Abstract Cliffs
Cliffside 7.25 x 3.25 – watercolor on paper
This small watercolor was an experiment in abstracting a scene – an exercise that I found very liberating and refreshing. When I look at the work of the California regional painters of the 30s and 40s, I see how often they broke away from realism to paint simplified forms and improvised color schemes. You can see the evidence of this movement in the highly designed travel posters of the era.
Quote of the day from Robert Henri:
“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.”
May you all be in that state all this week!
Pamela
March 5, 2007
a very small piece of paper.
I like that idea
and I like that you were able to show depth and contrast with such little effort.
Karen
March 5, 2007
Thanks, Pamela. Yes, it is quite small, just the perfect thing for trying out some color combinations without that sinking feeling of wasting a big piece of paper if it doesn’t work out. Also, by working this small it forces me to generalize the shapes and forms and not get enticed into the trap of trying to put in lots of leaves and flowers and small details. The focus stays on the shapes, colors and values – the building blocks of design.
After I painted this I realized it was very similar to doing an average (for me) size painting and standing way back from it. The pattern is easier to discern. This is the great benefit of doing thumbnails, in color or in black and white.
wendy
March 5, 2007
It does remind me of the way some painters used broad brushstrokes in some posters. Great fun to do and a good result. Thanks for the tip about getting website in full details.
Emma Pod
March 6, 2007
Love the colors and shapes on this! It’s very pretty!
Maureen
March 7, 2007
I love this one, Karen — I think of the last 5 or so landscapes, this one is my favorite. I would love to have it hanging on my studio wall. I mean that. if you ever want to part with it, tell me! I hear what you’re saying about the small size — that it forces you to generalize the shapes (and maybe the textures as well) and not get bogged down with details. Your insight that small-painting is similar to larger-size-painting if you stand back from the larger size: that reminds me of something one of my art professors in college taught us — to loosen up while working on a larger piece (or even medium size, say 11×14 or so) hold your drawing implement or paint brush out at arms length and use your whole arm, rather than using just our fingers and wrists which is the tendency of most people. He even had us put our large canvases or sketchpads down on the floor of the studio, and using a long branch cut from a tree (the crooked-er the better) with a paint brush attached to one end, paint with that. It was SO freeing because at first we had so little control over the brush-end of the stick — you had to get the hang of the way the branch itself wanted to paint. And even after getting used to the strange motion of the branch — you could keep that freshness going by using “no mind” the zen concept of letting go of thought.
I still use that technique — and every naturally shaped branch has a different style of dancing on the paper or canvas.
btw — the colors you used in this little study — they are so perfectly arroyo-ish. I can feel myself right there.
alison
March 8, 2007
Yes, I think this one is really expressive.