art-drawing-abstract-art-painting-abstract-painting « WordPress.com Tag Feed

Color Overload

msayers — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 17:31:44 +0000

This one’s been in the sketchbook for several months, but I haven’t bothered to post or comment on it. There was this very dramatic, colorful photo I found which was the primer for this watercolor. I loved the color, and that turned out to be more important to me than the detail. Very cool photo.

Watercolor in the Moleskine sketchbook

More in the Moleskine

msayers — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 19:06:02 +0000

I don’t draw nearly as much as I did when I was laid off from work. Go figure. All I can seem to squeeze in every once in a while is a sketch/painting in my moleskine sketchbook, which I LOVE! Here’s the latest entry, a view from my desk at work. Pretty boring, but once you’re eyes make it outside, the view is really quite spectacular at times. I get to see the changes in the weather in a front-row seat, facing West. Boy, though, it really gets hot in the Summer afternoons!

The View (Sharpie pen & watercolor in Moleskine sketchbook)

Temple

msayers — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:06:57 +0000

I’ve stumbled upon a philosophy called wabi-sabi. I’ve loved simple art, art that lets your mind do the work while only having to paint, or draw no more than the bare essence of a thing. I gave it a go here, based on a print by Tim Wong.

Temple: Watercolor on paper

And More Sketchbook Stuff

msayers — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:32:48 +0000

Cold, rainy day

Read what’s written in the book. That’s about all there is to say about this.

Sketchbook Pages

msayers — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:29:00 +0000

Another page from my sketchbook

Here’s some more doodling I’ve done. I haven’t been too creative lately… been back at work, which I’m very thankful for!

Thuh Sitee!

msayers — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 05:08:00 +0000

This started its life as a watercolor painting. I got frustrated with it and slapped the acrylics around on top of it. Really, that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

Cityscape

Face in the Cabinet

msayers — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:31:06 +0000

On vacation, shortly after being let go because of cheap Mexican labor… wait, that’s just awfully wrong of me. Let me start over. I was laid off from the company I worked for for almost fourteen years because a business decision was made to consolodate US operations in a more beneficially accommodating labor wage structure in the Mexican state of Durango. Honestly, I got to meet a lot of the people that would be taking my place. Lovely, amazingly friendly, and mostly green people. God bless them all, they had nothing to do with the business decision, but they had to play catch up, and for not a lot of pay. Such is the current business playground.

Nothing against the company I worked for, however. They treated us all very well, and prepared us for what was going to happen. We really were treated more fairly than most, and for that I am much appreciative. Way to take care of your people! It just chaps me because it’s costing more for them to do business down there than it would’ve cost to keep it where it was. What if? What a wasted question that is.

Well after I was given my marching papers, we decided we’d go on a much needed vacation. I took a lot of my art supplies guessing I’d have a lot of inspiration to pick from. Isn’t this funny? While looking at the kitchen cabinets, the knots in the wood seemed to etch out a face. I filled in the empty space with imagination and this is what came of it.

Face in the knots

The knots in the cabinets in our vacation spot.

Crape Suzette Myrtle

msayers — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 02:30:16 +0000

We went to Florida a couple weeks ago. My 92 year old grandfather had been in the hospital, and we were afraid it was his time to go. Nope! He’s recovered and doing extremely well now. Mom and I had some alone time in the back yard, both of us painting. She did an ocean sunset scene, and I, lacking imagination, painted what I saw… a very large crape myrtle. It was a good trip.

Crape Myrtle: Watercolor on 4" x 6", 140lb paper

Zen and the Art of Art

msayers — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 15:10:12 +0000

I’ve been studying Advaita for awhile now, I guess going on two years now. Being a “seeker”, of sorts, is terribly frustrating, and I envy folks that get it. (You should look at my other blog to see how deep it is) Anyway, Ken B. loaned me a book – “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” – sometime last year. It’s not a big book, but I’d put it away and finally stumbled upon it last week. It’s a compilation of some Zen and Pre-Zen stories, some of them up to 4,000 years old. Fascinating, and thought-provoking at times. The cover has a very cool Japanese, or Chinese, painting of a monk riding a bull. The bull is significant in Zen, but you’ll have to do some googling to find out why. I had a go at recreating the painting on the cover of this wonderful book.

Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. Watercolor on 4" x 6", 140lb paper.

