Day 10 - 30 Paintings in 30 Days

Finishing today's painting meant I'm one-third of the way through the 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge.  This year, my third in the Challenge, I find that I'm more relaxed about painting.  More apt to "just try something".  And I'm finding out how much fun that is!!

Also... if you've been following along since the beginning of the Challenge, you might remember that I was going to try to paint a bit more "abstractly" than I would normally paint.  Now that I've been painted these 10 paintings, I have to admit that the thought of "painting abstractly" baffles me.  

Adding to the confusion, I've been reading Leslie Saeta's blog everyday (Leslie organized this Challenge).  She is painting abstracts.  And today, her painting was one that she did in a new class she is taking on abstracts.  The teacher likes "representational abstracts".   And Leslie's painting was of boats - and very pretty - but I'm not sure where the "abstract" part came in.  I googled the term "representational abstracts", but all that came up were links to pages that were "representational vs abstracts".  Like they are opposites.  Hmmmm....... I have so much to learn!!

Today's painting would qualify as abstract, I think.  While out walking this morning, I was planning this painting.  I decided to take advantage of the lovely grain of the birch board again and use the lines as guides.  The light on the marsh this morning brought out lovely sage greens and pinks in addition to the orange and golds. Searching through my boards, I found the perfect one and laid colors down following along the lines of the grain.  Fun!!

Here is the board as I was just starting.....


bare birch board


Marsh Abstract #1
6" x 6", oil on birch board

I think tomorrow, I'll go back to more "representational".  

See you then.....
susan

www.susangarriques.com
susan@susangarriques.com

Comments

Unknown said…
I think what you are admirably trying to do is very difficult. In my opinion the only artist that succeeded was Wolf Kahn. He studied with Hans Hoffman, not sure when he started landscapes but the Hans Hoffman comes thru. So that the paintings verge on the edge.
Susan said…
I hadn't looked at Wolf Kahn's paintings before, Laurel, thanks for mentioning his work. His use of color is amazing.