NON REALISTIC REPRESENTATION

REMEMBER WE OUGHTN’T COPY OTHER PEOPLE’S ART BUT WE CAN BE INSPIRED BY THEIR STYLE. My photos of course, are for you to use.

SEMI ABSTRACT LANDSCAPE



I know, it all seems a mouthful! Artists and their wordiness!

Anyway looking at ways of drawing and painting which are of recognisable things and places but are not trying to be photographically realistic.

Last week we looked at Impressionism which is very influential and presents a simpler, colourful, and freer way of painting.



Here is a painting by Arthur K Maderson a modern Impressionist, shapes almost dissolve into shimmering colour.

But today I am thinking about the influence of Abstract Art on landscape. I think it has had a huge influence.

ABSTRACT, people can be a bit loose with their definitions, and use abstract to describe any art which doesn’t look realistic, I am a bit fussy about limiting the word to art which is non representational, againa mouthful but art which doesn’t have a recognisable subject it isn’t a tree or a person or a scene. Essentially it is shapes on canvas or paper.

Possibly the most famous abstract artist id Piet Mondrian who eventually painted nothing but coloured rectangles. And only used red yellow and blue, black and white. He thought art had reached its purest form in this kind of painting. A bit austere! A bit limiting? Another artist who became very famous and whose paintings are reckoned to be the very apogee of art (that’s a good word. Look it up) was Mark Rothko, some people practically faint over his amazing paintings which if you were unsympathetic might be mistaken for designs for a fireside rug. A very expensive one.  Yellow and Orange Mark Rothko.

Another famous one is Jackson Pollock people really like to make fun of his work but it was and is very influential, lots of artists these days like to include drips and runs in their work, maybe representing themselves as free spirits or maybe simply the enjoyment of the fluidity of paint itself. I quite like a nice splash or run of paint myself. ‘Humouring the Goddess’ Jackson Pollock.

Anyway onto our idea, that is that a lot of artists like a bit of abstraction, maybe the colourfulness, the simplification or the energetic use of paint, but they want a subject, they feel they still want it to be of something and landscape seems to especially attract semi abstraction.

Here is a painter I like, Paul Klee, (pronounced, I think: ‘Clay’) you can see the abstraction but you can also make out buildings and trees

And here is a contemporary artist using a similar combination of abstraction and landscape,  bit annoyed at myself for not noting full name, just got Elizabeth NL

I LIKE THE PAINTINGS OF Richard Diebenkorn, you can see it is landscape but his interest is very much in the shapes tones and colours, as well as a sense of the place he is painting.

 When I saw this scene at a local beach, I almost saw it through the eyes of Diebenkorn

I feel I am rambling! It is a big subject, just search abstract landscape and you will find countless modern artists doing it.

A very popular kind is the be almost entirely abstract but the establish a horizon, which gives you a sense of sky and land or sky and sea. Allowing you to be fairly free with applying paint, but retaining some sense of a land or sea scape.

Putting a bit of making tape to retain that line either at the start of after an initial bit of painting will help you feel you can paint freely but keep that horizon.

Here is an example, by Peter Wileman. You do a lot of this kind of painting. 

ANYWAY THAT IS ENOUGH FOR NOW I WILL TRY AND HAVE A GO MYSELF TODAY, AND POUT ON SOME PHOTOS WHICH MAY BE SUITABLE FOR SEMI ABSTRACTION. KEEP IT FUN, ENJOY, SHARE THE RESULTS.

Here are a few photos which may be useful to try semi abstraction, remember this means not trying to reproduce the exact likeness, but to simplify and select coloured shapes which can make up a painting or drawing.  It can be quite difficult to let go of that sense that we must get it ‘right’ A few small sketches first will help.