Impressionist...Maybe

In my last post, I talked about how I tend to consider my art impressionist or realistic abstract. But I'm not following any rules of a style (there is enough struggle with rules of composition, value, color, etc.). So I'd probably name the two seascapes below as realistic abstract and the following as impressionist (because I tend to get the "Oh, it looks much better from a distance" comment on these). 

 How do you classify these or your own art styles?

Painting as Meditation

I'm getting ready to move, and my house has been full of craziness. To rest my brain from this stress, I've been burying myself in painting.

I'm still painting some bluebonnets. So let me clear the air about a myth...There is a myth that it is illegal to pick bluebonnets, but it is just a myth. Don't believe me, see here. DPS says it is legal, as long as you don't pick so many that it is defacing public property and that you don't trespass onto private property. So, I consider my 4 bluebonnets okay. (P.S. They last a long time. 1 week later, and they are still happy in the pot. They just slowly leach the blue out. Now they are a pale sky blue.)

They look quite dark for bluebonnets, but I painted these from real life, and when I squint down, these are the colors I see. (The picture washes out the lighter portions too much for good balance.)

Also, I worked on a large size ocean abstract that is very calming for me to paint. And I started some more ballerinas. (These are unfinished, but you get the idea.)

This last one is the one I am most proud of how it came out. Painted it from a picture on the Internet, but modified it a bit. (I prefer not facing people, so I keep a look out for backs of people.)

Abstract Beach Scenes- Using Leftover Canvas

During the Winter Break, I found some Christmas canvas leftover from a project. My kids and I had made several Christmas themed sayings and trees last year, but they didn’t make it through the storage without incident. I decided not to hang them this year. I looked at these four square canvas and thought about using some gesso on them. Since we had used scrapbook paper on the Christmas crafts, I decided that I needed to add some more texture to them. Thus, it was time to experiment…

Here, you will see 3 square canvases. (Number 4 was a throw out. Awful color. Awful composition. It just didn’t work and ended up with papers sitting on it.)

The simple beach of 3 stripes was just experimenting with texture and color. A peer in my art class had used something similar as a background, but I wanted it to stand out.

The beach with orange fish is based on my love of scrapbook materials. I used water-look scrapbook paper, sandy-look pages, and the fish. The water and sand got painted over, but I let the fish stand out.

The third painting is based off something I saw on pinterest. I loved the ocean color and wanted to work on the composition.

Now, the fourth painting I pictured here (the rectangular one) is an abstraction of a picture I took in St. Petersburg. I liked the composition of boats, but the light did make for a very interesting water. I am hoping to add some sea glass to this picture as the sails.

My overall take is that underpainting in warmer coolers has significantly improved my abstractions. It makes them more interesting and cohesive.