ToCreate.Art.blog

I’ve been YouTubing again.

This time I am watching foreign abstract artists. I have a hard time creating fully abstract pieces and thought if I could take the familiar words away, I can get a better sense of the art of abstract.

Today I attempted abstract art.

I started with a limited palette – raw umber for the ground, with titanium white and athrinaquinone [sp] blue.

Nope, let me start at the beginning.

I started with heavy structure gel and glass beads, pulling the texture around the canvas with a medium palette knife. I let it dry, mostly.

Next, I stained the base raw umber. Let that dry for a quick minute. White and blue followed.

There is a painting that I saw in a Great Courses Plus course. The course is titled How To Look At and Understand Great Art. I don’t have access to the course anymore as I am not wealthy enough to afford the subscription, and I don’t recall the name of the painting. It was a simple, yet powerful painting.

Cue Google.

Aha, I finally Googled the correct phrase to find it. It is titled “Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps”. It seems to have been exhibited in 1815 and is part of the Tate collection. I display it here with the Artist’s credit:

Snow Storm, Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851

I love the drama of this painting, the circular black storm with wisps of the storm cloud telling of the great winds it brings, the gaping, angry mouth that threatens to devour the army, and the small ball of the sun peeking through. It has been something I would love to try to recreate, at least the storm part.

My attempt today at abstract painting is slightly reminiscent of Turner’s painting, while not so dramatic.

I took Turner’s swirling and made a storm of my own. I ended with some red and gold to bring a touch of dramatic color and a little different contrast to it. The sun is larger, yet more fragile in attendance, and is framed by the wave itself.

My painting, titled “The Calm Before the Storm”:

(c) 2019, Lisa Ramsey, The Calm Before the Storm, Acrylic on canvas.

I would love to know what you think.

Thanks for reading.

Lisa