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
I am about to go on a vacation for a week or so. I thought, ‘what would I write if this might become my final article on abstract painting’? Knowing that beginners as well as more advanced artists read these, I would say to both, ‘Now is the time to paint!’ If you are an artist then paint. I have said that often. Don’t wait for inspiration. You have a canvas or board before you, brushes, thinner, a pallete and pigments….paint a square and then next to it paint another square and then relate them to one another. There, you have made a start. See where it takes you. How good are you at painting circles within a circle? Paint one. See where that goes.
What is important here after all? The arts, your own progression, you expressing yourself, your experiencing inner feelings, the manifestations of those feelings! Now more than ever as our civilization becomes more and more mechanized, more absorbed in the vast internet we can easily lose our own development and our own inner fruition. Art is there to serve that great hunger and that great need. Art is personal expression and personal interpretation. Much in the way that dreams are to reflect back our feelings and experiences unconsiously, art serves to do the same only consciously and deliberately. The curious thing is when the ‘border’ is reached between the un-conscious and the conscious, between form and spiritual or…when we are able to manifest (bring forth) what we are trying to understand internally. Art is intuitively a form of discovery. That is its supreme purpose.
Now is the time to paint….now is the time to discover. Great themes, perfect diagrams, wonderful effects are irrelevant and even stand as blockades. Don’t foolishly wait for weeks for them to come. By painting you will inevitably become better with your brushstrokes. You will learn more about mixing colors, about balance, about transforming shapes but most importantly, you will discover yourself. Like peeling an onion you will discover what is vital for you and even what is essential for you as a progressing human being. Abstract painting is the perfect vehicle.