Abstractly speaking ...

My theory is that when I'm stuck in an artistic rut my best course of action is to paint an abstract. Oh sure, there's a certain amount of structure to painting an abstract, but for the most part, it's an exercise in creativity and letting your sense of the visual take over the process. In an odd sort of way it's somewhat like creating an image through graphic design. It's really rather liberating. It's therapeutic. Y'all, it's just a damn lot of fun.

Since I prefer to work on large canvases I work on the floor when painting an abstract. I throw a towel down on the carpet - yeah, carpet in a studio, I know - and just start mushing gesso and various texture mediums on the canvas. Break out the big fan and let that dry. Then the magic begins. I dig through my stash of acrylic paints, pick out colors that strike my fancy, grab a few paint brushes, a spray bottle of water and a bottle of alcohol and get to work. My most recent abstract-in-progress has been on that towel several times already.

It began it's metamorphosis several months ago as an attempt at an abstract design of a field of Texas bluebonnets. I had this idea: a visual of looking down from an aerial view, maybe like being in an airplane, over a field of bluebonnets. Considering I've never looked down at a field of bluebonnets somewhere high in the sky over Texas you can probably guess the first attempt wasn't a success. My husband, a real live Texan, took one look and asked me what the Hell it was supposed to be. Try as he might, he never could see it as bluebonnets ... and the man knows what those damn bluebonnets look like. I considered it a bomb and stuck the canvas in the closet for awhile.

But the idea kept nagging at the back of my brain. Struggling to be brave in the face of adversity, I dragged it out of the closet and gave it another go. Again, dismal failure. The husband took one look at the painting, one look at me, then quietly shook his head. In frustration I shoved the canvas back in the closet and ended up attempting it yet again on a smaller scale. Sadly, what was supposed to be an abstract painting became the landscape, Field Of Bluebonnets. Well, I must have done something right with that one because the husband loved it. Thinks it's one of my better paintings. Go freakin' figure. I don't even really like landscapes. I'm stumped. I think it's okay, but honestly, that's about as much enthusiasm as I can muster for it.

Feeling cranky from inability to abstractly render a decent image of a field of bluebonnets, and from not really doing any art at all of late, I decided to pull out the other canvas and play with it. What the heck, right? It already had texture medium and some paint on it. Why waste it? Certainly couldn't hurt it. Maybe something could come of it, even if it wasn't a stinkin' field of bluebonnets. So out of the closet it came one more time and took it's place on the Mystic Towel Of Abstraction. (yeah, yeah)

I liked the rust and terra cotta colors I'd put on the canvas from the first time I'd worked with it. It still had a patch of blue in the middle from before as well. I sat in the floor and stared at it until my mind started to wander. I kept being drawn to that little patch of bright blue. I started thinking about water, about big lakes and trees and small sandy beaches at the edge of the water where you could park a camping chair and prop up a fishing pole. I could see little tributaries branching off, meandering across the landscape, creating little tiny lakes of their own. I could see the rough, rugged mountains rising up from the landscape, bare of trees but full of color from the layers of earth that built them up.

This is what has developed thus far .......

Laying upon the Mystic Towel Of Abstraction.

The texture medium in detail.

The abstract as it currently looks.

Please bear in mind these photos were taken in the studio, incorrect lighting and all that crap. It really looks better live and in person. I swear. Those weirdly faded parts are just how the paint reacted to the flash on the camera. I tried it without the flash, but the pictures came out blurry and even crappier than with it. So. Anyhoo. Moving on.

Now, where I will go from here is still a mystery. I'm going to go back into the studio this evening and ponder it for awhile. I'm bordering on liking it as it is, but feel that it still needs some tinkering here and there. It's not "just right". When I'm finished I'm going to coat it with a layer of varnish which, in theory, will give the colors an extra boost. I think the green really needs it because it has a tendency to be dull on the canvas sometimes. This is one of those times.

I'm already thinking about the next abstract. I'm envisioning really bright colors, almost neon, but I'm not sure how to accomplish that with the type of paints I have. I'm not really wanting to purchase more right now either. But I want to try something with vibrant magentas, orange, turquoise and maybe a rich cobalt blue. We'll see how it goes. For now, it's one abstract at a time.

Namaste, y'all ...