Before starting the Abstract Paintings

To begin a painting; an exercise

Step 1. Mix 3 to 4 generous piles of colors that you like the way they look together.  They must be YOUR colors, not straight from the tube.  At least one must be highly chromatic, and at least one must have low chroma.  Also, two of the colors must be relatively close in value with the third offering a marked value contrast to the other two.

Step 2. Using one of your new colors, make a relatively large organic shape away from the center of your canvas.  Completely fill that shape in with as few marks as possible.  Use plenty of paint.

Step 3. Using the same color as above, make a large, single balancing mark on the other end of the canvas

Step 4. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 with your second color, but the shape and mark of the second color should differ in scale and shape from the first

Step 5. Repeat Steps 2-4 with the third color.

Final Steps.  Repeat above as needed using variations of the original colors in order to achieve balance and resolution to the painting.  Never use the exact same color—variation possibilities are infinite! USE PLENTY OF WET, GUSHY PAINT!!!!

Assignment #4: Abstraction

The making of a successful abstract painting is not as much creating or making a painting as it is finding it.  A successful abstract painting is said to be resolved.  The process of resolving a painting can be unexpectedly quick, or excruciatingly slow.  It demands brutal self honesty and patience, and it cannot be crammed.  An abstract painting has a mind of its own that must be coaxed, not forced.  For a painting to be resolved, EVERY element of it must mesh and balance well with EVERY OTHER element.  It must simply work.

Decide on the elements of painting that you are interested in—Color? Line? Shape? Ab-ex spontaneous marks? Minimalist hard edged marks?  Something else? 

You are to make two (2) abstract paintings: an Ab/Ex inspired one and a Hard Edged one.  Build formal compositions that are not recognizable as any specific subjects, but that utilize the elements of painting in which you are interested. Simply make paintings that are resolved AND that you like the way they look.

Ab/Ex painting: you are to embrace the process and aesthetic of the Ab-Ex (Abstract Expressionist) action painters.  You are to use thick, spontaneous, gushy “passionate” brush marks that resolve into a balanced, heavily worked painting.  Let the painting dictate each move (see the associated exercizes). Minimum size is 24x30.

Hard Edged painting: you are to embrace the minimalist aesthetic and design a hard-edged abstract painting.  This painting will necessarily be much more planned out.  The paint surface may or may not be layered and heavily worked.  Like the Ab-Ex, this painting is to be resolved, but the manner in which you do it will differ.  This is not an action painting. It will demand a lot more designing on your part.  DO NOT simply settle for the first solution that comes to mind.  Instead, find the best one.  For this one there are no size restrictions.  In order to help you come up with the best design, you are to make at least three different design compositions in your sketchbook using dry media. Once you’ve finished at least three, choose the best one to make into the painting, but try not to choose until the three are fully finished.

Look at Modern and Contemporary Masters who paint(ed) abstractly: Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning, Hans Hoffmann, Brice Marden, Cy Twombley, Helen Frankenthaler, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, and one of my personal favorites, Richard Diebenkorn.  Remember that honesty is most important.  A painting either works or it doesn’t.  Keep working on your painting until it is resolved. Don’t call it finished if it’s not. No matter how much you might want an apple to be an orange, it’s still an apple.

Hints

Experiment.  Embrace accidents.  An abstract painter might have no idea what the final result will look like.  Try not to have an image in your head that you’re working toward.  Instead, let the painting decide what needs to happen next.

Asignment #3: Landscape

You are to make two landscape paintings in oil that are at least 8x10, and no larger than 16x20.

This project is all about making space—or the illusion of it.  It’s also about controlling color relationships in terms of contrast and “chromatic hygiene” (high contrast advances low contrast recedes, and clean color advances and broken color recedes).

Utilize the strategies to create space that we went over in class during the analysis exercises. However, before you start each painting, you must make a value drawing of the composition.  Make sure it is balanced.  Even though the emphasis of this project is about color control, you can often solve color problems by reducing them to value problems.  You will show me your value drawings at the beginning of next week and when we critique the paintings.

One of the paintings must be predominantly buildings or constructed objects.  The natural landscape should be non-existent. The other one should be predominantly natural landscape with a minimum of human intervention. Other than that, the subjects may be of anything as long as they are (mostly) outside and include close foreground, middle ground and infinite space.  You may work from photos, or you may work from life. If you work outside from life (the preferred way of working for many landscape painters), you will find that the light will change--the sun tends to move if you hadn’t noticed--during the time you are working, so you have to paint quickly and plan to come back to the same spot at the same time for two or more days.  I’d suggest making either a sunny day painting or a cloudy day painting if you choose a daytime painting.  If you start a painting sunny and finish it cloudy you will drive yourself crazy and you’ll end up with a confusing result.  Trust me!

I strongly encourage you to choose a moment in your painting to be what the painting is about, and then make everything else in the painting merely support that moment.   Don’t just paint a scene.  Also, don’t make a “pretty” painting.  “Pretty” is bad. 

Hints

*Remember the different ways to create the illusion of space:

1-clean colors advance, and broken colors recede.

2-high contrast and hard edges advance, low contrast and soft edges        recede.

3-saturated colors advance, less intense colors recede

*Squint a lot.  This will force you to simplify. 

*Don’t forget your drawing skills.  Make sure your perspective works.

*Values tend to be very high outdoors.  The sun tends to eat away the darks and we find that they are relatively light (though still darker than the lights).  What at first glance seems like a value contrast might be more of an intensity contrast or temperature contrast.

*Research ideas from the old or contemporary masters—try to paint like them!

*Lastly, decide your approach BEFORE the painting begins, and stick to it (which of the four? Or a hybrid?)!

Blackboard is LIVE

Gentlemen,
From now on we will do business through Bb.  Check out what's there and I'll post the next project later this week. Stay safe, healthy and SANE!
Kyle

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