UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #85

“Togetherness”

(Watercolour)  

20x20cm 

ABOUT THIS PAINTING:

This watercolour was the first I attempted.  I took the subject (Bridie and Connie – my granddaughters) from a photograph which my daughter Bernice took.  I thought that the composition was intriguing.  Not having any training in watercolours I was waded into deep water myself and can confirme that watercolour painting is very difficult to master.  It took me quite a time to figure it out and even now I am not completely competent.  A couple of books which are invaluable to the beginner to watercolour painting are ”Making Colors Sing” by Dobie and “Colour Choices – Making Colour Sense out of Colour Theory” by Quiller.  I think that the former is out of print now but you may be lucky to pick up a second hand copy.

Artistic techniques used in the painting:

With watercolour painting I am more methodical than I am with acrylic.  I work out the composition and what palette I will use in advance.  Firstly I painted the image in a gradation on a separate sheet of paper to get the highlights.  Then I re-sketched the image onto 300g watercolour paper.  The colours for my palette were then thought out.  I wanted to achieve a cool light as the subject is in natural light, so I kept the background cool and the figures warm.  I keep notes on my painting process when I paint in watercolours.  The palette is below:-

Watercolour Palette:

Aureo. Yellow

Rose Madder

French Ultra Blue

Cad. Red

Windsor Blue (or Phthalo Blue)

Indian Red

Aliz. Crimson

Veridian

Cobalt Blue

Light Red

Windsor Green (or Phthalo G.)

I kept the colours naturalistic with expressionistic overtones.  The palette is analogistic which means that the colours are adjoining on the colour wheel.  There are vibrant notes as seen with the use of yellow.  The painting is in mid tones.  Form is natural with a one point perspective but I have purposely kept the painting flat and stylized as this is generally my approach.

Although this is a genre painting which means it is a painting of everyday life, it is also of my two granddaughters so it is a double portrait also.

http://www.buderimartstudio.com 

UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #70

“Hephaestus – God of the Anvil and Forge”

                                                             (Acrylic)                                                                       90x120cm 

ABOUT THIS PAINTING:

This painting is one in a series of paintings called “In the Image of Goddesses”.  The series was shown at an exhibition of the same name in Brisbane, Australia.  The theme of the exhibition was to honour those aspects of myself that are personified by the classical Greek deities.  This pantheon of deities comprises all the varied characteristics that are displayed by humanity.  Therefore I have taken most of the major female Goddesses and depicted those aspects that they celebrate, as aspects of myself – thus exploring my own personality traits.  This is not so very unlike the Personality Tests of today, such as the MMPI-2RF (Minnosota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) which identify personality structure. 

I also included a few male Gods in the series because according to the psychiatrist Jung, each person embodies some characteristics of their opposite gender.  The painting discussed here is about Hephaestus - God of Fire, Metalworking, Stone masonry, and the Art of Sculpture.  Hephaestus is to the male gods as the Goddess Athena is to the females, for he gives skill to mortal artists and was believed to have taught humans the arts.  I chose him as representing my creativity.

Hephaestus was married to the Goddess Aphrodite.   He was believed to also have great healing powers which are similar to my therapeutic abilities.  During the best period of Grecian art, Hephaestus was characterised by his hammer and anvil.  I have depicted the anvil in this painting – can you see it?

Artistic techniques used in the painting:

Could this painting be loosely said to fall into the genre of Portraits?    I think that it could.  It does attempt to represent aspects of a person – myself.  Also it is an abstract representation of a God.  In the recent exhibition “Portrait of Spain – Masterpieces from the Prada” held at the Queensland Art Gallery, the painting of King Philip IV of Spain by Velazquez (1635) is depicting the King as the God Mars.  That particular painting would be classified as a portrait.  Therefore I would suggest that my painting of “Hephaestus” also falls into the genre of a portrait.

Of course the style is Abstract Expressionism.  This movement comprises many styles but shared several characteristics. The works are usually abstract; they emphasized freedom of emotional expression, technique, and execution; they display a single unified, undifferentiated field, network, or other image in unstructured space; and the canvases are large.

The colours used for “Hephaestus” are complimentary and the pallet limited to blue and orange (plus white and black).  A restricted pallet enables the artist to create more congruence and harmony in the overall colour scheme.

The tone is low to mid-tone with medium contrast.

The form is flat and abstract with flat planes of colour.  I allude to the anvil which is a symbol for Hephaestus.  This can be seen in the pale dusty orange image in the upper centre of the painting.  This is the most prominent  feature of the picture and honours his creative powers as well as mine.

The composition is static, flat and balanced which is typical of much of my art work.

