The Wall

The Wall

Yes I have used this abstract before. Painted after a walk on an autumn day and seeing a crumbling wall covered in fallen leaves and moss. A large abstract on a large canvas that still takes up space in my study.

I keep looking at it and wondering what to do with it. It has a great deal of textured paint on it, so no at all easy to paint over.

I added it to today’s blog because I thought it fitted well with my story and my thinking. As a negative this could be seen as just an old crumbling wall, and an unsold canvas.

As a positive it can be seen as a thing of beauty and a canvas still looking for the right space to show its glory.

I hope a second look and a second thought inspires some more positive thinking.

This blog is linked to my other.  Another Brick in the Wall

The Dance Of The Fireflies

The Dance Of The Fireflies

This original abstract was painted after two small events. As some of you know my computer crashed and I have spent much time rebuilding on a re-install of Windows 7. Most things were working except for my webcam and my sound card. The webcam I am told by the maker will never work on this operating system, it is like me it has seen better days. The sound card was something else. I so like to have some quiet music playing as I meditate and start my day. Before I head to my painting space I like to listen to mood music to get me going. How I was missing these things.

With a great deal of trial and error I have at last found a driver for my sound card that makes it work. The first music I played on it was, “The Dance of the Fireflies.”

This is the resulting abstract of that event and the friends who make my life such a joy. The little words they say the little acts of kindness and mindfulness make my heart soar of high.

Do I manage to convey that in this abstract? I hope so.

I hope you all have a great day and an even better weekend.

This blog is linked to my other.  The Source Of Happiness

Spring Will Come Again

Spring Will Come Again

So here at last is the abstract in blue or as close to blue as I am ever going to reach. Somebody commented that one of my latest abstracts was less full of joy than my others. There was a real chance that an abstract with any more blue than in yesterday’s seascape abstract would be deeper into the melancholy. My initial thoughts about blue kept going back to signing the blues. I do love jazz and I love singers of the blues. The trouble for me was that that was not at all the type of person who had asked me to paint a blue abstract.

I was out running yesterday morning. I ventured off the beaten track and ran along the edge of the beach on the grass. My foot almost landed on a last remaining blob of snow. As my foot hit the ground this is the painting that hit my head.

I hope it goes some measure towards depicting what I was thinking.

From sad moments often comes those high moments of creativity. I have not painted for ages and all of a sudden I have painted more than a few that seem to have been liked by others.

When we least expect it something springs to life in unexpected places.

I hope I have risen to the challenge. I have a feeling that blue might appear more often in my abstracts.

This blog is linked to my other.  I Am A Teacher

I Am All At Sea

I Am All At Sea

As I told you before I was challenged by a friend to do an abstract in blue. I am still working on it but today’s abstract is a step along the way towards it. When I think blue I cannot stop thinking sea. Maybe because no matter where I run each day I am always close to the sea. I cannot leave my home without my eye looking towards the sea not far from where I live.

So this abstract, and it was painted in the manner of an abstract, not at all like how I would paint a seascape, has ended up looking just like a seascape.

The friend who set me this task has since painted an abstract and tells me that it was a mind captivating experience.

Yes it is indeed. I find abstract art so much more difficult to describe than the painting of a landscape or any other of the many things I try to paint. In all of those I look and paint what I see.

In the painting of an abstract it is not so much what I see, other than I see an internal picture in my mind, it is much more about all the feelings that are going through my mind and body. An abstract for me is a total commitment.

Because of this I usually know the moment I am finished painting whether I have managed to get on the canvas or paper what I was feeling.

So let me assure you, this may look like a seascape but it is for me an abstract and if you look at the normal seascapes I paint and the palette I use I hope you will agree with me.


This blog is linked to my other. Building Bridges

Don’t Look Back

Don’t Look Back

I apologise to the friend who is indeed waiting for my abstract in blue, I promise it will happen, it is just a bit more challenging than my palette comfort zone. So here I am again back in that area using the same boring palette.

It is not very often that I am inspired in my art by the words of a holy book, though I do admit that such books do still play a part in my life. For some reason one such story was playing around in the back of my mind and would not leave. If I was to attempt an abstract in blue I had to get this story out of there to make space for thought.

So I laid out my usual colours and painted what it was I was feeling and seeing.

I have already been told that this is not like my usual bright and full of life abstracts, and I agree. The story was not that kind of story. The story I now remember was mentioned in a comment by Autumn Leaves about another abstract. So this is my interpretation of it, very different from the other one, The Sands of Time Move Ever Onwards.

I have looked at it, and looked again, and I have to say I have many doubts about it. The fact is, each time I look at it I see something else that fits the story, another aspect of the painting catches my attention. Painted with more white than I would normally use I hope it has some peaceful sections in it, I am aware the centre is very busy.

I share it with you.

This blog is linked to my other. We all Need Something