Tag: buying abstract art

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PAINTING FOR COLOR AND HUE

Painting for color and hue is certainly a very valid purpose and reason to paint.  Certainly musicians like Bach and Beethoven had to understand the characteristics and values of notes in order to compose.  When we paint to understand more fully the many and multitude characteristics of color and hue we are definitely doing something that advances our abilities as artists.  Is a theme required?  No!    One can begin to explore color theory right on the canvas without a subject or theme.  The time will not be wasted.  DSC02978

Yes of course it is helpful to understand basic color theory but this can be found in all the art book primers.  I know artists that have memorized all of the many formulas.  Nothing however replaces actual working with pigments and placing them side by side.  We know for example that the word tint refers to adding white to a pure color.  The question of course is how much white to add?  Painting side by side along another color you will discover for yourself how much white to add, if any at all.  What vibrates…what is more beautiful?

Pink next to green for example does not sound pleasing, yet with the right amount of white added to each, the relationship next to one another can create some wonderful sensations and can in fact bring a painting to life.  Cerulean with white added next to a dark umber can be striking.  But how would you know without experimenting.  I tend to paint smaller canvases just to discover how pigments work together, placed side by side.  I might do several smaller canvases before I am comfortable to moving to larger, more mature works.  This is the learning process.  Little by little you become familiar with all the hues and why Ultramarine is so unique to Cerulean and why those two blues do such different things on a canvas – Ultramarine is always so much better in shadows.

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Artistic expression

Our lives tend to be fairly linear following an ingrained and patterned series of actions.  School tends to reinforce these patterns.  When we declare our major it is assumed we are finally charting our own, personal course.  We know however that  societal ‘grooves’ are hard to deviate from.  Soon even our chosen vocation itself becomes a highly patterned and linear way of living.  04

It is only with great effort do we discover our true passions that give our personal lives meaning and value and purpose.  Life no longer is no longer along a straight line but our experiences begin to waver up and down from typical linear patterns.  We continue on with our jobs and our vocations and in one sense everything is the same, we are following the same patterns.  But there is now an inner spark and an inner purpose that begins to gain precedence.  We begin to make choices and decisions out of a personal relationship with this new personal precedence.  We feel alive.

For some the choice is artistic expression and it takes many forms.  Dance, music, painting, writing, sports and horticulture are some of the more commonly known means of artistic expression.  These activities begin to grow and expand as we get older providing our senior years with a degree of fullness and satisfaction.  Authentic artistic expression is when we are expressing ourselves most honestly – when we are not just copying established forms.  It could even be said that artistic evolution for ourselves as persons is very much about learning to be authentic.

We admire artists of the past such as Van Gogh, Cezanne, Picasso and Kandinsky because they seemed to be painting (for the most part) honestly and authentically.  This is not always easy to accomplish but ultimately brings the most joy and a sense of accomplishment.  As I have often said in these series of articles, Abstract art which comes from an inner resource is an important medium for expressing our personal selves.  By painting abstractly we can very effectively break free from those ingrained social patterns and begin to express our emotions and responses in ways that are in harmony with our own inner perceptions.  It is this ‘fine-tuning’ of our perceptions that will lead to an enhanced artistic experience and even to great art.

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BUYING VALUABLE ABSTRACT ART

There are three reasons in buying art.  The first is of course buying a piece of art because of its inherent beauty and that it appeals to you personally.  It strikes a deep inner chord for you, so much that you want to put it on a prominent wall.  It becomes like a reminder for you of beauty, of a deeper spiritual world.  The painting gives you visual pleasure.picasso-nude-in-armchair

The second reason is that you discover an emerging artist.  You find an artist who is painting with authenticity and there seems to be an inherent power in the work.  As a buyer of art you are looking for something you like but also for investment, banking on the piece increasing in value as the artist becomes more notable.  You buy low with the anticipation of the value increasing.  Meanwhile you enjoy the work of art in your home.  The art history books are full of intriguing stories of artists selling to a buyer interested in the art piece itself but also for its potential and future value.  Often, a very good relationship is established between the artist and the art buyer – a symbiotic relationship.

Buying valuable abstract art however is unfortunately attained only by the wealthy.  Too often they are purchasing just for the supposed market value.  The artist is already famous, the price is high not only because of its inherent value to the world of abstract art but because it somehow has risen to the top, demanding top dollar.  Where does the value  come from?  From the piece itself, the raw impression or from how society has transformed it into something monetarily valuable?

Buying valuable abstract art for primarily monetary reasons is a concept I have yet to understand.  Some critics and investors contend that buying art from well established artists is the best monetary investment possible.   I often ask myself if this breeds only more banal abstract art, pointless and unauthentic expression?   How often have the art critics and the auction houses literally fooled the public by selling inarticulate paintings that lack force and poignancy for hugely inflated prices?  Then when they are sold, we strain to see the value in them – the visual force they are supposed to represent.  We are told they are ‘landmark works’ but even the common man can see when in fact the King has no clothes on.

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Buying Abstract Art

There are essentially four categories when choosing to buy abstract art.  There are of course the greats.  These are the masters who, starting with Kandinsky forged an entirely new style of painting.  I know of only a half dozen people personally who could afford a Picasso or Miro or Gris or Braque.  These paintings are usually in the hands of a few collectors and the rest reside in museums.  Prints of course, can always be purchased through clearing houses.15.jpg

Secondly there are artists living today who are still producing…men such as Gerhardt Richter but their prices are also very, very high.  The dilemna with artists such as Richter is that their work is so popular they complain about not having time to paint.  So much time is spent administering sales and shows that there is little time to be truly creative.  Many of these esteemed and established abstract artists sometimes find themselves in fairly long droughts of being unable to produce new, substantial work.

There is a third category and in terms of price these artists post prices for paintings that is much more in the reach of the average art lover.  They are showing in galleries and the galleries have commissions as high as 60%, but they are selling.  With the internet these artists can be sought out much more easily than before.  They are often at the peak of performance and produce very exciting, dramatic work.  By visiting galleries or by searching the internet these fairly well established artists are creating excellent abstract work.

The fourth category is that of the so-called, ’emerging artists’.  They are quietly painting away in England, America, South America, Canada and Australia – all over the world.  Many of these artists are so involved in developing their craft, they have little time or expertise to develop even a decent web site.  Emerging artists who paint abstracts, when found, can present some excellent opportunities.  First of all you may find one whose style truly resonates with you personally.  The work can usually be purchased in the $2,000 – $5,000 range so there is a very good chance the work will increase in value.   The important thing is you are purchasing a true,  original painting.  Some of these artists who have begun to sell and who have managed to place their work on the internet can be more easily discovered just by simple word searches.