Art lesson - abstract and texture painting
When contemplating painting an abstract picture or one with symbolic meaning try and recall no one will gain a
dividend from the finished work in excess of your input. So no cheap shots for, to rob your audience is to rob
yourself.Sharpness and smudge the layered effect.Here I have taken a section from an action painting and
blurred it before overlaying it with thin, sharp-edged black
and white lines and shapes. This 'depth of field'
photographic effect is relatively modern as (excepting
Vermeer and a few others) the artists of the past insisted on
bringing everything into focus. It must be said their clients
often demanded this.TEXTURE PAINTING
The worth of an artist was once determined by his or her ability to disguise brushstrokes and produce 'magic'
surfaces and textures. A few - Rembrant and Titian in their later years - decided paint had a tactile quality itself
and sometimes layered the paint to produce a separate effect. Rather like Rodin often left parts of his marble
sculptures 'in the rough' to emphasise their other qualities. Mostly they used white as that pigment was the
cheapest .It was also the slowest to dry and could be safely applied over the successive layers of dry thin darks.http://www.geocities.com/~jlhagan/lessons/abstract.htm (2 of 4)1/13/2004 3:51:44 AM