit of paradise, destruction being moments away.

This is going to take time – maybe both are “right” – and perhaps the middle chaos in this painting is okay but needs a path of some kind to lead the eye upward.

Abstraction

If you follow my all-purpose art blog, Journey By Paper, you know that I have been slithering around with pastels, gouache, and watercolors as a theme for a painting called “The Slough” – sort of an evolutionary adventure. In doing so, I began to move into a kind of abstraction, painting without lines.

Generally, I tend to paint watercolors without any lines on the paper. I don’t know why, but the lines too often act as a cage, and keep me from just exploring color. I really love the way colors and water react on good paper, and I think the lines make me think I need to produce a “perfect” painting, whatever that is. So, here are some abstractions I did, all in one afternoon, in the order I did them. Comments about each panting are below them. All were painted with a 1/2 inch or 1 inch flat brush.This one I wanted to work on contrast, saving white paper, and creating shapes with the 1/2 inch brush. I was pretty pleased with the results, but the foreground was a bit of a puzzle.The above is an abstraction of heather. The sky doesn’t match the heather. This one I need to re-think.I really like this one – the colors just are so beautiful (to me). I think the abstraction worked to catch trees and snow in the spring, although perhaps I could redo it more simply.Finally, this yellow house has been calling out to me, but a yellow house is not that interesting in and of itself. But, a series of shapes to make a house became the idea after doing all those abstractions before it. Here, a 1 inch brush and a bit of thought. I like this one because it is cheery, has white paper showing through, and is showing me what I can do with pure colors.

Abstractio

As I wrote a bit earlier in my posts about my Chinese Painting Class, there is a challenge to start painting a subject when the knowledge that is gained by practice and by painting has slid by the wayside. In an effort to stop feeling frustrated and stressed out by the process, I decided to play. Play is part of growing up – and part of any art or skill acquisition – a way to try, explore, experiment, learn. I forget this way too much!

Relearning

The subject was peonies. I have done a few good ones. This is what I did that led to tears. To put it politely, it sucks.

Becoming very frustrated, I decided to practice some strokes in classical subjects which are the foundation for Asian painting: bamboo, orchid, chrysanthemum, plum.

Some memory returns, but the brush is far too wet.

Break the Rules

Rules exist to be broken. Many sumi painters paint traditional subjects, which are beautiful in variety and subtlety. Others move into areas far beyond the traditional expressions, meeting either excitement or criticism. The beauty of ink is its immediacy, and how it lends itself to spontaneous expression. However, this element of spontaneity comes with practice and experience, and without either, the dilettante remains such. The artist combines the repeated practice, the knowledge, the experience with the moment. All artists are dilettantes and students at times, and other times, they move into that time and space when it all comes together in a moment of mastery.

Next Steps . . .

Given these thoughts, I let it go.

Absorbent xuan paper – washes – diluted ink – pure ink – pure pigment – mixed pigment – water – no water. Playing with paper, ink, paint is a form of reacqaintance with old friends. Not having a goal, just going somewhere, and letting it lead you into itself.

I am not an abstract painter, but I am not a realistic one, either. I prefer suggestion. Purely abstract adventures are rather frightening – nothing recognizable on which to get a toehold – only a plummeting in, down, out – moving with the moment.

First one done, very timid. I realize just how much I’ve forgotten! One thing that is very important to remember is that the color of Chinese paint becomes a lot light – mucho mucho! – when it dries.

These next few, I diluted the paint and ink considerably less. I sprayed the paper in some areas, applied ink and then painted over it, flicked the paint, pushed and smooshed and let the ink or color bleed in.

I rather like the above two paintings.

Continuing along the same path, I remembered that I have some acrylic paints, Golden Fluid Acrylics, which are a dilute paint (not less pigment, just thinner, like cream) and some others with sparkly effects. This painting is ink and dilute acrylic. Unfortunately, the sparkles don’t show up in the photo, but they do add a nice quality to the finished picture below. I’m actually rather pleased with this one. It makes me think of looking up into an oak tree, seeing the leaves against a bright sun.

And finally, this. I think this is my favorite. Unfortunately, the photo is not the best. This one was a bit more planned, with colors more carefully considered, warms and cools placed in some specific areas. Splatters, too, and drips were done with more conscious thought. Not all of it was planned out. Ink was added before, during, and after the colors. The paper was sprayed at various times. The point of this painting was to try to incorporate what I learned from all the above, and work to see if my thoughts would produce specific results. Did it work? Yes and no.