September 7 – Abstracts are hard

My Facebook artist friends are always getting me into trouble. That’s my story, and I’ll stick to it. Among the worst culprits is Ruth Armitage whose abstract work I both love and fear. Or, it’s probably more accurate to say, I’m deeply jealous of her ability with abstracts.

A couple weeks ago a co-worker purchased “Ripples” and this reminded me of my vague threats to do more abstract work (as it is a fun process).

rp_web_ripples1-192x300.jpg

This 30 Paintings in 30 Days challenge seems a good time to work on this threat, and I even have an idea!

A few months ago I watched a highly touted video (A Designed Approach to Abstraction)  by artist John Salminen who came to WSO a year or so before I came a member and whose workshop is still talked about. In the video, Mr. Salminen talks about designing an abstract by drawing three (basically random) things and then overlapping them.

The other day I was in a (boring) meeting and created an abstract idea.

abstractideaMy artist goals for this weekend was to work on the chapter in Celebrate Your Creative Self about saving whites. This seemed like a good project to work on.

abstractAbstracts are hard. It’s not hopeless, but I’m not sure where to go next.