After painting with a loose style like Freilicher the previous week, the desire to do something totally abstract was too hard to ignore. Therefore, the well-known works of Willem de Kooning are my inspiration this week. I LOVE how much energy his paintings express and am drawn to his use of line and color in his works. I've never really tried to paint in this style before but am excited about the opportunity to give it a go!
Inspiration:
My Works:
Reflection:
I learned a lot this week about how difficult painting abstract works like de Kooning really is... as far as abstract subject matter goes, this style proved to be extremely challenging for me! Gratefully, I learned a lot this week through the process of trial and error, and, my respect for abstract painting has increased greatly as well. :)
Painting 1 -
Well, this was a tough piece to start. I'd come off my two final paintings of last week's Freilicher series feeling frustrated with how they turned out, and I was completely unfamiliar with proper techniques for painting a successful abstract work in de Kooning's style. Therefore, when I started this painting, I had A) no explicit color theme in mind but painted impulsively, B) a new 2" wide brush I was trying to use for the first time without experience, and C) an hour plus long painting session in which my layering of indecisive color placement was muddying my canvas excessively. The end result is the first picture of my works which was a series of small brushstrokes in no great composition and in muddied colors.
Before I re-did this one by painting over it, I met with my teacher who had wonderful insights: focus on value contrast within colors, pre-mix my paints so as not to muddy them when mixing, and paint slowly and intentionally with the large brush to make smarter marks instead of just more marks. I worked to implement these changes in the second attempt and am MUCH happier with the end result!
Painting 2 -
This one was inspired by de Kooning's paintings, Untitled VIII and Untitled XVI . The mixed direction of brushstrokes was a bit tricky to accomplish without over-blending colors and keeping my wide brush clean of already used. I used a palette knife for a few swatches of paint and was grateful I pre-mixed my colors as well for stronger value contrast of some rich darks.
Painting 3 -
For this third painting I put down a light underpainting and wanted to keep the colors united and all high key. I brought out my smaller paintbrush for top layered brush marks and didn't want to overpower the light tone underneath so I left this after some simple marks!
Painting 4 -
I liked the idea of a more monochrome painting for a final one in order to strictly focus on value within a color. After a green underpainting, I mixed up some different shades of Prussian blue and enjoyed using my wide brush to make bold marks over the surface. Out of the four paintings, I think this composition may have been most successful, but it was a good testament of the importance of value!
Overall -
Looking back on these paintings for the week and where I started with my first attempt of the first one, I'm grateful to see improvements in technique and use of value. It was a significant lesson for me in learning to mix paint colors intentionally to unite the palette of a painting, and to place brush strokes slowly at times instead of just impulsively. My appreciation for de Kooning's work has definitely increased though as I now don't just like the looks of his works but understand the skill it takes to make his paintings!