still addicted to pens

My neice Lucy got me thinking of and liking pens and (specifically) scribbling,and I could see how she arrived at form with many layers of scribbles. I think of her when I use scribbling or hatching as a way to lay down a layer of color in order to alter the hue or mood of a passage. It’s a corollary -in pen work- to scumbling or creating a wash in painting.

Not that I’ve left painting altogether - I usually start and finish with acrylic paints, most often on a Masonite or wood panel. Most of the time I lay down heavy texture with a painting knife, creating a composition of shape. When it is dry I will use different techniques to scribble, roll, dab and smear color on top of the texture. It is so relaxing, like singing…and the results often look so like the outdoors and nature…most often brush and grass, sometimes mountains. I want them to stay mostly abstract, but it’s ok with me if they are reminiscent of nature.

Meditating on Color

I have been feeling liberated from “shoulds” in my painting and have been exploring simple color, brushstrokes and expression. Sometimes I come up with paintings which look like a real place (this one reminds me of reflections in a pond) and some definitely don’t. Either way, I’m loving it.

I hope that I can keep learning, keep finding new colors (thank you, Lucy!), keep exploring new marks and techniques and keep expressing the joy and sadness in being a human being on earth.

You can take a look at my latest small video to see how I worked on this painting.

Some videos of my new painting life

I’m currently engaged in sharing my love of nature-based abstraction and can’t get enough of it!

I’m starting to use this new platform (my Squarespace site) to blog, (instead of reviving my old blogspot place) and am currently trying to describe my recent changes in artistic direction. So I thought I’d do a post showing a couple of abstract youtube videos I’ve shared recently.

I still love nature and painting nature, but the techniques and style which are bringing me inspiration and joy are more expressive, loose and colorful than my previous habits as a reliably realistic painter. I’m learning that, for me, expression and emotion bring more meaning to my artwork. I can’t say that realism by nature is meaningless and stiff; there are so many realistic (representational) landscape painters who get across poignant and important meanings in their works. I could never throw shade on an entire genre, and one which has been a lifelong love. However, I’m leaving it behind. Leaving behind realism, that is, and for the time being continuing to explore abstraction and loose impressionism which I’m finally ready to admit and embrace.

Art as human expression seems to be a very obvious concept, but for me, it was one which had always been relegated to a secondary and less important role. “I could have done that!” is a refrain which I’ve heard so many times (and thought myself) when viewing an expressionist work. But now I get it. Furthermore, I’m delighted, as I approach retirement, to set aside the idea of finding a market for my art and making money doing it. It would be nice, but it’s ok if I only paint and repaint canvases for the forseeable future.

Here’s to exploring and accepting.

Below are some links to youtube videos about my experimentation in my evolution as a painter.

A typical project for me

My recent rediscovery of the delight of linear marks

My new happy project - Abstract art book "Abstract Journey" - is ready

I’m so happy to me finishing up a little passion project, the writing of a book about my transformation into an abstract artist, leaving behind realism and representationalism. I’ve been on this path for a while, and the infatuation with color and texture has been continuing unabated, so I think it’s time to declare myself.

You can see the preorder page for the eBook and the paperback version will be published soon on Amazon as well.

My eBook is available for preorder, and the paperback will be coming out soon!

I never felt as strongly about my realistic landscapes and florals as I have about my recent work in impressionism and abstraction. For some reason, painting this new way (for me) makes me more able to wonder, laugh, enjoy and think than when I am simply pointing to a beautiful scene in the world.

“Cloud of Witnesses I,” Acrylic on Board, 15”x24”

I’ve been absolutely preoccupied recently with this type of painting, and the meanings these works point to are mostly spiritual and emotional. The one above is titled “Cloud of Witnesses” and points to the spiritual realities beyond our physical world, particularly to the witnesses in heaven who lift us up in love and prayer as we fight our fights.

In the book “Abstract Journey” I talk about my gradual change in both my personal points of view and roles as well as in my artistic life. As I left behind my hands-on role as parent, I was also facing the enormous changes in our social and political settings here in America. The changes in this outward life were paralleled by changes in the way I defined my art.

I discuss how I tackled new ways to express myself in paint and color, and new techniques which inspired me in my search for a more abstracted artistic identity.

If you are interested, you can click on the links above to see the preorder page for the eBook “Abstract Journey” and you can also recheck my website in a few weeks for links to the paperback version; both will be on Amazon.

Indulgence (Video)

I’ve been indulging in the luxury of pure color, swiped thickly on to my boards and manipulated with sticks, painting knives, brushes and rags. I’m going to have to make room on some shelves for all of the pieces I’m painting; the inspiration is plentiful and I’m making stacks and stacks of new studies as well as full size paintings.

I think color touches our brains and bodies in a way which is elemental and mysterious. I don’t understand it, but I know when color is joyful, quiet, happy or brash. And I’m rediscovering how much I love placing multiple abstract paintings together in a grouping to make it look like I’m hinting at a story with multiple chapters.

I want to create a narrative with my abstracts, but I’m having a hard time doing that. With these, I tried to just put down color without judgment, and see what started to remind me of something. Nothing really spoke to me, except just joy and life. I guess that’s good enough for a start!

Here’s to color, and to inspiration!

Above is a photo of these three paintings after the first applications of color with a painting knife, and below you can see a little video of how I enjoyed adding layers, scraping away lines, and using veils of translucent white. I hope it was an improvement!

In addition to adding layers, I also flipped around the position of two of the pieces : )

A Spring of Inspiration and Joy

I’ve been painting madly and have scratched and scrabbled to collect bits of time as well as glorious full days to paint, scrape, layer, rub, sand, and, rarely, varnish a piece because (ha!) it’s actually done. Perhaps I’m deluded in my thinking, but to me, paintings always become better with more layers. Maybe it was true - especially as a realistic landscape painter - that I could “lick a painting to death” as a friend used to say…but working in loose abstraction seems only to benefit from layering more and more.

And how blissful it is to me to take a knife-painted abstract which is languishing in a pile, and place loosely impressionistic landscape details on top of it. Lately, when I do this, it’s to place traffic scenes on top of the knife painting, as in the example above.

Here’s hoping you have a Spring of new inspiration and creativity, embracing layers in your art and in your life.