Wednesday, January 31, 2018

JANUARY CHALLENGE - ABSTRACTION


Our January Challenge "Abstraction" entries from Cindy, Donna, Carmen, Carol, Jean, Kathy, Mary, Denette and Fay are below. Such a variety of expression...read all about it! (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

ABSTRACTION is really a complicated art form...practically you have to know how to draw and compose a realistic piece before you can successfully de-construct it into an abstract form.  The years of hearing folks declare "my five year old could paint that" lead me to believe it was a matter of slinging paint Jackson Pollack-style.  Not so fast....!  I've never taken the time to study the process carefully but now and then I "dabble" in abstraction as a way to learn more about what does NOT work.  Lately I have been playing with abstraction in tones of white.  Here's a small sampling of what I had come up with:


Cindy Michaud
contact me at: art@cindymichaud.com

eh? not bad...but then again....I'll keep trying!  I do think this is a more difficult genre than most folks think.

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Abstract Art is much harder than it looks and appeals to different people for different reasons.  I really love abstraction for it's use of color.  Sometimes as an artist and as an art lover I just want to see color.  Color can be very powerful, color evokes lots of emotion, lots of memories so it can represent anything to the person looking at it. 
This painting is an abstract interpretation of a marsh scene using just color.  The real joy of abstract is it can be one thing to the artist and quite another to the onlooker. 



The Marsh

 Donna Vines

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Greenleaf, 4"x4.5 "
This is my favorite abstract I've ever done. It is poured acrylic on wood, and it's tiny and shiny.

Carmen Beecher
https://www.carmensart.etsy.com
https://carmenbeecher.blogspot.com/

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Point of View
sold
Oil on Panel

I like the color, composition, and texture in this piece.

Carol Schiff
www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com
www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

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The challenge of abstraction got me thinking about all of the ways we are pulled by electronic media. I have a love/no love relationship with digital media. For example, I love the Adobe programs and admire that they were developed by human beings and creative thinkers. Illustrator is my favorite. I created the artwork above using it. This was an exercise in repetition, pattern and rhythm. Also, it represents how you can get overwhelmed by all the parts if you open the box. Enjoy!

 Jean Thomas

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I enjoy an occasional abstraction! Some people say all my designs are abstract since I don't ever paint anything in a realistic manner. But, to me, an abstract has no easily identifiable representation and is open to anyone's interpretation. The above was created in Illustrator and then taken into Photoshop. I call it "Signals from Another Planet" but you might see something else.

Kathy Garvey
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Several years ago I took a watercolor workshop with John Salminen. I thought it would include his wonderful street scenes, but it was all about abstract. It was fascinating and involved. Later I played with simplifying his methods, but always remembering his advice. This is a fairly recent painting I call "Warm Abstract."

Mary Warnick
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This is as close as I get to abstraction! Red by Denette Schweikert
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I am so impressed by the creativity of my colleagues in this challenge that I hesitate to post my own. In the collage below, I am following up on my November value study of the Appalachian Mountains.  As you can see, this one uses geometric shapes to represent the mountains. You will have to use your imagination to make these mountains recede into the distance. The colors are not just right, but the papers were at the ready. In any case, it is fun seeing how my sketch translates into triangles, etc. 


Fay Picardi

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Is it Abstract?

By Kathy Garvey

Since "Abstract" is the title of our monthly Pieces of 8 challenge for January, it's been on my mind.  So, while out walking with my camera and taking pictures this morning, I thought I would use one of my photos of sidewalks (yep!) to make an abstract when I got back home. And then this blog entry was going to be about how something realistic can become something abstract. But, that's not totally what happened.

I started with this photo. (I'm fascinated by cracks in sidewalks!)

After straightening it in Photoshop, I applied some favorite filters and modified the color. Then I applied some patterns to it. All three versions definitely fit the category of "Abstract" to me. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)

That could have been the end of it, but Photoshop is just so fast and so much fun, I took the middle one into a new document, flipped it, rotated it, copied sections and created a new abstract that I liked more.

And that's when my own "interpretation" of this abstract happened. I saw two birds. So, I added "stuff" so that everyone could see two birds.


And that's how my abstract of something real (the sidewalk) turned into something that's not so abstract! Now, time to make that look more like a tree they are sitting in, right? 

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Watch for our group write up on Abstract coming soon! We have a monthly blog challenge and this month it is titled "Abstract." That's it. You could interpret it how you wanted. I don't usually do abstracts except when I'm playing with Photoshop. However, because my frequent designs of birds and flowers aren't realistic but stylized, sometimes people tell me they are abstracts. So, for our blog, I made note of that and put in an image I created that is an actual abstract…in my mind, that's something that might suggest an idea but is open to interpretation. That, with entries from all of my fellow pieces, will appear at the end of this month. January 31st to be exact. 

OK! Couldn't resist...

Thursday, January 11, 2018

ZACK - SOLD

I like to paint animals. One client came to me with three white standard poodles and commissioned portraits of each. As much of an animal lover as I am, I was not sure I could capture the personalities of three individual but identical dogs. My client was very happy and recognized each dog from his portrait. They are some of my favorite animal portraits.

Sunday, January 7, 2018

Moving My Studio Art Sale - Final Markdowns!

My studio sale is drawing to a close.  Thank you to all my collectors who purchased paintings, and still are!

On this, the final phase of my sale, ALL ORIGINAL PAINTINGS, 8X8" OR LARGER, ARE MARKED DOWN 50% OR MORE!  

  1. www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com











Saturday, January 6, 2018

Rural Landscape Painting | Daily Painting | Small Oil Painting | Country Road by Carol Schiff | 6x8" Original SOLD

Country Road, take me home.....

I still miss John Denver!   This rural landscape painting reminds me of his talent and the beautiful songs he left with us.

SOLD

I walk this road every morning when I am in the Smoky Mts. of Carolina.  The morning light and pastoral scenes are the perfect way to start my days there.


I painted with a palette knife, in a technique I refer to as "color weaving".  It allows for lots of texture in the work as well as very subtle changes in color. This is actually the same scene I painted in a previous post. Check out my Sept 7, 2014 post where I cropped the image and painted with a brush. A completely different composition! That's one of the things I love about art.

Thank you for reading my blog today.


www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

Ballard Park, Original Oil on Canvas

  I had not painted outside in two years, so this was quite a challenge. It was one of those paintings I had to improve upon in the studio. ...