Watercolors > Abstracts

Non objective (no subject) abstract painting is the most difficult and demanding for the artist.  The reason for that belief is that non objective painting comes from nothing. It is pure design creation. The artist must build a piece of visual music from thin air. Based on nothing, the visuals must reveal themselves to the viewer in a way that entices, or confronts, or even repels. The artist builds visual forces that result from the relationships between shapes, colors, values and textures. Those relationships must be created . . .and that effort often takes months of  trials and measuring the elements and how they play off of every part of the painting. It absolutely is not slinging pigment and hoping for the best. Making such paintings is a continuous process of considering alternatives, weighing them, deciding how to proceed, then acting decisively with deliberate confidence. As the final processes take place, great courage is required of the artist.  For a significant mistake could ruin weeks of work.

The end result is not meant, necessarily, to ‘look like something’ or to give some ambiguous view of a place or object one can name or identify. The result must be a fascination or pure emotional response from the viewer. Some might even say that the viewer must experience the work at some level. Perhaps that may be as simple as being fascinated by feelings of depth or appreciating subtle shifts in color and how the artist was able to create those effects.