Moments of abstraction

Androscoggin River Sketch 2

Acrylic on Paper

This sketch was executed rapidly, like most of my paintings.  A pattern in most of my on location work or series studio work is a trend toward abstraction in my third or later paintings in a day.  Sometimes caused by vanishing light.  At other times caused by the beauty of the abstract patterns and color combinations in nature itself.

My preference is toward the impressionistic, but more often than not, I'm simply trying to capture the emotion or mood of a moment in time.  The shadows of the trees on the far shore juxtaposed with the light reflections and color patterns in the water were what drew me to this scene.  I also enjoyed experimenting with different blues to achieve warmer and cooler shadows and greens on the far bank and in the reflections.

Below are two other abstractions - the one immediately below done on location more than twenty years ago.  This was executed at the end of a day of exploring in and around bear notch road in NH.  The mountain was reflected in the water until the gentlest of breezes rippled the surface of the water.  It's a subject and a motif that I will return to.

Bear Notch Reflections

The subject below was born from yankee thrift.  I had some paints left over and I try to never waste or throw out any paint.  Aiden Lassell Ripley, a distant relative of my wife, is an artist I admire so this very pale imitation was born in the studio at the end of a day of painting.  It's rather liberating to simply experiment with different ideas and materials.  This painting is acrylic paint on tracing paper.

Snow Shadows and Spruce

Charcoal and Tracing Paper Experiments

I occasionally like to experiment with tracing paper.  Not to trace compositions, but I enjoy the feel charcoal on tracing paper.  Using tracing paper and even newsprint was also recommended by noted illustrators Robert Fawcett and Charles La Salle for practice.  I enjoy finding instructional books by artists such as these for inspiration.  Andrew Loomis is another favorite of mine.  The effects that Loomis and La Salle were able to achieve in Charcoal were amazing.  And Fawcett is an acknowleged master of line.  They make it look so easy.  Any expert does.  

I also like to see what the composition looks like in reverse.  While looking at a few of my paintings and drawings in preparation for entering another juried exhibition, I also noticed the difference the colored background makes.  

In this case I imagined a stormy sea where visibility was quite limited.  This was done from imagination, through I do enjoy storm watching along the coast.  The first image is simply with a piece of white paper behind the tracing paper charcoal drawing.

In the second picture, I've simply moved the white paper to the right and left the natural color of the drawing board (brown) to show through.  It does demonstrate a different mood.

The image below is with the image reversed.  Tracing paper makes this quick and easy - of course this can be done even more simply with basic computer software - but for me I prefer to go "old school"

 I'll share another example of working with watercolor on tracing paper in my next post.

I continue to be reminded on a regular basis that in art, and in life, there is no substitute for doing the work.  Reading about drawing or painting does no more to make you an artist than reading about playing the piano makes one a piano player.