Abstract Art Painting Inspiration

Sometime during the last week of July (whilst working on a completely different type of task), I decided that I would start the month of August a little differently, at full steam ahead. I noted down some areas I wanted to impact change and set myself a series of intentions.

These intentions had both a personal and business flavor to them. Personal ones aside, I set intentions for three of the four topic areas of the Moments by Charlie blog (Art, Fashion, and Lifestyle (Mindful Living). I chose to exclude Photography as the only idea I could come up with was to take a photo a day. Personally, for me, that idea seemed completely unoriginal and was not very inspiring at all. It felt completely out of alignment with my association with Photography and the way I approach it, and the style in which I enjoy taking photos.

Art Intention for August

Specifically for Art, I set myself the task (aka challenge) of making time, more often, to create art. I’m not sure if that sentence articulates exactly what I’m trying to say, but perhaps the next few sentences might help explain it a bit more.

It’s not that I feel I don’t have time to create art. I don’t have a problem with putting aside a set dedicated session to create art each week. However what I do find is that the time leading up to a painting session, I have so many ideas flooding my mind in anticipation of the opportunity to paint, that all I seem to do is create a never-ending list of ideas in my head. And although that’s not a bad thing, I do have my Pinterest Art Inspiration board for that, so I really don’t see the point in creating another storage space. No, jokes aside, it can sometimes build unwanted pressure for the painting session, which when it then eventually arrives, does not make the painting experience enjoyable at all.

So with this added pressure, the expectation to create art that looks great in the first hit is unjustifiably amplified. When I say ‘looks great’, I mean that, in my opinion, with me as the judge (based on my own expectations of myself). I’m in constant disagreement about which of my art pieces looks good and which don’t with those around me, so I thought that sentence should be clarified. What looks good to one person, looks completely different to another. Especially in such a subjective area. You know. Art.

With my ‘art intention’, I wanted to remove this pressure and expectation, my exposing myself to a forced small painting session each day. I guess going into that situation, I already know that I will have bad art days. I suppose knowing that imperfect is coming up soon and often, I feel more relaxed. It’s almost like a weird topsy-turvy version of positive reinforcement. Being aware of the possibility of a non-ideal day, rather than trying desperately to avoid it and deny it exists, it makes me just go in thinking, oh let’s just see what happens today.

So with that massively long intro aside, I wanted to share one of the artworks I’ve created thus far in August. It’s kind of my favorite one thus far at the moment. But I feel like that is going to change at a rapid pace this month. I’m not sure if I will share them all, or share them daily, I will see how I feel about them. I will probably be reluctant to share ones I don’t like, so perhaps an artwork a day might not eventuate on the blog. But I think that, even if I don’t write a blog post about each art painting I create, I will probably share it on social media anyway.

 

Abstract Art Inspiration

For my abstract art painting, I’m inspired to create different abstract colored shapes, try to learn different techniques, create different effects, try out different acrylic mediums and acrylic color brands, and use various color combinations.

All these art/painting elements that inspire me do not come out of thin air but are heavily influenced by the various abstract painting books I’m reading at the time, new art videos I watch on YouTube (or old ones I watch over and over again in fascination), colors I’ve spotted in the art store or colors I come across as I “window-shop” online on acrylic paint brand websites.

It’s also influenced by the artists and designers (across various industries) that I follow on Instagram that comes up on my feed, and also by the beautiful material people put on Pinterest. Like I mentioned earlier, I collect abstract art pins (just like everybody else!) of art I like and that I aspire to create, onto my Pinterest Art Inspiration board.

 

Art Inspiration by Color

And sometimes, it’s inspired by the color combinations that jump out at me, as I flip through my stack of color swatches I’ve created of the various acrylic paint brands and colors I have in my inventory.

You may have seen my collection of color swatches on Instagram, it’s something that I suggest everyone experimenting with color actually does for themselves using the acrylic paints they own, but that is worthy of an entirely separate blog post in itself, so I won’t detail that too much here.

However, that does bring me to what inspired this particular abstract art piece, and that was the combination of Paynes Grey with a Rose Pink color swatch. I say Rose Pink color swatch because it wasn’t the color straight out of the paint tube but rather one created by adding Titanium White.

Creating Art in August

I also want to point that the Paynes Grey in the Jo Sonja Acrylic Paint range is dominated by a blue hue. I want to mention this for two reasons. The first, in my experience I feel like Paynes Grey is a color that does seem to vary drastically across the different acrylic paint brands and so if you wanted to this kind of art or color palette, then you should be aware of this. The second reason is that because the Jo Sonja Paynes Grey is more like a dark navy, this does mean that combining it with Rose Pink, is going to bring together two colors that are on extreme ends on the color wheel.

Whenever I work with colors that are opposites on the color wheel (like in this case, pink and blue might as well be red and blue), I select my third color for my color palette to be a harmonising colour. This harmonising colour is almost always one that I mix and create myself, using the first two colors, just like I did here.

Because of the vibrancy of the initial two colors, I also wanted to introduce a color that would bring down the energy of the piece. Although I was simply going to use a Paynes Grey with heaps of Titanium White (yes I know the correct way to mix is to add a little bit of Paynes Grey to Titanium White, but that really does not excite me. I find watching the change of colors extremely educational). I also incorporated some of the third (harmonising) color. It seemed to be dominant itself, so I thought that blending it into the fourth color might bring down its strength a little.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post and I’ll see you next time.

Have an amazing day!