Abstract Art

Denser, Deeper Colors

On the last five canvasses I painted, I started out looking for deeper, denser colors.  Rather than mixing the colors before I started, I squeezed paint from the tubes onto the canvas, and then blended them with a brush dipped in a mixture of gloss medium and water.  I had already painted my usual "backgrounds" on the canvas, which provided a contrasting space of lighter colors as a backdrop. 

While I painted these canvasses, I was listening to Vicki Genfan's cd "up close" from her new double cd Up Close and Personal.  The "personal" cd has vocals, but the "up close" is strictly instrumental, with Vicki playing the acoustic guitar.  The haunting, mesmerizing quality of Vicki's amazing guitar helped move me into these deeper colors and expressions: 

Eye of the Storm

Green Is Good

Twin Stories

Taboo

Periphery

You can find Vicki's music at cdbaby.com. 

Art Blog Preview: Robin Ann Walker

Robin Ann Walker is a professional fine artist living in Dallas, Texas.  You can view her colorful, energetic, always-changing art on her website at Art-Girls.com.  Robin works in acrylics, and often includes her photographic images in her work.  She also combines non-traditional materials and techniques to create her contemporary art. 

Robin's art blog at http://artgirls.blogspot.com/ tells the story of her professional life as an artist.  It's great fun to see the challenges she faces with a new project and to find out how she solves these problems.  She recently completed a commission which involved painting people, and complained that she'd never done that before.  When her client reminded her that they were just "shapes and colors," that took the pressure off. 

Some of my favorite pieces of Robin's are the paintings in her "Abstract" gallery at http://art-girls.com/Abstract/AbstractMenu.html.  Follow this link to view the step-by-step process by which Robin created an 8 ft. by 10 ft. abstract painting commissioned by the Baylor Hospital in Plano Texas:  http://art-girls.com/Abstract/Baylor.html.

There's plenty to see on Robin's website and to learn about her work on her blog, so take a look.

Painting the Diptych

Recently I worked on two diptychs, which are basically paintings made up of two sections or canvasses, placed side by side--either touching or at varying distances apart.  The idea is that the two canvasses make up one image, and they should be hung next to each other on a wall.

Sometimes the adjacent edges of a diptych match exactly, as in this example by Jaya Krishnan called "Golden Light/Brown's Inlet Diptych."

Othertimes the two pieces do not match exactly at the seam, but compliment each other overall, as in this example by Eloisa Ibarra called "Red Diptych."

In order to paint a diptych, I first painted a background on each 24" x 24" canvas separately, using the same colors and overall patterning.  Next, I placed two easels side by side, at the same height, in order to complete the image as a diptych.  I had to see the canvasses together and work on them at the same time in order to get the final image to work. 

I didn't strive for an exact match at the adjacent edges or seam, but for an overall connection that would make these pieces work together in a variety of positions--immediately adjacent, as they are in the following photos, or further apart.   I worked on two sets of diptychs, each made up of two 24" x 24" canvasses.

Abstract Diptych

Abstract Diptych Two