Having studied psychology for many years, I tend to put a psychological bent on a lot of things, and when I completed my Masters Degree in Expressive Art Therapy, this line of thought was further developed.  So it is to be expected that many of my paintings originate from a psychological perspective.  Psychology has been monumental in changing humanity since its inception more than 100 years ago and will continue to do so in the future.  Much of the visual imagery we see in the mass media and advertising has been scrutinized by psychologists to influence the behaviour of the viewer.  Are you aware of that?  If not, start looking – it’s not hard to see.

http://www.buderimartstudio.com 

UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #54

Title:   “Portrait of Cheyne” 

(Acrylic)

76x76cm

THE IDEA BEHIND THE PAINTING

I have painted several members of my family over my art career.  Although I prefer to paint abstract paintings, I don’t approach a portrait in that way.  In fact I am very representative when it comes to portraits.  The reason for this is that I want to represent each individual as I literally “see” them.  If I was to represent them abstractly, there would be a different interpretation of the subject by each different viewer.  My family members are important and precious to me and I want them represented in an unequivocal way.  A portrait painter has the power to portray their subject in a favourable or unfavourable light – I do not want to cast good or bad impressions on my family.  Therefore I paint them literally from a photo.  I can see some people throw up their hands and exclaim “A photograph!” but get over it, I know my family as well as anyone and that is the most convenient way of replicating their image in this busy world.

Artistic techniques used in the painting:

I chose acrylics for Cheyne’s portrait.  Her personality is best reflected in a medium that yields strong colours. 

Cheyne has blue eyes.  At some stage she had an item of clothing that looked particularly good on her.  It was a tee-shirt that parodied the super hero “Superman”.  The blue colour of that tee-shirt was very flattering and brought out the colour of her eyes.  I accurately matched that colour for the background of this painting.  I deliberately left a white area – a space into which she could evolve and grow.  Also the white area balances the overall composition.

Western artists throughout the ages have used grids to transfer images from one surface to another larger surface.   Also painters have over hundreds of years used projection devices (camera obscura was discovered as far back as the 4^th century BC).  Leonardo and Vermeer both have been thought to use these devices from time to time to get an exact image onto another surface.  Most of the very large life-like portraits that are popular in recent times have been done with projectors.

I used a grid to scale up Cheyne’s image onto the canvas.  The photo from which the portrait was taken was a very free and relaxed representation of her taken at the beach.  It captures a playful, happy aspect of her personality.

We all possess an “internalized image” of ourselves formed from experiences we have had throught out our life.  I have known people who are extremely beautiful who do not believe that they are so.  It is important for me when I do a portrait to represent that person as they are and not in the abstract because they may interpret this abstraction as a negative image whereas I might be conveying something completely different.  This is why I am scrupulous in getting a “true” likeness of my subject.  The photo from which I take a portrait also provides what I want to depict.  It is not selected at random but reflects certain aspects of the subject’s personality that I want represented in the portrait.

I love the freedom in which Julian Freud (the famous British artist whose paintings I greatly admire) paints but isn’t each portrait which he produces also a reflection of him?  Each artist approaches their artwork in different ways and I have just explained the way I choose to approach the portraits I do of my family.  Perhaps at a future time I will become more abstract in my approach - time will tell.

http://www.buderimartstudio.com 

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UNDERSTANDING ABSTRACT ART #10

Title “Portrait of a Granddaughter” (Watercolour) 35x30cm framed

ABOUT THIS PAINTING:

The viewer of an abstract painting might tend to think that the artist paints that way because they are not particularly talented. I thought that it is about time that I show you that I can and have mastered painting skills. This is a portrait of my granddaughter. I chose watercolour as the medium because it is soft and best reflects the innocence of the subject. Watercolour is a very difficult medium to use. However once one gets the knack then it can be very rewarding and is ideal for specific subjects such as this one. This painting is a “labour of love” because although I can do portraits I only do them for family members.

Artistic techniques used in the painting:

I tend to not be as spontaneous with watercolour as I am with acrylic. I work out the composition and what palette I will use in advance. In this case I painted the portrait from a photograph. I did a sketch and painted the image in a gradation. You can see here I did the gradation in pink using black and white – this I did in acrylic.

I re-sketched the image onto 300g watercolour paper. The colours for my palette were then thought out in advance. I wanted to achieve a cool light as the subject is in natural light, so I kept the background cool and the figure warm. I often keep notes on my painting process particularly with w/colour.

Watercolour Palette:

Aureo. Yellow

Rose Madder

French Ultra Blue

Cad. Red

Windsor Blue (or Phthalo Blue)

Indian Red

Aliz. Crimson

Veridian

Cobalt Blue

Light Red

Windsor Green (or Phthalo G.)

-oOo-

Background: Glaze (AY+RM) with over glaze (FU+AY)

Dress: FU + RM (with lots of water)

Hair: Dark parts WB+IR and FU+IR

Light parts (AY+RM)+V (warm brown)

Also light parts (AY+CR)+V

Or (AY+AC)+V

Bear (Toy) (Light warm green) (WG+AY)+LR with lots of water

Face and Neck: Glaze AY

Face RM/V/CB

Neck AY+V