Abstract

What the hey is abstract art. Without looking it up I think the difference between representational and abstract art is that the shapes are recognizable as objects. Having said that there’s a lot of grey area here open for discussion. We had an exercise in class the other night and it was to paint an abstract image. What fun! No rules, no limits. What a chore it was for some artists to let go. Amazing but not surprising. Painting abstractly there is no where to hide. It’s all about design and color (or lack thereof) and value and texture and on and on. This painting was done by my youngest student, Addy and wowie! She really nailed it!!! She doesn’t have the visual baggage that most of us have and so she just painted. Sometimes we just have to forget everything we’ve learned and just trust our gut. Turn off our brain and don’t think or try too hard. Just let it flow.