Abstraction: Gesture

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I’ve designed myself a ten step programme over thirty days to move from Representational art into a personal language of Abstraction. To understand what I mean by that, be sure to read my blog A Language of Abstraction.

This is step three: Gestural Mark-Making

For me, this is the heart of my abstract and expressionist work. So much is held in this practice. I believe that once I master this aspect of art-making, I’ll have achieved true creative confidence!

I didn’t, I must quickly add, expect to achieve that in the three days I gave myself to explore the subject, but it was an opportunity to focus on this one thing that I value so highly and figure out what I’m doing right and what I need to work on.

What is Gestural Mark-Making?

Technically, gesture is the application of paint (or any other mark making medium) that is applied with free flowing gestural strokes that result from the artists movement.

I like to think of it as what is left behind after the artist has made contact with the painting surface. The artist is behaving in and interacting with their chosen space or stage. It is the evidence that they were there.

You can see in these examples by accomplished artists I adore, that the gestural mark could be viewed as rushed, child-like or unfinished.

I see confidence and commitment, especially when you realise that these works are BIG, so creating these marks requires the artist’s full body to make them successfully. You can not do that timidly.

In terms of language, I think of gesture as the attitude or personality of the artist. It’s up-front, it cuts through everything else; it’s my stage, I’ll be or say what I want! That’s why I admire these works so much: I have yet to feel or experience this level of freedom on the canvas.

Techniques

Large scale works are something for me to shoot for in the not-too-distant future, but for this project I needed to work on smaller examples, but still involve my full body - not just my hand and arm.

As I’m testing different media I’m not only looking for how the medium reacts to the mesh I’m using as my painting surface, but also how it feels to make the marks and whether the mark left on the surface reflects that emotion.

I’m constantly on the search for a natural, fluid work flow that allows me to work quickly and confidently, but it’s also important that the image looks good at the end!

Hitting on those three important elements has been harder than I anticipated, which is why this programme is proving invaluable.

It’s always good to think outside the box, but it’s especially true here.

There are a number of options:

  • What tool to use to make the mark (brush, pen, stick, cloth, hand etc etc)

  • What medium to use (paint, ink, graphite, pastel, medium, gesso etc etc)

  • How to hold the tool (there are more ways than you might think)

  • Where to place the canvas (on an easel, flat on a table, on the floor etc)

It’s incredible what a difference it makes to the mark made when you change how you hold the tool or move the painting surface to the floor. For example, most people may instinctively hold a paint brush the same way they hold a pen. This is fine for some types of painting, but if you change your grip you can achieve a much greater range of motion and marks.

Also, placing the canvas on the floor means that, not only is my entire body involved in the mark-making, but I can walk around the piece, seeing it from different angles which changes the composition. Maybe the painting looks better upside down!

It also takes a huge amount of control to only make one gesture and not cover a smaller piece with the same marks. It is a balancing act between containment and freedom. A tightrope walk in editing oneself.

I have also gotten into the habit of moving the brush is different directions on the surface to make marks. So, not only pulling the brush across the canvas, but also pushing and “scrubbing”. This damages the brushes over time, but I don’t mind that. It makes for a more expressive mark.

With each tool I tried making the thinnest and the widest line I could make, then switched between fast and slow mark-making. I’m going to look at layering marks a little later in this process, but for now I’m interested in how the mark looks on the mesh and how it feels to make it.

I experimented with quite a few tools, but these are my favourites; the ones I know I’ll use in my future work: (I’ve noted the technique and medium)

The big surprise here, for me, was making a mark on wet mesh. Love it! This will work wonderfully layered-up with stronger, crisper marks.

Seeing gesture as attitude has been a break-through moment and something I will make note of during any initial sketches.

The large round brush felt musical, dream-like, happy and content. The fluid acrylic on wet mesh felt like taking a breath, pausing, being meditative. While the oil paint transfer with various tools feels more erratic, spontaneous, sometimes angry and thoughtless - particularly as it’s essentially drawing blind. Drawing with the heavy body acrylic and palette knife also feels somewhat aggressive.

Whether these techniques are used at the beginning of a painting or at the end is something I’ll work on later in the layering and practice steps.

Next up: Step four is working with Contrasts