Abstract on Distressed Paper

I prepared my paper yesterday by soaking it and balling it up. I flattened it overnight between two boards for a while, while the paper was still damp, I laid textured towels between the paper and the hard surface and flattened it some more. The result was paper with a distressed, somewhat embossed surface. Distressed […]

Stitched

I prepare the paper for my watercolors lately, by crumbling it into a ball and unfurling it. This time, instead of pre-wetting it, I crumbled first and wet it afterwards. This resulted in several tears at the edges of the paper. Having been distressed lately at the tears in the fabric of the United States, the […]

Under the Influence

Sometimes, when I can’t think of anything to paint, I thumb through pictures in the books I have.  Today my book was of the art of Willem de Kooning. His paintings have a lot of energy. One in particular, Woman I, is famous for its fierce and frightening look. According to the Museum of Modern Art website, […]

Charcoal Lines and Color

I posted another square watercolor today (see Pen and Ink and Color).  I began the square below also with a free-form outline. Instead of pencil, I used a soft charcoal stick. I had the term ‘biomorphic’ somewhere in my head (probably from reading about some of Willem de Kooning’s works). I did not choose my […]

Pen and Ink and Color

I started today’s square with a penciled free-form design. I hadn’t used pen and ink for a while, so instead of painting in the loops I inked them in using parallel lines of different orientations. I am reading about Willem de Kooning, who was constantly revising, scraping and repainting, as he worked on his canvases. I […]

Rough Free Form

I used different materials for today’s watercolor. I used a very heavy paper (300 pound), square in format. I drew a charcoal outline and painted inside the lines. I wanted to continue my version of ‘action painting’ by crumpling it up and returning it to its flattened state. I knew it would be different than the […]

Abstract 012517

Before I crumpled today’s experiment I drew a free form with charcoal and painted within the confines of the lines. There were features of my brother Mike (autistic, low functioning and nonverbal), but not as pronounced as in my previous posts (see Imaginary Brother – New Ideas, So Simple, and Yet…, Imaginary Hug, with Feeling, Tri-Clopean Portrait, and Self-Portrait with […]

Does This Count?

I am reading about artists from the 1940s and 1950s, whose number includes Jackson Pollock, the quintessential ‘action painter’.  His paintings were so large that he was within the confines of the canvas, placed on the floor, as he dripped and splashed paint. Some who watched him paint described the process as a ‘dance’. The painting below […]

Looking at the Son

Today’s watercolor is a bit different from those of the past few days, during which I concentrated on created an imaginary portrait of my brother Mike (Mike is my older brother, who is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal.) (See Imaginary Brother – New Ideas, So Simple, and Yet…, Imaginary Hug, with Feeling, Tri-Clopean Portrait, and Self-Portrait with Imaginary Brother). […]

%d