Abstract Painting Workshop

 

It's been a couple of weeks now (time does fly) since I attended Jane Davies' Abstract Painting workshop on Whidbey Island. It was such a great opportunity to work with her directly and have a class full of people to learn from as well. My goal was to learn more about how to paint with acrylics--something I had really never done before taking Jane's online class Sketchbook Practice. The class was very fun and I learned so much about technique and process. She is a GREAT teacher and taking the online class followed by the 4-day intensive workshop was just what I needed to catapult me into artist mode. I have been working on art since I returned (the days I haven't been able to actually work in my studio I have been THINKING about art) and even doodling to get warmed up in the mornings. I am in the making art groove and attempting to stay in that open, free experimental mode—easier said than done but the doodling is helping. Below are some of the pieces I did during the workshop.


This first piece I had a lot of trouble with. The exercise was in working with complementary colors. I chose green/red and struggled (Image 1). It was hard for me to get good greens and felt like Christmas. The first shot is where I got stuck. I didn't like the composition, the colors and I didn't know where to go from this point. So I put it aside and after Jane's demonstration of using the brayer and her words of wisdom on process and painting over things that just weren't working, I pulled out the brayer, the Green Gold and White paint and went to town; I figured I had nothing to lose at this point (Image 2). Then I went back in with abandon, experimenting with colors, textures and painting over anything that I didn't like (Image 3); et voilà! The best thing is that I learned so much from working on this piece; it really set me free.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Then I worked on a series of pieces that used neutrals and more muted colors, working again on exercises of opposites: quiet space vs. busy space, soft edges vs. hard edges and high contrast vs. minimal contrast. Here's what I came up with.

I really like these, particularly the color palette, and I have been working in this vein since I returned.