Art Appreciation

Painting can sometimes be a lonely activity. Discouragement can sometimes creep in and you wonder if you will ever paint anything worthwhile again. That is when being selected for a juried show by artists that you respect, can be a "shot in the arm".
I was pleased to have a painting accepted for the second time in the Toronto Watercolour Artists Exhibition. This particular abstract painting is one of a series of three and is called - "From Space".

Details of Exhibition:

There will be a wonderful selection of paintings in a very interesting setting.

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Distracted by Abstraction

I am back into abstract painting. Continuing to explore abstraction is one of my "creative resolutions" for the new year. The question that arises for me is - what comes first - the painting or the title when doing  abstracts? Even more challenging is the question - are titles important or even necessary in abstract art? Is the emotional connection to the painting the thing, rather than a somewhat arbitrary title? Does the title help focus your response to a piece of abstract art? More on that later. Meanwhile there is an "Abstract Art Title Generator" to provide some tongue-in-cheek assistance at
ttp://noemata.net/pa/titlegen/.
The latest two paintings were completed before they were titled. As a result they are called "Abstraction 1" and "Abstraction 2". I should have used the "generator" which came up with "Component with Morphism" and "Ode to Quirky Insight". What do you think fits better?

 

Abstraction 1

Abstraction 2

                                                                        

 At all points in my painting life I shall content myself with the words of Eugène Delacroix who said that "Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything." Just in case you think he's a slouch, check below.

I'm Havin' a Heat Wave

This amazing spell of hot weather has made me want to do some loose and cool watercolours, or "watercoolers". The "nebulae" paintings are done with watercolour paint on yupo paper, which allows the paint to slip around in an easy way - just right for this weather. I had just read something about nebulae and found them very beautiful. When I slowly started to manipulate paint, I began to feel nebulous. There is art which is very planned, and there is art that "happens". The nebulae melted into my conscious. Nebula is from the Latin - "cloud". These are interstellar clouds of dust, and gases, some of them are very beautiful. I hope you enjoy mine. 

Nebula 1

Nebula 2