by Lynne Ayers

Lately I’ve been poking around abstract pieces but I preface this by saying that I have no formal grounding or education in art. I speak purely from a personal, subjective perspective, based on my own likes and dislikes and perhapsI introduce you to some artists you may not have previously looked at. 

First the art, followed by a short blurb about the artists.

Liked this as soon as I saw it but it’s not always easy to know why though it’s useful to try to figure it out. I like orange. I was once told if a painting looked ho hum, add orange. There are some who might say I really took this to heart because, like water, it shows up in my work all the time.  I like Freeman’s line work – I see the white lines before I see the shapes they create which then gives me something more to look at.  I like the composition; though it looks like it should be off balance, I don’t find that to be so. 

The initial grab was I like how yellow and blue work off of each other. My eye goes to the plant which takes up centre stage and seems to break rules of composition but I like the way it engages with the window.  The title escaped me at first until the rich red in the lower left drew my eye down to what I thought were just abstract shapes. Finally I saw the slim profile, the dark hair and the light blue of the shoulder. And that became my real centre of interest as I look at her in her space and wonder about her.  I like that I had to take a little route to find her. 

This one was easy for me – I like the palette, I like all the patterns working together, I like the layering. I could look at this a long time.

In contrast to The Industrialist, Drip is simplistic and somehow, to me, so perfect. Though there is seemingly so much less to see I find there is still a lot to digest. I essentially see the whole image at a glance but the tension he’s created keeps me engaged.  Simplistic but I don’t think I would tire of it. 

Joanne Freeman (Born 1954) lives in New York. Freeman is heavily influenced by the ideas of the Bauhaus School, which emphasized combining the ideas and techniques of art, architecture and design. She endeavors to present new forms in a simple way. https://www.1stdibs.com/creators/joanne-freeman/

Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Fiurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he began his extensive series of geometric, lyrical abstract paintings. Wikipedia

Caragh Thuring (born 1972) is a British artist who works with painting, drawing, weaving and photography. She builds and arranges layered imagery in opposition to traditional visual and logical hierarchies. Painting the overlooked and the out of sight, Thuring is curious to what lies beneath the surface. [Thuring]]

Osamu Kobayashi (born 1964) is known for his bold, reductive works which have fluidity of form and motion. His seemingly simple paintings are deceptively complex with intricate layering and with tactile, gestural application of paint. [https://www.hollistaggart.com/artists/294-osamu-kobayashi]

Why not share what you are curious about, learning about? Send text & images to cagac.ca@gmail.com Please put “Creativity” in the subject line.