WHAT IS ABSTRACT CONTEMPORARY ART?
January 23, 2022
You may be thinking: “I don’t like abstract paintings. It doesn’t make any sense to me. Isn’t it just a bunch of paint thrown onto a canvas and called a painting? Are these artists crazy that they can call this art?”
I thought this myself several years ago. Where has my heart softened along the way? What have I learned about art that has given me an appreciation for this type of art?
Or …. why would I bother? What drives me to explore this way of expression?
Many years ago (21 years ago) I saw an original abstract painting done by Roepelle - just north of Montreal, in a restaurant in the small town of St. Marguerite. It stopped me in my tracks. Firstly, it was huge and secondly it was full of colour (as I recall). I was so impressed with this restaurant we were in and everything about it, that I recognized that this painting must be of some importance.
I enquired as was told it was a Roepelle.
I was mesmerized and couldn’t stop staring at it. This was a pivotal point in my artistic life and took me on a journey of noticing art and what I loved about it. Since that time I have been drawn to colour images on a canvas or board, but not representational paintings - like daisies in the field, or the oceanside.
When COVID hit Canada in early 2020, and being retired I decided to start putting paint on canvas. Exploration for about 1 year led me through throwing paint at a canvas and seeing what I could do. Deciding what I loved and what I didn’t.
Then I took a 12 week online course from Nicholas Wilton - CVP with about another 2500 people. This furthered my interest in composing abstract art. Here I learned the techniques and strategies used to making pleasing abstract art.
Understanding abstract art does not come naturally for everyone. ... Abstract art doesn't contain recognizeable objects, so there is nothing to grasp or hold onto. This can be very confusing, even threatening, to some who are not used to assigning their own meaning to what they see before them. Abstract works can look very different from each other. I am interested in expressing my inner emotional and spiritual feelings. I paint to form merging curves and blended edges, but not to form recognizable things. I want to convey ideas about balance, harmony and colour.
So, abstract art is about ideas or even the physical process of creating art. When you look at an abstract work, examine how elements are arranged. Look at colors. Abstract art might focus on aggressive brushstrokes or crisp geometric forms. It might explore repeated patterns or blocks of pure color. But it's not representational of anything in life.
Don’t look for a person or an object in my paintings - they are not there.
It doesn’t have to be something. It is only representational of my feelings, emotions and what I want to put on the canvas. I often tell people that when I am painting “I am the BOSS of me” it isn’t something abstracted because I can’t paint the real thing.
It gives a sense of freedom, a sense of free will, a sense of no boundaries, a sense of no rules, a sense of childhoodness (if that is a word at all) There are no rules, or no right or wrong.
So —- that is what abstract art does for me — so, what does it do for you the observer?
I always say that I hope my art brings you the happiness that it brings me creating it. My wish for you when you see my art is that it sparks your creativity and happiness just as the Roepelle work did for me all those years ago in Montreal.
I hope you can get lost in the vibrancy of colour, the random placement of collage and the freedom of my marks. I wish that you can connect with your sense of wonderment, and the freedom to be creative in your own way. I wish that you can escape realism — the day to day life that may restrain you or the rules in your life. I wish that you will feel like a child again — just for the moment.
I hope I have answered a few questions for you … if not I would love to have a further discussion with you —just email me.
Hugs - Jane
©2021 B Jane Cooper Studio
