I’m so happy to be back at school! I struggled with not having a studio during the summer so its great to have my own space at school where I can work for hours without any distractions.
I was so excited to start painting so I jumped right into something I have been wanting to try. When starting an abstract painting sometimes it it hard to even find a place to begin. Some painters begin by studying an old master painting to get a composition they can play around with. Shifting shapes, changing colors, taking out unnecessary things and adding what the painting needs. These are are things I have been working on in my most recent paintings. It derives from a piece by Peter Paul Rubens. While studying the impressionists I started looking at painters that they studied when they were in school which eventually led me to Rubens. In the piece I chose, The Union of Earth and Water, I was interested in the composition and the placement of the figures. Also, the lighting that moves around the painting was something that caught my eye. So I did a study right on the canvas of the figures and then began really manipulating the painting to make it my own. So far this is was I have, but I plan to simplify things even more than I already have. Who knows, it may look nothing like this in a few days…the beauty of painting!
