Being new to abstract painting the year this painting was made; was a challenge to put it mildly, until then I only had been painting representationally. Recently retired I was ready for a new experience and I was not disappointed.
The first series of classes I found myself struggling where to put the paint on the paper; I was so used to painting my representational watercolors from photographs or a still-live.
But during the classes I found that there are many similar elements in abstract compared to representational painting: color, color-combination, shape, texture, space, value, just to mention a couple. Like in representational painting they all together are important to get a visually attractive composition and painting that attracts the eye of the viewer. When I see other abstract paintings I find myself exploring, why do I like this painting, are it the colors, the shapes, the composition, the marks; I explore the painting and try to learn something about myself that can help me with my own paintings. There is so much to learn.
One of the things I learned about myself during the classes was that when I am painting from an example I follow the color scheme of that example, but when free to choose, that I lean to bright and vibrant colors; which shows in the painting in this blog. I love to experiment with colors, different shapes and values to give the painting a vibrant feeling, make it come alive so people pause to take time to explore the painting.
Did you pause to have another look at this artwork?