I Called It "Glass"

msayers — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 01:58:15 +0000

Well it looks like I’m leaning more towards the abstract side of art. I spend a lot of time looking at other folks’ work. Ebay, Etsy.com, and many other gallery sites. I glance so quickly over all the still life and landscapes and portraits until something grabs me. It’s always abstract that gets my attention. Or something with lots of color and bold brushwork. I see so much boring work, and yes, even mine.

This piece developed after I started out just splotching marks of color on the paper. It sort of looks like a flow chart, or fault tree analysis. What torture it is to be creative and have a technical mind!

Watercolor on 4" x 6", 140lb paper.

Abstract Squares

msayers — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:30:09 +0000

I experimented with thinner over soft pastel, and it gave a pretty smooth, yet textured look. Theres some oil pastel over top of it all. Turned out pretty good for messin’ around, don’t you think?

Absquares: Soft and oil pastels mixed with thinner on watercolor paper.

Yet Another Abstract Face!

msayers — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 01:43:42 +0000

This came out of me after about fifteen minutes of staring at the blank sheet of blue pastel paper. Not much to say about it other than, “thar ’tis”.

Abstract Face: Pastel on blue pastel paper.

Disney World Building: What a horrible post title, huh?

msayers — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:03:20 +0000

I had very sloppily laid a horrendous wash of these three colors on a small piece of 140 lb watercolor paper, and it sat. It sat for a while. I had been inspired by a guy named Adnan, whose Alacati work is unbelievable, and this is what happened. Click here to see some of his work. The building can be found on Main Street in Disney World.

Main Street USA at dusk. Watercolor & ink on watercolor paper.

Abstract Pastel: This Was Cool!

msayers — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 01:44:41 +0000

I’ve been in an experimental mood lately. I had a stretched piece of watercolor paper, ready for some silly little something or another I had no ideas for. It sat in the garage with the rest of my stuff, patiently waiting for me to attempt to mess it all up. Lately, my son has been begging me to go into the garage to bang on the drums or sit on my motorcycle (the “see-sum” and “no-nose” respectively), and I’ve just been tooling around with my mess of art junk while he’s playing. I’d toyed around with oil pastels and turpentine, and found a really cool technique from that. I figured I’d try it with chalk pastels, and this is the result. No plans, as with most everything else I do, but it all fell together into this… uhm…thing? Hell, I don’t know, but I’ve seen things in galleries worse than this selling for thousands. What the heck… I’ve got no job now, maybe I should pimp it out. Anybody want it for say $5,000? I’ll even frame it for ya!

Abstract Pastel

Another Impressionistic St. Augustine

msayers — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:44:32 +0000

A while ago, I did a pastel piece on the Castillo de San Marcos (see here). I’d had the same picture penciled in on a canvas board for a while, and finally got the urge to do something with it. Following my recent impressionistic stint, this one followed suit. I really like painting this way. It’s incredibly freeing… no rules – I like that!

Castillo de San Marcos

The Pool

msayers — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:44:27 +0000

We were in the back yard watching our boy play, and I had brought the sketchbook along ’cause I had the itch. Nothing much of interest is in our back yard; no trees, no water features, no flowers, just kind of bland. But there’s our blue pool. What the heck. Here it is.

The Pool

Impressionistic Still Life

msayers — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 02:20:27 +0000

I found a really good release in a certain style of painting that I stumbled on out of frustration. The best way I can describe it is “impressionistic”, but it involves a lot of paint, and fast, globbing action. The result is something that slightly resembles what I’m painting, but the feeling I get from it is very rewarding. If you’re looking for photo-realism, I’m not that guy! You really should look at this guy (http://www.stevemillsart.com/) for that… he’s beyond amazing! I’m more in it for the feeling, but I have to admit a great deal of jealousy when I look at Steve’s stuff.

So what you see here is a very impressionistic version of a vase with flowers, and a salt shaker on a table. Enjoy.

Vase with Flowers & Salt Shaker: Acrylic on Canvas Board

Detail

Another Abstract Painting

msayers — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 17:19:30 +0000

This is another example of what happens when I think too much. It started out as something totally different, then about and hour into it I changed everything and went nutso! Maybe I’ll change it some more… no, probably not because I’ll want to paint something else.

