Okie-dokie, I told y'all yesterday that I would post a 'work-in-progress' image of the current abstract, so here it is. The canvas is a 1.5" deep gallery wrap and measures 30" x 40", portrait grade. Kinda' big, but I felt like doing a large piece. I don't know, I just prefer working large when I do an abstract. More room to work I suppose.
Unfortunately, I could not get accurate color representation on all of the canvas. There are a couple of areas that don't show as much color and detail as is really there. You also can't see the texture well, nor the hundreds of tiny white and light blue paint splatters resembling star clusters. Ah well, at least it will give y'all an idea of what's happening in my studio.
I'm still debating on what needs to be added. I'm tossing around a couple of ideas and I had thought I would make a decision last night ... alas, didn't happen. As I lay in bed trying to fall asleep I kept 'painting in my head'. This, just so ya' know, is not unusual in the least. More often than not, it's precisely what I'm doing when I'm trying to fall asleep ... I'm mentally painting. I've probably painted a gazillion images a gazillion different ways over the years. Sure would be nice if I could actually get some of them painted! Of course, the down side is I have nowhere to keep that many paintings, so maybe it's better 97% of them stay right where they are ... in my head.
Back to the abstract. I've really enjoyed the whole process of doing this painting, seeing where it's going. For me, that's what doing an abstract is all about, the evolution of the work. It's unplanned, almost creating itself. Rarely do I ever prop it up to look at it from a distance as I do with portraits or even mixed-media collages. The canvas stays flat on the floor and I work around it. Hard on the knees, but I'm not comfortable working on them any other way.
This time, I let color decide what's to be done. The bright blue started the process and it went from there. I often squint my eyes while looking at the work. "Ah! a little bit of yellow over here ..." or "Hmmm, I think maybe some green in this corner - with maybe a touch in the other corner to balance it out." Then there are the "Oh! I'll toss some alcohol in this spot of wet paint and see what happens." kinds of moments. So forth and so on. It's been entirely intuitive painting.
It's also incredibly liberating, working this way. Portraiture, while I do indeed love it, is tedious and controlled. Very little is spontaneous or hap-hazardly done. There is a type of focus and concentration required with portraits. Especially when done with watercolor. Unlike working a portrait in acrylic, watercolor must be handled differently, with a great deal of control of the paint. At least, that's how I use watercolor. The ratio of paint to water, water to paper, water and pigment to the brush must be taken into account. And you have to be conscious of where you are working with watercolor ... unless you want bleed, you must not paint in hair next to the face if the face area is wet. You can't paint in the background behind the head if the hair area is wet. Etc. Etc. Etc. It's all much more complicated.
When you add in the extra issues of a portrait being a commissioned piece, it's somewhat like being strapped into an artistic straight jacket. The process can be challenging, you learn a great deal with each commission, your skill with the medium becomes more refined, but often the enjoyment of the process of creating the work is much less. Sadly, this is a concession many artists must make in order to earn a living. Commissions are the bread and butter ... the rest is blackberry jam.
But acrylic allows you more 'room to maneuver', unless of course, you paint with it like watercolors ... after all, it is an aquarelle medium, just more opaque then transparent. Still, with acrylic you can paint wet next to wet, you can paint over areas you messed up or don't like, and you can manipulate the paint in ways that you cannot with watercolor. So there is a freedom with using acrylic that is, for me, a wonderful experience after doing a commissioned portrait. Working in abstract, is even better. Too bad abstract is not a genre of painting that really sells all that well.
Generally speaking, people don't understand abstract. They want to look at a painting and know what it is they are looking at without having to think about it, without having to use their imaginations. They want landscapes and seascapes and pictures of flowers in a vase. They are uncomplicated and are far easier to match up to the color of their curtains or their bedspread. And too, people don't always like to venture too far from what family and friends like, even if their own inclinations in art run in a different direction. They like to fit in. Somehow, owning an abstract makes you deviant from the norm.
Well, guess I'm a deviant. Not only do I like them, I own a couple ... and ... I even create them. *hee hee*
But I'm digressing on an art rant and I suppose I should save that for another time. Anyway, hope y'all enjoy the preview of the work. I'm going to go fix some dinner, pop in a movie, and then snuggle in bed early. Have a good evening ....
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