Sunday, November 30, 2014

Exploring Figurative & Abstract Paintings

After a long set back in health I am slowly working my way back into the studio by creating quick abstract paintings whenever I can get my energy levels up. Here are a few of the ones I have created so far. I am doing the paintings on very cheap paper, 90# or thinner, to relieve any pressure to make "good" or "salable" art. I want these to be purely expressive meditations using paint and paper. 
























7 comments:

  1. Beautiful expression from the inside out.

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  2. there's some lovely things going on here but you know working on a thin paper can be a limitation, my all time favourite waterclour paper is the delicious Saunders Waterford H/P 425 gsm

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    1. Hi there Mo Crow,
      Thanks for stopping by! Because of how disabling my chronic fatigue is right now it is very important to me to get away from all the years of demanding "Professional" painting I did for galleries. That kind of painting caused me so much stress. This soulful, expressionist painting I am exploring needs to be safe from that inner critic and worry about wasting expensive materials. These paintings are being created for my personal healing and one way for me to accomplish that is to do very fast paintings with no thought or plan on cheap paper coated with gesso and layers of acrylic medium between layers of paint. It is so much harder than I thought it would be for me to break away from the years of critical, demanding, hours spent painting in the studio to create what my galleries wanted me to paint and what people would want to buy. Now I am trying to learn to express what wants and needs to be expressed be it ugly or beautiful. I have a feeling you are probably much better at that type of creating than I am. I was a slave to making salable art for too long. This is very freeing when I can actually pull it off ;-)
      Be Well,
      L.

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    2. India Flint had a lovely post a few years back about taking the hook out of her mouth and getting back to stitching
      http://prophet-of-bloom.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/a-lack-of-competitive-spirit.html
      & re using good paper... two of my favourite drawings disappeared completely in less than ten years because they were drawn on cheap acidic paper, there is no record of them it was before the days of scanners.... just a memory... I always use good paper now for this last bit of the game

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    3. Oh Mo that is so sad about your work disappearing! I still have some of my childhood drawings that were done on newsprint, which is kind of amazing that it lasted.The paper I use is archival student grade drawing paper. I call it "Cheap" because it is thin, only 90 pound weight, so it is less expensive but I do coat it with gesso and acrylic binders. I am completely disabled now and no longer make money on my art so when I am just playing around with experiments I can't justify the extra money. My medical bills are high and I don't feel like I can justify spending too much on art supplies anymore. I did ask my hubby to get me some of the paper you recommended for my birthday (Dec 12th), so he ordered me 10 20 x 30 sheets. Yay!
      I will head over to read the post you recommended now. Thanks!

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    4. P.S I just read India's post and LOVED it! Thank you, it is perfect for me right now. I shared it with Linda Watson above, on the comment she left on my blog post today.

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