Hobbies And Interests
Oils And Acrylics
All paintings, including abstractions, are built up in layers and the techniques used in that construction are virtually identical in oil and acrylics. Oil paints combine natural and artificially occurring pigments with linseed oil. Oils are traditionally thinned with turpentine and dry very slowly. Acrylic paints combine the same or similar pigments in an acrylic polymer emulsion. They are thinned with water and dry very quickly. Both mediums can be thickened or thinned and made more or less opaque. Artists use identical brushes, knives, strokes and technical ideas with both mediums.
Painterly Technique
The techniques of abstract art are identical to the techniques used in representational art. Usually in art, the ability of an artist to use this repertoire of techniques is called ̶0;painterly.̶1; Accomplished artists are more painterly than novices. The most accomplished abstractionists often begin as accomplished realists and draftsman. In general, a painting begins with contrasting light and dark shapes composed in a geometric pattern on a bare support (which may be a canvas, plywood, masonite or several other materials). Those shapes gain depth, detail and color in subsequent layers. Areas of the canvas are then covered with washes, which are thinned solutions of paint or glazes. In acrylic painting, washes include translucent polymer gel. In a representational painting for example, an eye may be made to appear to glow, and reflect light by applying one or more glazes. In abstract art, this technique does not need an eye. Abstractions highlight technique rather than simply employing it. And since glazes, washes and other embellishment dry faster in acrylic than oil, most abstractionists now work in acrylics.
Composition And Color
In abstraction, composition is an end in itself and color is an end in itself. One mid-century school of abstraction centered in New York was called the School of Color. The first of these color paintings was probably Mark Rothko̵7;s ̶0;White Center̶1; which sold for $72.84 million in 2007 and was actually painted in oil on canvas but could just as well have been painted in acrylic. All of the painterly technique Rothko displayed works identically in both oil and acrylic. The painting is composed of three large rectangles with a white rectangle in the middle. More important to the finished painting was that Rothko used a canvas support. Since canvas has a rough texture, paint sticks more readily to high than low spots on this support. All artists exploit the rough texture of canvas, or when the painting demands, the icy smooth texture of masonite.
Texture
The American abstractionist Jackson Pollock was an excellent representational painter who studied under the ̶0;enemy of modernism,̶1; Thomas Hart Benton, and spent his best years exploring texture. Pollack laid unstretched pieces on canvas on a floor and dripped enamel from the hardware store all over them. These works are usually called Pollock̵7;s ̶0;drip paintings̶1; and the techniques he used to create them may or may not be applicable to your work. Pollack was attempting to build up abstract layers in three dimensions. He straddled and stormed around the canvas and dipped sticks and brushes into open cans of paint. Sometimes he dripped paint off the bristle end of the brush. Sometimes he dripped paint off the handle. Sometimes he flicked the paint off with a twist of his wrist. His enamel was oil based. Today he would probably use acrylic enamel.