ABSTRACTION; A MEANS AWAY FROM TIGHTNESS.

S5 F                                                                                    © Ruth Zachary

After being an etching printmaker for 20 years, I found I was working in a very detailed precise style, and in fact, couldn't work in an impressionistic manner any more, as I had once. I had become tight, and controlled in my approach, and had lost the joyful freedom once so natural at another time.

Often I tried experimental painting to find my freedom, and often what I ended up with was a picture plane filled with detailed textures, exciting in some ways but unsatisfying in others, because I still was not finding a marriage between both meaningful imagery and freedom. I saved these experiments even if I rejected them as incomplete. I am so glad I did, and still use parts of them in work I am doing now.

I tried using pre-printed papers, hand printed papers,  painted papers, photographed textures; so many I cannot list them here. I cut them into shapes, geometric shapes at first, and then sometimes into organic shapes. Still, if there was any imagery in those pieces, I was compelled to see them as montages as I had when drawing etchings in montage style. Even patterns were often seen as realistic imagery which I would arrange into a "picture." Finally I knew this approach was not getting me where I wanted to go.

Next I tried thumbnail sketching, which only looked like inept drawings to me. Getting detailed would put me right back where I had been before.

I even played with Kid Pix, a program designed for children, with bright colors, and random generated options, as a way to loosen up. I worked rapidly, saving the compositions I liked, with a series of letters and numbers to identify them. The above geometric composition was one example. One reason this worked was, In a small-sized format there isn't room for detail, and the whole can be seen without focusing on details.

 These first attempts helped me to see the design as a two dimensional field that did not depend upon a recognizable image to make it pleasing to look at. Kid Pix has the capability of creating organic shapes and textures and to draw images, but I avoided that so I could break my obsessive habits. Kid Pix had a number of tools so that curved, geometric, patterned colors etc. were possible. I liked some of the compositions that resulted, and I learned how to put them into Photoshop so I could cut and paste at will, to create a pleasing non-objective composition. 

At this point I can create a well balanced composition, and I can make a complex realistic painting or collage. But I have not yet found the Middle Ground. My ideal would be to create both organic abstractions and detailed compositions at will, and to do either with all the joy the process of expression affords when it goes well.

Other artists may not wrestle with this kind of problem, but if they do, I hope some of my experiences

may be something they can relate to.

MIXED MEDIA ABSTRACT ART

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Often when working with collage, an artist uses painted or pre-printed papers and takes pieces that have been cut or torn into shapes and adheres them to a foundation. This may be a primed (prepared) board or canvas panel. Acrylic medium is usually what I use, and usually the papers are quite saturated and permeated with the medium so they fit tightly over the surface once dry.

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I often do studies on the computer, starting with scans of experimentally created papers, including imagery I may have created on the computer. Studies are often very small,  often 5 x 8". A study can help me find color combinations and textural qualities to look for among the volumes of papers I file according to color. From there I can work out a collage. I might not end up with anything that looks exactly like the study or sketch. Both end up being originals, but not exactly alike.

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Often I am not limited to paper or fabric for making a collage. I may start with an acrylic painted under-surface, and then adhere collage materials over the painted elements. I prefer to keep the underpainting smooth and without texture, so the collage materials will fuse to the surface as much as possible.

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More textured materials can be added over the first layers when dry. I have used sand, found objects,

thick acrylic pigments, used with a palette knife, and more, to achieve a surface with more depth.

In another step, once everything is totally dry, it is also possible to use the buttery pigments of oil colors over all. I love oils because they have a richness and depth even when they are dry.

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Finishing a collage or acrylic painting requires using acrylic varnish (I prefer matte) to seal the surface. If oil has been the last layer of pigment, allow it to dry thoroughly. Then seal it with damaar varnish, which can be removed later for cleaning if ever necessary.

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The above image was also used on a blog Feb. 5,  "Where Visions Gather," in my new blog R. Z. Writestuff.  Click on the link if you would like to read a poem related to the imagery in the image.
  

© by Ruth Zachary

ABSTRACT ART

Chinoiserie, Mixed Media Collage,  By Ruth Zachary. © 2011

Hi, there, readers. I have returned, after many interruptions, computer problems, too many other commitments, and some health problems as well.

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I have decided to reactivate this blog site again, since I am hopeful of doing more art work. I plan to use this site for abstract work, and my other blog site Ruth Zachary Montage, for more realistic work.

© by Ruth Zachary

INTRODUCTION:

This blog will focus upon abstract art imagery.

This blog will continue the art formerly discussed and shown on an older Blog, Ruth Zachary Montage, because Google Blogger has made it impossible for me to post blogs on that site.That site featured both realistic imagery and abstractions.

Another blog also named  Ruth Zachary Montage will continue to feature my realistic art. Click
on the last link to see new posts. Thank you.

Ruth Zachary.