PLAYTIME – ACRYLIC ABSTRACTS

I need to force myself just to play around with art materials. Most times when I face an easel or board I have a purpose – an image I want to create. So I have changed pace in the last few days and just got some paper ( in the case above, and most of these below, an old discarded painting) and started putting paint down over it. This one I’ll call – Fallen.

Coming from a scientific background I do veer towards structure and the next two show a development of an old theme based on an imagined cityscape, done with mainly square brushes.

I was looking at form on a flat plane and the painting on the left, though I like texture, just felt too busy – even messy, so out came the brushes and paints again to turn it into the painting on the right. Comparing them, I dont think I have moved forward very much – but then this is just about playing.

So, after that cul de sac, I forced myself to into a more organic approach with emphasis on light and shade – a theme I explore in my more representational pieces.

Again, working over an old painting. I think that there is potential in this one. It has a forest feel – similar to some of the representational paintings I’ve done of late. There are some lovely soft edges contrasting with the hard lines I’ve created with acrylic ink.

Bouyed by this, I struck out in a similar direction with the final piece, below.

This is done in a much looser style – mainly using just my fingers. I added moulding medium that allowed some texture which I highlighted with the mix of yellows I still had on my fingers. This use of texture is certainly one I’d like to further incorporate into my painting.

So I might be putting some of these ideas on canvas in the near future – just a warning.

Other abstracts are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

ABSTRACT SKETCHES – ACRYLIC ON PAPER

Now that my exhibitions are well underway, though failing commercially, I have some time to play around. I thought I would get the acrylics out and these two appeared.

Many people just go straight in with abstracts, throw intuitive marks onto the support and out comes a coherent painting. It rarely happens for me. I need to plan a little, otherwise things go muddily awry. This painting, above, is a case in point. It started out as something completely different and has morphed into this, which has, for me, the feel of the city. It isnt very big 10×14 inches approx but the process might allow me to put it on a canvas, now that I have some vision where the end point could be. Not that I wont still experiment, but I have a visual structure to base things on and hopefully contain any mud.

With this second one there is still work to be done to get to a conclusion I will be satisfied with. However, I feel that I can see a way forward. The process has also allowed me to ponder on other potential themes which I can use in the future which is a good by product of the process. With many of the elements of the first painting, such as the inclusion of line and the predominance of the blue greys it perhaps doesnt feel very different, though I have plans which may develop it into a more organic piece, as opposed to the structural assembly of my top painting.

So back to the easel and have a bit more play and perhaps get myself a completed painting.

Other abstracts are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

ARCHITECTURAL ABSTRACTS – ACRYLIC PAINTING

These images may seem familiar, but that is because I have already posted sketches to these commissioned works. A friend of mine did me a favour and passed my name on to an Interior Design company that wanted some abstracts for their new showrooms and headquarters. After producing sketches they changed their minds and decided that they wanted the paintings to reflect their favourite architectural work. We settled on Frank Lloyd Wright.

These are the paintings I delivered to site the other day. They are both 30x40inches and are quite textured – as the client requested. I mixed paints with hard moulding paste and applied it with a palette knife. Though I do use palette knives, impasto work is not a process I have used before. In that way the commission opened up new possibilities for future works.

Below are the paintings in their new home.

As you can see on the photo on the left, they sit on either side of the door to a showroom.

I have done many commissions over the years but this was the first non-figurative one. I found the process quite challenging, trying to get into the heads of the clients. Personally I would have taken both paintings further. When I delivered them, so they could see them in situ, I suggested further developments, but they liked them as they were. I hadn’t wanted to go too far away from the sketches that they had chosen, so in that way I saved myself extra work and hardship.

Expecting to do more work, I hadnt even signed them. Yesterday I took along my red paint and stuck my moniker on them. Job done.

Other abstracts and semi abstract work is available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT – ACRYLIC SKETCHES

Well, after the communication breakdown with my commission clients, contact was restored when I learnt that they had come back from holiday and were ready to proceed. The painting above was the second one they liked ( I posted their other preferred painting earlier). I feel that this one could be developed further, but I am not sure how far they want to venture into the descriptive. I have asked for a second meet to look at their preferred options and ways I can further develop them.

