As I am sure readers of my blog have noticed, in the last year or so my interest has dramatically moved in the direction of abstract photography and abstract art in general. Given this interest, I have been trying to learn some new abstract genres in addition to impressionistic multiple exposure photography. These have included Gelli printing and abstract painting. Needless to say, my hands have been getting dirty!

I know that Gelli printing isn’t something that most people are familiar with, so I will leave that for the next post. But you are undoubtedly familiar with abstract painting. This is all new to me as I haven’t painted before, but, as it turns out, the idea of composition, color, line, shape etc. is the same in painting as it is photographically. How could it be otherwise? So although I haven’t had experience with the manual issues of using brushes, the experience with composition is definitely something that is extremely helpful. I have been taking some courses and watching lots of YouTube to try to learn the rest.

One of the thing that I enjoy in my abstract photography is texture. As it turns out, it’s one of the things I really enjoy when making paintings as well. There are three ways to add texture in acrylic painting. The first is to apply paint thickly. The second is to mix the paint into a thick gel that consists of acrylic binder, which is basically thick paint without the pigment, and then apply that to the canvas. The third way, which is one I particularly enjoy and have adapted, is to use modeling paste. This is basically an acrylic gel (again, markedly thickened paint without the pigment) that can be spread on the canvas. It has a consistency similar to joint or drywall compound. It takes about 48 hours to dry, but once it does it is firm and as textured as the way you applied it (you can smooth it out or leave it with lots of bumps and 3D shapes and texture). Once dry, you can paint on it’s surface. You can even mix paint into it before application if you want to color it.

I also find that I enjoy the look of paintings with a border. Perhaps this is a hold-over from the world of photography? By the way, don’t get the wrong idea, my photographic explorations continue. In the last few weeks I have made quite a few photographs that I enjoy and will be showing here soon.

I thought I would show some of my first paintings that I like. Believe me, there were quite a few that didn’t make the cut and got painted over!

There will be more to come.

Abstract Painting