Jumping Through Hoops

I like to paint what I see.  To paint an abstract, you must be able to "see" beyond what you see.  In this case, I didn't see anything.  I just needed a gigantic painting to fill a wall in my living room and I needed it to coordinate with certain colors.  I am not kidding you when I say that this is the FIFTH painting on this canvas. The previous four were bombs.  Imagine how much paint it takes to cover a 48 x 48" canvas FIVE times.

I suspect that most people (non-artists) think that you just slap a bunch of paint on a canvas and call it an abstract, and indeed, many people do paint that way.  But the truth of the matter is that learning to paint abstracts is far more difficult than any other genre.  The same elements and principles of design still hold for abstracts: line, shape, form, color, space, unity, similarity, contrast, balance, scale, etc., etc.  and it's extremely difficult to achieve success.

I named this "Jumping Through Hoops" because I put so much research into this before and during painting.  I studied Hans Hoffmann and Gerhard Richter and Mark Rothko paintings for hours, hoping and praying for the push and pull gift needed to pull it off.  I'm not sure I quite achieved that, but the painting does look nice in room it was painted for, so I am happy (to be finished with it).  whew.

"Jumping Through Hoops"
acrylic - 48x48 in

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/diane-campion/jumping-through-hoops/475232

dianecampion.blogspot.com