I used to think that there were only two ways to go about making abstract art. The first is to abstractify something from reality. The second is to put pastel on paper and follow where it leads. But recently I discovered a third way. And this is what it is: use a visual seen in a meditative or a daydreamy state, a vision of sorts.

I know that sounds a bit weird but that is what I actually mean. I think this method can be successful especially if you’re open to modifying the original concept.

As with all painting, whether representational or abstract, the elements of art come into play. When making abstract art, we need to consider colour, value, shape, space, line, texture. Also a visual artist, you need to think about how you want the viewer’s eye to travel through your piece.

I’m going to take you step-by-step through two abstract pieces I did recently. Each piece came to me in the way I described above but as you will see, the form of each ‘vision’ is different.

For the first piece, I was looking at a door in a dreamy, unfocussed way. What I saw in the white paint were pinks and grey-greens in a kind of design. I then imagined a dark line zig zagging its way across. I wanted to see if I could capture the feel and visual of this in a painting.

As I already had a specific colour scheme in mind (pink and grey-greens), I picked out a couple of pastels to begin. I chose Great American Artwork pastels for it because I do like this brand and hadn’t used it in awhile. (I mention this because other than for my first three values as underpainting, I rarely pre-select pastels to use in a piece.) I’m working on Canson Mi-Teintes (yup!) “Felt Grey”, 10 x 13 in.

Let’s take a look at this first example of making abstract art.

As I was creating the abstract piece above, I was thinking about the elements I mentioned earlier.

• Colour – I chose a red/green complementary colour scheme based on what I’d “seen”. One colour had higher intensity (more saturation) than the other.
• Value – I made sure I was working with three distinct values and you can see from the black and white version that this was the case. (Value is a quality of colour, as is intensity, but I always feel value is important enough to make it a separate element.)
• Shape – I worked with the main shape of pink that took up a large proportion of the piece. This shape is partially surrounded by the grey-green shape. Both are organic and shifted and changed slightly as the piece progressed. But the initial main shapes, in their asymmetrical layout, stayed the same.
• Space – The pink shape is what I would consider the positive space whereas the grey-green fills the negative space. Thinking of illusion of space, the pink by virtue of its lightness, warmth, and purity of hue, sits forward from the grey-green. The dark lines play in front of both.
• Line – The line here can primarily be seen in the marks of the dark as they tentatively dance across the piece. The other lines are the scratches made by the calligraphy pen nib, removing pastel from the paper in a herky-jerky sort of way. Both add movement and dynamism to the otherwise fairly flat surface of the large shapes.
• Texture – the application of the pastel in almost brush-like strokes plus the linear scribbles in some areas. These vigorous marks aren’t obvious at first glance as they are layered over another colour, smoothly applied, that’s close in value.

I wanted to make the combination of shapes and marks interesting so as to keep the viewer looking longer. The darker line, with its repetition and uneven emphasis, helps to lead the viewer’s eye around the piece.

Let’s look at the second piece. This time the idea came fully formed in my mind’s eye – a turquoise background over which were laid six red squares in the bottom right corner. A white line swoops in and out from top left, corralling the grid.

Using a small piece on UART 500 which I wiped with a paper towel to create a greyed surface for this piece of abstract art, that’s exactly what I started with.

So that’s one idea for making abstract art. You can see how, although in both cases I had a pretty set idea from the start, I moved further than the initial vision to create pieces with balance, expression, and interest.

I’d love to know your thoughts about this way of making abstract art. Have you ever tried this method? Do let me know by leaving a comment!!

Making abstract art can be an exhilarating, frustrating, easy, difficult, satisfying, head-shaking experience. I highly recommend it no matter what method you use!

Until next time!

~ Gail

PS. Apologies for the rather coarse iPhone photos.

PPS. Interested in making abstract art? Here’s some inspiration! I highly recommend this book!!

PPPS. Here’s another idea to get you in the ‘making abstract art’ groove – copy the work of a masterpiece done in a different medium. There’s so much to learn! Here’s my version of doing this with a painting by Richard Diebenkorn. Such fun!!

PPPPS. I listened to music while painting the pastels above. I find that music can influence how my work goes! So I thought I’d share what I listened to. The first was Feist’s Pleasure, the second was Owen Pallet’s In Conflict.