New to painting, doing abstracts. Would appreciate advice

Me -again! In reference to your more peaceful work, I agree with Helen's comment and would rub out while thinking of a balanced composition. Whilst in no way wishing to influence the outcome, I see a low horizon and something in the top right that may reference something in a sky. I'm biased though, as I love landscapes which, by their very nature, seem abstract.

Hi Sebastian, I’m an abstract painter, take a look at my gallery if you want. I always base my work around a theme or a thought in my head and it evolves from there. I get some of my inspiration from Paul Klee and Rothko. Your all blue painting could have a Rothko influence, take a look at some of his work. To avoid a ‘muddy’ look try not putting on heavy layers of paint and adding yet more on top. Try layering the paint so that the underlying colour shows through, this can be achieved by slightly watering down the acrylic to look like single cream, then let that layer dry before applying another colour on top, leaving the odd gaps to let the underlying colour show. I painted this a while ago, but you can see the underlying colours.  This in influenced by Rothko This is influenced by Jackson Pollock.

Sebastian. Here are two rather beautiful drawings done by Jackson Pollock. I haven't looked up your other muses but I am sure they could also draw,,art is a learned craft as us playing an instrument ,creative writing , whatever.  Look on the  gallery here and generally the artists who are posting  have observed ,have taken time and care to produce a work of art, .  When my kids were little I had a fridge covered in their colourful efforts  we enjoyed them for what they were...I still have some of them fifty years later plus some from my now grown up grand children,   I genuinely do not see how you can have a play with paint and brushes ,give  it a name and call it an abstract painting which is what you are doing. ,learn a craft, understand what you are doing and then produce your own creations from your own perspective not a poor copy of some other artist. It's a learning process.

Sebastian, you say, quote….“I want to get across something without structure and emotion…” Abstract painting is full of emotion, you only have to look at ‘The Crying Woman’ by one of the masters of abstract paintings, Picasso. He based it around, his mother and the suffering in the Spanish War.  Taking it back to my abstracts, I always have a subject in mind, and structure of how I want to paint it, the emotions come as I progress. I occasionally do sketches first, then let it evolve from there.  All art has to have structure, otherwise you could just throw a pot of paint at a sheet of paper and call it an abstract!!

I think the point Sylvia is making - she will most certainly correct me in clipped and caustic tones if I've got her wrong - is that learning to paint, whatever you're trying to paint, is a process: you learn from drawing, because drawing teaches you how to look, and to see.  There was an article in the Guardian today suggesting that still life was boring to observe, and that  Cézanne, for one, went a bit heavy on his repeated paintings of apples.  I'm not entirely without sympathy with that, although it didn't go down very well, because I don't do still life any more, and am not drawn to them.  BUT - I learned everything I now know from still life; it teaches you just about everything - placement, volume, the interrelationship of colours, light and shade, reflected light and shadow, even aerial perspective. Is this valuable if you really want to paint abstract pictures?  Well, yes; because without getting too hung up on the literal meanings of words, abstract art is abstraction from something: whether the world outside, our own inner vision, a mathematical equation, a scientific theorem, a religious or political feeling or inspiration.   I agree with you about the value of play - play is important, even vital, and it's not a word or activity to be despised (Sylvia plays all the time in her work: you can see it - but her play is built on observation, practice, knowledge, enthusiasm, and a lust for life - the same is true of most abstract (and non-abstract) painters; occasionally, even sadness and depression can inform our work; and maybe, if we're lucky, help us to emerge from them. I don't think there's MUCH, though there is something, to be taken from doing work that bores you - so I'm not going to suggest you try painting a bunch of grapes next to a wine bottle as an exercise (unless of course you want to!).  I do think though that you've yet to work out what you are trying to abstract from - I could look at the de Kooning painting for an hour: I wouldn't understand it intellectually, and anyway, that's not the point.  I would enjoy it however knowing that it reflected something in his mind and from his experience, because I can see that, without being able to explain how I can see it.  I can see it in Ellen Mooney's work, too - I can't YET see it in yours, because that's just the stage you've so far reached: DO play - of course; ultimately, that's what we're all doing; keep working at it, studying, copying if you like (many do, in all disciplines, it's another useful way to learn while having fun at the same time); but maybe don't be in too much of a rush to show results - the real play, the real enjoyment, lies in the gradual learning process, Very few of us can expect to get instant results from any form of painting: the extraordinarily talented (whom, of course, I hate...) can maybe create works of genius after a weekend's tuition at the local technical college, plus picking up a book or two.  I think though that success, however one defines it, comes through work, play, delving deep inside, and finding your OWN voice.  That takes time.