Reflecting on Abstraction

Our final unit, abstract expressionism, has definitely been unlike anything I've done before. I have always preferred objective work, and I still do, but this experience has really opened my mind to what goes into abstraction and how hard it can really be!

I was not very happy with the colors I chose in the beginning. Having just come off of an entire unit with color, I'm not sure what I was going for. One of my main reasons for choosing "ugly" colors, I think, was because I was afraid of getting a crafty look that can come with bright colors. I soon learned by seeing some others paint that this isn't always the case!

By the end of day one, I think it had definitely improved, especially in terms of movement.

On day two, I failed to get many process photos, but I made some dramatic changes, some for better and some for worse. I think working in the pops of red and adding lots of texture with the butter knife made me like it a lot more. However, I did understand Coach Hall's comments about it getting somewhat linear, and I definitely struggled with trying to preserve elements of the background to make some figure-ground relationships.

Compared to day one, it's hard to tell this is the same painting! While I may have scoffed at the thought in the moment, I think I had definitely gotten attached to parts of the painting and was not thrilled at covering it up with white. I think I tried to rush a bit too much, and could have waited longer to let the lower layers dry before blocking out shapes with white, since the white kept getting more and more muddled. I didn't love how that looked, which made me over-correct a bit with the reds and darks, but I do think I liked it better after doing so. I definitely think the blue was something it needed, and had actually almost put on royal blue earlier in the day before Coach suggested the pale blue. If I could have more time on it, I would probably work in some more marks with charcoal overtop of the white and brighten some of the white areas more. I would also correct the bottom grey area, which to me did not feel cohesive with the rest of the piece.