This second one was another sketch I submitted. I feel that there are aspects in all the sketches which could be brought into the final pieces, hopefully making them stronger. Anyway, they have promised a deposit today and I will move ahead and purchase the canvases, as they are bigger than my usual ones and they didnt want me to make them, which was a pity, as I have plenty of unstretched canvas and wood to make the stretchers.

Other abstracts are available on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

INSIDER’S VIEW – ACRYLIC SKETCH

This is a sketch for a commission I am presently working on. An artist friend of mine kindly passed on the commission opportunity to me. The clients want two 30×40 inch abstracts for their new office space.

When I first visited them they wanted a pure abstract with plenty of texture, based on Gaudi or Frank Lloyd Wright buildings. I must admit I had trouble with the concept of palette knives and Gaudi, but thought that there could be mileage in FLW buildings. Also, understanding that the two pieces would be in fairly close proximity, I felt that there needed to be some dialogue between them.

I took some initial sketches to the first meeting. I had prepared these from the brief my friend originally received. I wanted some starting point to understand their needs and how I could proceed. One thing they seemed to dislike were pieces with saturated colour. This was a bit of a blow as I do like the option of bright colour, even as a splash of counterpoint in a piece.

Anyway, I produced some sketches from that initial meeting and here are a few of them.

Here is a pair based on the waterfall house linked with a seasonal theme.

Another linked pair, again based on the waterfall building and looking at planar orientations.

There were other sketches amongst the presentation, but after deliberating, the clients decided that pure abstraction wasnt what they wanted. They now decided that they wanted more aspects of the buildings to be featured in the works, so that the viewer could get engaged in a guessing game.

Well, it always helps to know what the client actually wants. So off I went again and produced five sketches of FLW buildings. One of which – based on the NY Guggenheim Museum Interior, you see at the top of this piece. I did each sketch in a different colour scheme, to give them more options.

The one I show seems also to have been rejected. I wasnt surprised, after our initial meeting. It was a bit too colourful. Though, personally, I like it. It was one of two of my favourites from the set. I am thinking that it may be worth developing as a future painting.

Anyway, they seem to like two others, my other favourite and one based on a FLW house in Phoenix, Arizona. Hopefully I can have further discussions this week and start progressing the project.

Other abstract paintings are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefineart.com

WOULD, FOR THE TREES … – PASTEL SKETCHES

THERE’D BE BLIGHTS OF THE CITY.

I was playing with my pastels, looking at options for an abstract, and turned this pair into something else. Though all the time fighting to keep to the spirit of abstract and not being too descriptive with a view to painting a bigger piece. With the first one I did a similar painting in acrylics some time ago and was pleased with it. The second one, I feel, could be developed by deconstructing it a little and playing the large areas of grey off with the smaller and more intense patches of colour.

I might do a few more, as it happily occupied an hour without any pressure of a result.

Other abstracts, including a version of the top sketch, are available for sale on my website: grahammcquadefine art.com

FURTHER SEMBLANCES – INK AND WASH SKETCHES

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Still playing around with the inks and washes. I am trying to get something to work up onto a canvas. So far I feel the simplicity of the pieces just fail to maintain interest on a bigger scale. I am applying the ink with a pipette but get much more interesting lines with my broken pipettes rather than the ones supplied with the acrylic inks. The one on the right, above, was done with my broken pipette as opposed to the one supplied with the ink on the left. Although I did like the effect of mixing the different coloured inks in the lines on the image on the left , the blue is certainly a less strident colour than the black..

The style and orientation of the lines also bring their own images, such as the grid giving an urban feel on the right above.

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So with another difference in orientation of the lines, a more nautical feel emerges which is then reinforced with colour.

Here, above, I`ve tried to add further textures though I dont feel that it has moved the image on much and made it more messy. So I will keep on playing. Fortunately I have a lot of discarded paintings I can work on the back of.

Other abstract painting can be found for sale on my website; grahammcquadefineart.com