Creation

Abstract - Really Abstract - Acrylic Tribal Facey Thing

msayers — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:33:43 +0000

My daughter and I were painting one afternoon a few weeks ago. Our intention was to create paintings going off our feelings and instinct. She did really well, placing brush strokes arbitrarily on her work, using all sorts of color and shapes. I started out with a two-colored canvas; yellow and blue. I kept adding stuff, trying to make it look like I was a professional abstract artist, and I made a complete mess of the thing. Aggravated and hacked off, I globbed the paints on the palette, and mixed paints on the canvas and just went plum crazy. It all coalesced into this thing that slightly resembled a face, so I went with it. Man, it felt really good just to flow and glob paint and mix crazy colors on the canvas. It’s very textured. I like it because it felt good to do. Maybe it’s not so much to look at, but boy was it fun.

Acrylic on panel (camera flash was on).

Latest Sketchbook Entries

msayers — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:56:23 +0000

Haven’t done much lately other than mess around in the sketchbook. Here are a couple pages:

Sketchbook pages: Watercolor and Ink

Oh My Darling... Clementine

msayers — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:09:25 +0000

There’s an underlying theme in my “art”, that being the lack of inspiration. What happens is what you see here. I taped a large piece of watercolor paper on my art board, grabbed a clementine to eat while painting, and sat down. Nothing happened. It’s like pretending to be a psychic, waiting on something to mysteriously appear in my mind. Oh how I hate that! Wanting to paint, but having nothing in mind. So I did what I do in these situations… paint what I see. Usually, it turns into some abstract thing that’s full of color. So here it is, a clementine on my art board next to the taped-down watercolor paper.

Oh my darling... Clementine

Large Abstract Watercolor

msayers — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:28:56 +0000

This is what happens to me when the creative urge strikes, and I have no inspiration. It’s very frustrating, but I’ve found that, as in life, if you just do something, anything, things open up just as they need to. I had nothing to paint but I saw the outlines and shadows of my head from the light above. That’s how this one all started.

Color Head: Watercolor on paper

What I've Done on Vacation

msayers — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 05:57:29 +0000

A lamp in our cabin

I’m in the North Georgia mountains right now on vacation. The scenery here is unbelievable. The Chatahoochee river and the crisp air. The old buildings and colorful history. All this inspiration surrounding me everywhere I look. I brought a couple panels, a canvas, oil paints, sketchbook, and watercolors, knowing I would be inspired. All I’ve managed to do is quickly sketch a lamp in the cabin we’re in for the week. How pathetic, huh? I’d love to do some plein air, but it doesn’t look like it’s gonna happen. I’ve brought my camera, so maybe I’ll get some good shots I can use later on to paint from. Meanwhile, enjoy this little piece of our vacation.

The Most Abstract

msayers — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 20:42:21 +0000

Visually, this isn’t much to look at. Matter of fact, when I look at it now, it evokes “spikey” emotions and makes me feel tense. This is really the first piece I’ve ever done that was tied to pure, raw emotion. I hadn’t even intended on making this when I went into my “studio”. I was very sad and very angry this day after receiving confirmation that we had lost a life that had managed to make it through the first 5 weeks of development. The urge to do something was overwhelming, and I pulled out the first materials I got my hands on: Newsprint, Oil Paints, and Painting Knives. I squeezed the oils directly on the newsprint and starting pulling and pushing the globs around the paper as my emotions directed. It turned out to be exactly what I needed at the time; very therapeutic. I share it now not because of its worth as “art”, but because of it’s direct link to my soul in an emotional day in my life. Thanks for visiting.

Oil Abstract on Newsprint

The End is Nigh

msayers — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:56:03 +0000

So this is it, the last day of work for me. I’ll be officially laid-off from my job after almost 14 years of blood, sweat, and tears. It has been almost like awaiting death, and now the grim reaper has shown his face and is arching the scythe back for a final swing. Not sure how “normal” this is, but the Department of Labor was in here yesterday to give us all a run-down on what unemployment services were available. It was a nice gesture, or maybe they were merely just doing their jobs by being here. Either way, I hate to say it, but it was BORING! I tell you what, the government is unbelievably beurocratic, and chock full of forms and procedures. I think it’s easier to get a job than it is to go to the DOL and fill out endless forms and wait for approvals and what-not, even in this economy. At some point I stopped listening and started doodling. I always have a note pad, or something to draw on because I KNOW that if there’s a meeting to be held, I’m going to check out. The paper gives me something to shift my attention to and prevents me from standing up and rudely walking out on someone who’s just doing their job. Now, for the first time in 14 years, I’m unemployed. Hey, maybe I can go get a government job. I hear the FBI is hiring. How ’bout that? Special Agent Ayers… hmm… does kinda have a nifty ring to it, don’t it?

The last meeting doodle.