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I would love your thoughts ...
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Posted
Thank you! There's a good analogy in a mathematical object known as the Mandelbrot set, where all the interesting whorls and horsetails, etc, are found on the edge of the set, where order meets chaos. Everywhere else is dull. You get programs that allow you to zoom into the set and explore it, which I highly recommend, especially if you're looking for artistic inspiration.
Posted
Hi all, I am fairly new to the forum so forgive any rambling! I would love your thoughts on something that has been niggling away for a week or so, and you are the only painters that I 'know' (even though I hardly do!) I think I need to vent!! I met up with an old friend and ex colleague recently and since lockdown she has taken up painting abstracts. She has had quite a bit of success, selling a few paintings and has a solo show coming up later this year. She had previously shown no interest in art, so it's pretty amazing stuff really. The gallery where she has her show is in a National Park tourist town. She said that the gallery owners want to wean locals and visitors off representational art, and into abstract, particularly those works which were about feelings rather than the external world. I am sure I am being over sensitive but this annoyed the heck out of me! Of course gallery owners can put what they like on their walls, also I am a big fan of abstract art, even though I can't always pretend to understand it. What got to me was the assumption that abstract art is more worthy than representational or figurative art. I can't agree, but maybe I am letting my prejudices (and possibly a bit of jealousy, though I hate to admit it!) get in the way. I think all good art is worthy of attention. I think I felt uncomfortable with the idea that people need weaning off pictures of 'things'. Sorry for such a long post, I hope it makes some sense, and thanks for reading! I respect your views, there is a lot of talent and experience on this site and as someone for whom art is a solitary experience, it's quite a comfort! Thanks all, Sarah PS no offence to any abstract painters, this has made me take an extra interest in abstract art, with a mind to having a go myself.Hi Sarah maybe your ex-friend is trying to undermine you by saying the things she did. I can understand how you felt I have a old ex-mate who I used to paint with Watercolour. I gave her tips, books, brushes etc to get her started, she has since moved on too painting with Acrylics and oils doing portraits. She likes to tell me of her sold paintings and the wonderful courses she has attended knowing I'm unable to go, I have to say i dont noww communicate with her, childish I know but who needs someone in their lives who is negative, we can all find fault in ourselves who needs reminding. So be the bigger person and be childish lol I bet your a better painter lol xx
Edited
by Christine Fry
Posted
Thank you Christine for your kind thoughts. It's true, sometimes you can never quite work out the dynamic that exists between people! It's been good hearing everyone's thoughts on here.
Bill and Peter - thank you for your latest too!!
And Christine, am interested in seeing how your painting develops as you post on the forum. I wish you all the best and happy painting!
Posted
My problem with abstract art is simple: I can see images in the paintings that are not abstract at all.
For example,
In the Kline abstract I can see a pair of oxen with a clumsy wooden yoke.
In Ellen Mooney's first painting, I can see a waterfall, with a stone shelf sticking out into it. In her second, I can see a couple of people freefalling past some graffiti on a wall.
The term abstract, in its proper sense simply means something abstracted (extracted) from something else. So all the art we produce is abstracted from what we have seen and transferred to paper, canvas or other support.
I enjoy a lot of 'abstract' art for its use of colour, shape and form, and 'seeing' the images in the 'abstract' is a lot of fun! Even those with simple blocks of colour show the artist's ability to juxtapose colours against each other for effect, but as works of art? I can do as well myself, so I'm unlikely to fully appreciate them as such. As for those that are simply blank canvas covered with a flat colour and similar? Well, Emperor's New Clothes spring to mind!
Example dictionary definitions: (synonym, to extract)
> extract or remove (something). "applications to abstract more water from streams"
> to remove or separate someone or something from a place or context: the situation, facts, words, etc. that exist around something)
For the original question? I think that the gallery is making a mistake. That sort of snobbery usually leads to downfall, which could be very sad for them...
Posted
This rings bells with me, Painting Lady..... if you draw and paint, you look at things: clouds; coals in the fire; stone walls, trees, landscape features - and I see things in all of them and more - the same can be true of abstract paintings; and, as you imply - all painting is abstract in the sense that we're using symbols to represent the natural world that we can see; get really close to any painting, lose sight for a moment of the whole and what it tries to represent, and you'll see any number of abstract touches - we can't really help making them.
The thing to avoid of course is painting the faces we can see in our figurative work - or you get cliffs with noses, faces in clouds, trees that remind your mother of hedgehogs (painful memory, there...). It's so easy to do that, and not notice - whereas if you're painting a fantasy scene, you can pretend that's just what you intended. I've done this twice - painted a cliff which closely resembled a grumpy old man having a snooze, and a sky in which, entirely inadvertently, the Honey Monster made an appearance: both are on my gallery, if anyone fancies seeking them out.
Posted
Morning,
It's good that people are still thinking this one over! An additional thought from me - going right back to the conversation with my abstract painting friend- I asked her if she had anything in mind when she began a painting. She said she didn't have; just started with a clear mind and let the painting develop 'on it's own'.
I found that quite hard to understand. To me painting (whether abstract or not) is about getting a message across, even if it's as simple as ' I think this is beautiful' as my message usually is! Of course it's not always about beauty, but I am a simple soul!
But no message at all as an initial intention? I'm not saying that is wrong or right, but personally I just don't get it!!
Edited
by Sarah Crouch
Posted
Definitely something I can relate to seeing things within things , I often get accused of day dreaming because I’m staring at something I can’t see a face, animals, anything within it . Clouds, trees, patterns in wood, shadows you name it. When I first started painting I did a seen with clouds , my then very young daughter pointed out that there were puppies in the clouds. Well after care study I noticed several puppies , I then realises why I had been told to use a tissue to create clouds so I tried it , you can probably cause I had used a brand of toilet tissue with puppies on it .
Posted
That made me laugh Paul - someone on here once pointed out (not unkindly) a reclining man in a painting of mountains that I did, which is also in the gallery. It was completely unintentional - the mountains were supposed to be true to life - but now I can't 'unsee' the flippin' reclining man and it does make me cringe slightly! I should have passed it off as an attempt at surrealism...
Actually , it's just made me think - hope the appearance of 'reclining man' wasn't a visual version of a Freudian slip on my part- must take more care in the future!
Edited
by Sarah Crouch
