This Term we used mixed media to make an abstract still life
When you are not using realism to help make the composition, you must fall back on the formal abstract elements (point line shape tone texture etc )
They are your building blocks,and judiciously used, they create strength and structure, balance, movement, interest and contrast.
We started with grisaille ( one colour used tonally) to create strong compositions and then added colour into the base mix.We made collages of the still life to help diverge from the realism and then painted from the collage…We also them re introduced collage elements back into the paintings.
Collage is helpful in this exercise because it introduces random elements which help with the “effective surprise ” It helps you try things you never would do in straight painting
Implied line. proximity, closure,transparency, sliding planes were some of the abstract terms we investigated this term and we succeeded in creating some stroing abstract compositions
But also i think it was the practise of keeping things in “flux” which was important , realising that it is fun and definitely ok to use technolgy in our work,using glazes to make things transparent and set things back,
and to learn to keep listening to the small voice which guides us to try things (and tell it to be quiet sometimes too!)
It will be interesting to see how , what we have learned in this term of abstraction will inform our future work
Bev Holdsworth
Annette Pearton
Cynthia Mitchell
Rowena Poole
