Mather Abstract Water Color:Techniques and Shapes

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This winter my escape has been my art classes with Mather. I love both of them, but the Water Color classes has been the most demanding. Water Color in itself is demanding...water everywhere, too much water, not enough water, water where you don't want it, watering not drying...LOL. 

It's the not the same with color. Abstract watercolor is a style not a technique...working with simpler shapes, colors for mood and balance...well, just a bit more to think about than painting a leaf or a flower from real life.

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Here's my set up---minus the masking/painters tape I use to hold down my 140# water color paper to my wet proof (upside down) placemats.

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We've been working on techniques as well as abstract shapes and styles. This particular class had us painting in similar styles of these artists, Rothko, Kandinsky and Albers.

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The class goes very fast...and my palette shows the scramble of color mixing and shading.

Mark Rothko 1903-71 was a Latvian American artist working in Abstract Expressionism. He almost exclusively worked in blocks of color and lines in simple patterns such as this..

Amazon: Cover to Mark Rothko Book

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My shapes: Under all my red and dark blue squares/lines are the basic shapes of Rothko. I was bored and just had to play later on top of the simple blocks of color. The exercise definitely showed how layering colors really changes the areas. Definitely a good exercise and lesson in color layering.

The next artist we took a look at was Vasily Kandinsky 1866-1974 considered a pioneer in Abstract art. With such a long career he worked in many themes and styles. Hard to believe that the painting below was painted in 1913. I'm sure a lot of people shook their heads at this, but I still find the play on colors and the simple shapes of the circles and squares really interesting.

Kandinsky 1913 common domain

My other art class is Creative Mindfulness and we have been working with repetitive styles, so this was definitely hitting the ideas from both classes. The most important thing is how the colors on top of each other effect those nearest it.

The red/oranges are represented in every square in one way or another, but even they can seem cool and dark when combined with the moodier side of the color wheel.

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We began in a blank square with large solid circles of color and then built more circles in layers...because I didn't structure my circles in a pattern they seemed to be bouncing all over the page. 

Impulsively, in the end I roped all those bouncing balls in with the blue loop, which became purple and even green here and there. Again we are emphasizing learning about layering and just how color react with one another. 

Surprisingly the Blue Loop worked for the compostion and anchored all those floating balls. Sometimes you have to improvise.

Our next artist was Josef Albers 1888-1976 was a German-American artist-educator who also worked in geometric shapes and color theory and is considered a Geometric Abstract-ist. His wife Anna/e was also an artist and here is a great place to start experiencing their art forms. HERE Albers Foundation. They worked in decorative arts as well as painting, weavings, fabrics, drawing and prints. Lots of interesting ideas here.

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This was the most controlled of the exercises for me.

This simple exercise was the use of one color for each square, only the applications of more or less water in the color applied in layers, creating the monotone 

thematic mini-paintings. You begin with the background lightest layer and work forward with darker applications of the same shapes. 

The lower right square, apparently the paper had some water on it previous to this and dried. This effected how the paint absorbed here, but I found that texturizing very interesting.

I'm so used to working very large, working on these little blocks is definitely taxing for my brain and hands. 

But, there is a peacefulness when working with such a restrained use of color, you don't have to make choices, only just how much water to use. I think I have seen a lot of mid-century fabrics that had similar motifs of simple rectangles/squares and lines. Not everything is about crazy color combinations.

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We did all of these small paintings in about 40 minutes, bouncing between the squares and styles to let the different layers to dry. Working on multiple pieces is actually a great idea, and it keeps you from MUDDYING up a painting into a mess. 

I worked on Strathmore 140# water color paper

A bunch of different paints and colors in my messy palette. I used two different flat brushes and two different round brushes, all synthetic.

I'm anxious to try something similar larger. 

I'll be happy to answer any questions 

and you can take a peek at other 

FREE Mather Classes for Seniors HERE.

Thanks always for visiting. 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

I'll be participating at these fun parties.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

Sandi