UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #15

Title “The Hierophant - Chiron - Master of the Spiritual Realms” 

 (Acrylic) 

 90x120cm 

ABOUT THIS PAINTING:

My academic training is in Psychology and Expressive Therapies. Expressive (Art) Therapy uses art as a counseling tool. I have also been a painter for most of my life. These two disciplines are therefore woven into my paintings.

The MMPI or Personality Inventory is a tool used in Psychology to assess different personality indices within the spectrum of an individual’s personality. It is a Personality Test and a useful tool to sort people into different classifications based on qualities which makeup each person’s personality.

 

The ancient Classical Greeks have a pantheon of Gods and Goddesses that represented similar qualities. Freud and Jung’s psychological theories drew heavily from the Greek myths and philosophy. When I painted the Goddess Series, I was examining aspects of my own personality. According to Jung, men and women each have both male and female qualities within their personality. A man will generally have those characteristics that are celebrated as male such as “strength” etc., but also will have to a lesser extent, qualities that are attributed to females such as “caring”. A woman also will have those qualities that are specifically female such as “gentleness” but can also have qualities attributed to males, such as “courage”.

The Goddess Series focused mainly on female Goddesses and those qualities within my own personality. Included in this exhibition however were some of the Greek Gods.

This painting "The Hierophant" was shown at the end of the video by Natalija Brunovs that was recently released called “Tanmayo – Abstract Artist” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQ2MzRmoKBA . Figure 1 (above) shows how the painting evolved.

Artistic techniques used in the painting:

The finished painting has a strong diagonal emphasis in its composition. A diagonal often is unsettling to view and suggests discord. However the overall composition is balanced. The tonal value between the reds and the darks is relatively consistent contributing to the flat look - an example of a very high tonal value would be if the reds were changed to whites.

Acrylic paint lends itself well to abstract painting in that it provides coverage to a large canvas and the new acrylics offer a wide range of colours, the consistency and drying time being similar to that of oil paints. In this case I started with no specific idea in mind and just applied paint, but as the painting progressed I sort to bring order to the overall image using the artistic techniques discussed above.

Some artists have a number of paintings on the go at once, however I do not work like that. I usually work on a painting until I have reached a conclusion. I may however recycle an older painting over time.

Over the past three weeks I have reviewed some of the paintings shown in video. This post concludes with a few comments on what it was like for me to be videoed. I am an introvert by nature and am not eager to be “out there”. However being introverted does not mean that one does not have well thought out opinions, and it is with this in mind that I grasped the opportunity of this video. Due to Natalija’s sensitivity and skill, the video captures the essence of what I strive to achieve in my painting. I am not a natural performer and I think that Natalija has done a superb job in portraying what my painting is about.

The Goddess Series should be seen as a whole because it was painted as a celebration of my being and exhibited at an important turning point in my life. Has it helped you to better understand abstract art? Has your attitude to abstract art changed? If so, I would love to read some of your comments.