And Now for Something Completely Different!

Abstracted Exercise #2 - acrylic on paper

My paintings are mostly realistic. They aren’t photorealism, because they don't look like photos. They're just a little abstracted, in the sense that I simplify. I’d love to get some other kinds of abstraction into my paintings, and I’d also like to learn to paint with acrylics.

To these ends I’ve been taking an interesting painting course online with British artist, Louise Fletcher. And I’ve made a lot of progress with acrylics. It’s great to be able to use them indoors without having to worry about the ventilation that is needed for oil paints.

First Step in Creating 4 Abstract Exercises (note the masking tape)

Completed Exercises (note the tape has been removed)

In order to learn different ways of abstracting I decided to take the class as if I was an abstract painter. The paintings here are some of the results.

Abstract Exercise #3 - acrylic on paper

I've enjoyed using different tools to make marks, not just brushes and knives. I tried an old credit card, a crumpled tissue, and a Princeton Catalyst wedge, among other things. And I loved removing paint by scratching and scraping.

Abstract Exercise #4 - acrylic on paper

It’s also fun to hear things that you have a lot of experience with from a completely different perspective. For me this was values, color, and composition. There is always more to learn!

My next step is to experiment with these techniques and approaches in my landscape paintings. Once I’ve understood that, I can move on to abstracted boats.