This week's abstract

 

Urban Sprawl, Acrylic on canvas, 16"x20"

Large Abstract

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City by the Sea, Acrylic on canvas, 48"x72"

City Sunset

City Sunset, Acrylic on canvas, 16"x24"

Shanghai Skyline

Shanghai happened to be on my travel itinerary and I was fortunate to be able to steal an afternoon off to see the city. Most of the modern sections, which are on the side east of the Nangpu river that is called Pudong, have been built during the past 15 years and include an impressive skyline studded with skyscrapers to rival any world city.

I used just an ordinary pen to sketch an interpretation of the Shanghai Pudong skyline. The building just to the right of center that looks like a bottle opener is the World Financial Center and one of the most unique buildings ever -- though Shanghai boasts quite a few.

Shanghai Cityscape, Pen on paper, 11"x12", NFS

Geometric Abstract

The use of geometric shapes in art can probably be traced back to ancient cultures even though its adoption as a modern art form is more recent. Two-dimensional shapes defined by color, texture and location on the canvas can provide an interesting way to describe our world.


Urban Panes is a composite of the myriad colors and shapes of windows that can be found in a city environment.   The appearance of these windows can change in infinite ways through different times of day, by season and in changing weather conditions. For this piece I worked against a black background and layered paint mixed with small amounts of texturing gel.


Urban Panes, Acrylic on stretched canvas, 16"x20", $75

Happy New Year

I want to wish all of you a very happy new year and to thank you for your interest in my blog during 2009. Your support of my blog, whether through your supportive comments or by your repeated visits, has provided me much appreciated encouragement. Every time I have been gone from the blog for an extended period, I have felt compelled to come back and keep providing new posts for your pleasure.


Lately I have been delving more and more into abstract compositions. This has made me wonder how much looser my style could get with a bigger canvas. While I have always wanted to work in big broad strokes working with large canvases has seemed highly challenging .


The hardest part was working with an unstretched piece of canvas and not having a convenient workspace to place it on. I had to put it on the floor and then try to keep it from moving while I troweled the paint on it. Next most difficult was moving around the canvas to cover all of it while still maintaining perspective. Believe me, it takes some getting used to.


Untitled is not yet finished but I wanted to post it anyway. Let's see where it leads to. Isn't discovery the core of abstract art?

Untitled, Acrylic on unstretched canvas, 36"x48" (approx), NFS

Abstract Cityscape

Every time I go to big cities like New York or Chicago, I am struck by the abstract composition possibilities offered by the towering buildings. Even without attempting to capture the beauty of the often complicated and elaborate facades, just the shapes alone lend themselves to artistic interpretation.


In Cityscape I have tried to capture the basic vertical shapes of the buildings separated by a barely discernible street. I separated the sunny and shaded sides of the street by using warm and cool colors respectively. The entire painting is done with various sized knives but I left the roughest texture for the sky which is made up of white and bits of almost every other color in the painting to create a sense of harmony.


Cityscape, Acrylic on stretched canvas, 16"x20", $100