Fear of abstraction stops a lot of good artists in their tracks. Certainly understandable. We were taught to view our art through the eyes of realism. Imagine a famous pop artist who gets on stage and begins to play a piece he has never played before. His band is expected to follow along. This kind of thing doesn’t happen does it? Jazz however, is an exception and jazz can be brilliant. It takes a brave soul to play real jazz. This brief article will explore how to overcome this fear of painting abstracts in oil.
Where does the fear come from – this great hesitation to paint in abstraction? Children have no problem with this, do they? We admire their lovely free-form shapes, wild swirls, beautiful colors merging with each other. Then something switches in our brains about the age of twelve or so. Maybe it comes from our education system or maybe it is just a natural progression. We start happily with finger paints and then, in adolescence if we can’t paint a decent human figure or a discernable tree we are considered un-artistic. Usually we give it up.
After that it is a difficult climb. It is a slow process of undoing our brain synapses so we can envision an abstract piece. How do we paint something we can’t see? How do we paint un-reality? For me I just kept painting and experimenting and I found over the years there was this need to exxagerate a color or shape. It felt better and even more natural. I began to read the psychologist Jung and then Tolle. I read a book by Gerhardt Richter. In general I began to read more. I was discovering the inner world that they spoke of. It was for me like pulling away a long drapery of gauze and I saw behind it. I began to experience Jung’s sub-conscious and what Tolle called the awareness of Presence. I actually found myself becoming more aware – not only of the shapes and forms in my natural surroundings but also more aware of my own, unique inner experience.
I bought myself new canvas and more paint and in 2009 began to paint abstracts. I was no longer painting what I could see externally. I was now painting what I was experiencing internally. I was painting a feeling, an emotion. Sometimes I felt I was painting in response to something I had dreamed. Remarkably I discovered that a painting could in fact develop on its own – it could itself dictate the next shape, the next color. After that discovery whatever residual fear I had seemed to vanish. It seemed I was more a facilitator than the creator. I felt very connected to (I guess I should say), the greater Universe. It felt like I was working out some solution when I painted abstracts. I felt like I was a vehicle to manifest something that was very deep within my psyche. This became enormously invigorating for me.
I must confess this was not an easy process and it took awhile. I was sixty-one. All my life I had essentially painted realistic forms. There were small ventures here and there, experiments that hinted towards abstraction but the breakthrough for me was dramatic. I am a believer in painting abstractions. I think it should be taught in art schools right next to life drawing. Any semblance of fear or trepidation could progressively be canceled. The world of music, of dance, of sound, of prose could be greatly expanded. This type of art can be transformative. It can help us better understand our own consciousness. If we can understand our own inner presence, our real nature than we become more alive. Abstract art can definitely foster this kind of discovery and bring forth a very personal and transformative creative experience.