Latest posts by michael wilson (see all)
- JORDAN RIVER - February 5, 2019
- Inspired Art - August 2, 2018
- Waiting for Inspiration - July 31, 2018
- The Bridge between Painting and Photography - July 31, 2018
Are you new to oil painting in general or just to oil painting of abstracts? In either case you will want to have an understanding of what defines the Abstract genre. What defines Abstract and Non-Objective painting? If you can have a clear aim in sight, this will help you develop your work, right?
Kandinsky attempted to define what he was doing when he worked as a teacher at the Bauhaus. He wrote the small book titled, Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Considered the ‘Father’ of Abstract art it was apparently necessary for him to define his new directions. We read for example of his painting from an inner need and from an inner compulsion. This required a break from conventional known or recognizable forms. I think the book explains his position fairly well and his departure from object forms.
It is an interesting comparison in reading Ekhart Tolle’s book, The Power of Now. This book talks about the relative illusion of form. He describes a process of seeking a higher consciousness by recognizing form as being an illusion. He points out that true reality lies within and is quite separate from what we perceive as form. This seems to resonate with what Kandinsky wrote fifty years ago when he states the need to paint from an inner resource and to give that inner feeling expression. Tolle however is able to give us a more clear understanding of that inner dimension. His book is a valuable resource for an artist.
I was watching a Facebook video clip of a niece, just three at work on a painting. The painting was nearing completion and she was standing before it brush in hand. There were all kinds of swishes and circles and dashes of varying colors – a very exciting painting. She began to mix on her brush some reddish tones and then carefully reached up and put two deliberate swatches of red near the top but separate from each other. Why did she choose to do that? Why were they the final strokes to the painting? This process should be similar to our own means to create Abstract art. We should be studying the canvas and placing shapes and colors in response to an inner feeling. We should also be sensitive to the other colors and shapes on the canvas so that we create a symphony. As in a symphony all the various components work together to create an effect. 
Ultimately painting an abstract oil should be a joyful expression. We should not worry about ‘wasting’ paint. This should be our time to draw out our inner feelings and to express them with relative freedom unrestrained by the forms we see around us. This is what makes Abstract art, for me so special and so intriguing. The other advantage is that we have a more broad free range of colors to implement. As a painting develops we can creatively use colors that best suit the needs of the painting – we need not be bound by ‘what is before us’.