Series 23: ABSTRACT TO REALISM

Seeing Abstractly – S23L1

 Download

This lesson is S23L1, Seeing Abstractly of the ABSTRACT TO REALISM series. Using as her subject two squirrels in snow, Dianne shows how an image can be abstracted by reducing the scene to as few major shapes as possible, by finding a major value pattern and by setting a major color scheme. The resulting abstraction will be developed into a realistic painting in Lesson Two.

Abstract painting might be the most curious genre of painting there is. People who don’t like or understand abstraction often will deem it meaningless, yet almost the entire 20th Century was dominated by abstraction in visual arts. Even today, many art schools still promote teachings that splinted off from the abstract era. However, any good realistic painting has a sound abstract design within it.

In this series, Dianne shows how we can abstract from a realistic image, then turn that abstraction into a realistic painting.

 Lessons 1 & 3 are studies, each showing how to use a principle to resolve an issue.  Lessons 2 & 4 each take the previous study to a conclusion, showing how to use those same principles to bring convert the study into a painting.

With every brushstroke we make, we are composing.  Just as with any creation, we begin with a structure, then as the art work begins we place shapes and colors according the concept with which we are working.  But the time comes when we move to a different level of thinking and decision-making–that moment when our intention becomes to bring clarity and resolution to the work.

Among Dianne’s passions about painting and teaching painting is how composing principles can expand creative freedom if the artist transcends the “rule” idea and instead, transforms the principle into a tool that opens creative doors.

Read Dianne’s Compose blog posts HERE.  Visit Dianne’s website and example her work HERE.  And visit her YouTube Channel with dozens of Quick Tips HERE.