Misplaced Shadows

I began this study with Kandinsky’s work in mind. I wanted to create a visual relationship between crisp geometric shapes, circles and lines and some kind of formlessness. I didn’t get very far before I ran out of ideas. The organizing principle of this piece (or disorganizing principle) is the disconnection between line that could […]

Self Portrait Dreaming

I am inspired by the line drawings of Paul Klee, the icons of Joan Miró and lines and color patches of Vassily Kandinsky.  The study below is a portrait of myself with an eye open to the dreamscape that I visit nearly every night.

Before Going Away

I was very, very nervous the night before I was to go away to college for the first time. Even though this was more than 45 years ago, I still remember how agitated I was. I had a recording of some of Bach’s organ music. The pieces that helped me the most were Toccata And Fugue […]

Abstract with Screw

I painted over some geometric shapes I made, to complete today’s abstract. Some of the imagery was inspired by my memory of some of Kandinsky’s work; other shapes and marks comes from my observations during the day. Once again, I had no real plan for working, no goal, nor principles to adhere to. I have […]

Imprecision

I started today with an odd-sized piece of watercolor paper. It was the last one on the pad and I thought it was time to make use of it. I broke up the wide dimension by using masking tape to divide the paper into three sections. I penciled-in arcs and sharp angles in the middle section and painted […]

More Grids

I am convinced that I am on the right path to finding some design patterns to tell my story. I have been studying some of Kandinsky’s compositions and marvel at some of the small patterns he smatters across the canvas: a grid here, an eyeball there. I am sure I can make something visible about […]

Abstract with Grids and Circles

Two of the artists I most admire (Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky) painted according to their philosophies. Kandinsky had a theory about how colors are related to shapes. I don’t recall the the associations in his theory, but perhaps the color red might be associated with a circle, blue with a square and yellow with a triangle.  He […]

Seeking Inspiration

I was running low on ideas, so I pulled out one of my books about Kandinsky. This book must weigh about 20 pounds. I love the oversized colorful prints inside. I did get some ideas, and created the abstract below. I like the two planes set up by grids of distorted squares. The remaining lines […]

%d bloggers like this: