Live Abstract Painting - Session 1 May 3, 2020

Playing with some new ideas

From my sketchbook.

When talking to a group of artists on Zoom recently, we were discussing what kind of art is selling these days. As we are all abstract artists, and abstract can be kind of a tough sell, it's something we all think of from time to time. Maybe, just maybe, I need to do something else for a bit. I can still be a painter, but a little bit of something recognizable may be the thing that moves my work from not selling to selling. 

Last year I thought I'd see if my understanding of abstract composition could make me a half-decent landscape painter. I did a bunch of pieces... not from photos but from the memories of my travels. They are not as abstract as they could have been, and probably should have been. I actually got grilled at a show by a "proper" landscape painter,  because my pieces "didn't make sense". My values were wrong, you couldn't tell what season it was, if that's a rocky shoreline what are those marks supposed to be? Yeah, whatever. Go back to your own booth, buddy. 

Quite obviously (and like everybody else), I've been spending a lot of time at home lately. My workload (for my day job) has been kind of hit and miss... some days I am so busy I don't have time for lunch, and other days I have a couple hours free with nothing to do. I have to stay near my computer in case a rush job comes through, so I figured I'd start a new sketchbook project. I can start and stop on a dime with no cleanup, it's portable, so I can sit in my car and draw if I'm bored (that's still self isolating), and I can work in the evenings when there's not enough time to paint. Its good to keep my drawing skills up, and sometimes just drawing something will trigger an idea. And then I have plenty of space to see if I can get somewhere that might work. 

Also from my sketchbook

One thing I do, which might be a bit out of the ordinary, is take one word and expand on that word until I run out of ideas. I've done it a couple times, and ended up with some small series. The word I chose for this one was "Bloom". Specific enough that it gives me a place to start (flowers, obviously) but vague enough that I can go off on a tangent if I feel like it. And according to at least one of my friends, florals are among the top sellers, worldwide.

I started this project just before Easter, when it was still pretty chilly outside. My first drawing was of an Easter lily, a flower. The magnolias are booming now. Oh how I love magnolias. I've done a half dozen sketches of those. 

When I was around 9 or 10, my mom planted a magnolia tree in our front yard.My parents lived in that house until I was in my late 20s, and that tree was glorious by the time they moved. Every spring there would be this enormous cloud of white and pink, and then came the rain of petals that would last for days. When the windows were open, the smell was heavenly.  To this day, when I see a magnolia tree in bloom, I think of my mother. I imagine I always will.

So now, in my brain, magnolias are connected with motherhood and aging women, and when I think of that I think of the ancient symbols for fertility, then sacred goddess worship and all the symbolism associated with that.... and here I am drawing celtic knots intertwined with magnolias. 

I have no idea where this is going, but that's half the fun.