4/7/10

Abstracts As A Way To Design

Reunion, O/C, 48"x48"
Most of my work is considered representational because it has an identifiable subject, such as an animal, landscape, or person. I've wanted to concentrate on design and composition for a while. So I have painted a couple (so far) pieces that are non-objective, or abstract. This is not to say I've stopped painting "things". Sometimes I just get a "bug" to do something, and right now that is abstract work.
There is always some type of organization in a painting. It may be good or bad, but it's always there. Painting non-objectively allows me to concentrate purely on color, texture, and page design. These paintings have plenty of structure. There is color, for example. I probably spend more time agonizing over the color palette I'm going to use, and then mixing colors to get colors, than I do actually painting. Once I get started, however, I assess as I go along. I add more and more paint, and as I see some sort of pattern start to emerge, I consider design formats that will strengthen the visual impact of the overall painting. The layers of paint create literal and visual textures, another aspect of the structure. The color and texture, and their placement on the canvas, make up the organization of the painting in such a way that you keep wanting to look at it when it's hanging in the gallery(!)

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