Abstraction: Shapes
/I’ve designed myself a ten step programme to move from Representational art into a personal language of Abstraction. To understand what I mean by that, be sure to have a read of my blog A Language of Abstraction.
This is step one: SHAPES.
When I’m out and about, it’s the shapes that catch my eye: the outline of a building, the shapes within the architecture or how a collection of buildings (shapes) respond or relate to one another within a given space. It’s what I instinctively want to document.
In many of the abstract works by artists I admire, strong shapes play a prominent roll is creating the foundation of the work.
Therefore, it feels like a natural place for me to start this abstraction process: to extract, simplify and deconstruct, with shapes.
The Language of Shapes
We are surrounded by shapes. Looking at the world through an artist’s eye, we reduce everything down to basic shapes when we begin to draw. The world (or the particular scene in front of us) may appear overwhelming, but when we break it down into simple shapes, it’s easier to tackle and make sense of.
This is a practice that has helped me to calm my social anxiety whenever I’m out and a panic attack hits. It distracts my brain, even if I only do it quietly in my head and not put pencil to paper.
One could say that I find joy in those shapes, so it’s important to me that they have the starring roll in my work.
One of the reasons I wanted to commit to this process was because I’ve been battling with the question of what I want my art to be. That’s not to say that it has to be any one single thing or that it can’t be other things to other people, but I believe art should move us from one state into another - as artists and as a viewer. Art has a powerful roll in our lives. For me personally, as an Expressionist artist, it is my voice. The canvas is my stage, my land and often my therapist too.
In realising this, I have come to understand that the language of my work needs to be fully abstract, in that, although my inspiration is architecture, I need not create an image of a recognisable place or building (as I have in previous works). To do so feels restricting and confuses my focus. Rather than being concerned with the details of outward representation, I should be concentrating my descriptions inward and using the architectural shapes to express my inner landscape. [I’ll be studying this further in step nine of this programme: layering)
I notice that I’m attracted or inspired to draw certain types of buildings. Cafés, restaurants or pubs are a particular favourite. Theatres, train stations, hotels and churches all evoke strong emotions in me and often have unusual, striking architecture.
If I look through all my sketches of cafés, there are some reoccurring elements they have in common making a café recognisable as being a café by including those shapes and marks. For example: a collection of squares and circles make outside seating, a rectangular canopy or triangular umbrella, large square or rectangular lower ground windows and inviting entrance.
The same can be said for a theatre, hotel, church or a monument. They all have a distinguishable language or set of shapes that when arranged in a specific way, the visual shorthand can be understood.
By deciding to focus on non-representational work, I free myself to collect shapes and patterns and be inspired by real life and not reproduce it. I can move forward by filling my sketchbooks with pleasing arrangements of shapes for use in future work.
Techniques
I’ve spent the last few days exploring as many ways as possible to create different shapes on the canvas.
Now, I don’t mean that I painted lots of different shapes, but rather I used a variety of media to paint a library of ways to express shapes.
As an expressionist, I place an importance on the process of painting too. I enjoy how certain processes hold a great deal of expression in themselves. To stamp something, for example, can be done carefully or with a swift thud! Each leaves a different type of mark.
These mediums and processes look different (will be read or translated differently by the viewer) and feel different to create.
On my chosen ground of transparent screen printing mesh, I painted some shapes quickly, some slowly, with a brush, a palette knife or sponge, I printed, stamped, drew and scribbled.
You can see how a dictionary of vocabulary will start to build.
Outlines of shapes: using gelli plate printing, a ruler/masking tape, drawn freehand (pencil, pastel, marker) paint with a brush thin, a wide paint brush, transfer drawing (oil paint on newsprint plate / oil paint on transparency / acrylic with a slow-drying medium) , hand drawn over canvas or linen for textured line.
Solid shapes: cut shapes out of wax paper and monoprint on to the mesh, use a wide brush stroke, thin brush scribble, gelli plate printing with mask or stencil, stamp, texture paste, foils, hand drawn over canvas or linen for texture (blurred or blended with medium or baby oil. Spray paint through stencil. Use a roller.
Negative space shapes: use masks, palette knife to apply paint, texture paste or foil. (Needs to be an opaque medium)
When completed (though I suspect I’ll be continually adding to this thesaurus as I progress and develop) I can set the scene for my story using this vocabulary. I’ll be looking at other elements later in this process (contrasts, tonal value, gesture, colour and composition) that will add to the setting, giving me nuance and control over defining how I feel in the space.
At this point, my big take-away is that shapes start my process. It is the set-up to my story. When I’m stood in a space and feel the urge to capture it, I should first lay down the shapes, paying special attention to how they relate to each other and where I stand in the midst of them.
I already used some textural techniques here to make shapes, but up next in step two I will be exploring more ways to create texture and pattern.