thoughts on art and creative living

For some time, I have been interested in ideas related to mixing abstract elements of pattern with more realistic interpretations of subjects. Perhaps the most famous artist to be successful at this idea is Gustav Klimt. Almost any appreciator of art will be familiar with his iconic painting, “The Kiss”.

For a more contemporary inspiration, I turn to an artist whom I discovered online, Thaneeya McArdle.  I find it interesting that Thaneeya divides her creative focus between completely abstract pattern paintings, photorealism, and what she terms “composite realism”, which combines the worlds of abstraction and representational painting.

The painting at left is part of her ZenPop series. The abstract background is actually an archival giclee of one of her original abstract paintings. This series relies heavily on a stream-of-consciousness method of allowing images to arise and suggest themselves. After selecting an abstract starting point, she chooses a specific image and builds the painting around the image (in this case, a fluffy white sheep). After meticulously painting the sheep in a photorealistic style, she added a decorative abstract border to the top and bottom of the painting.

Thaneeya divides her composite realism works between her “spiritual” and “animaux” subjects.  For this post, I’d like to focus on the animals, which provide the main focal point for the composite image.  I’m including a number of her images here for inspiration (click to view enlargements).

Thaneeya is very generous in illustrating the steps that go into making some of her paintings.  Her Iguana is a particularly good example of mixed media techniques, since she utilizes a collage of book pages, gold-leaf, and acrylic paint.

To view more of her artworks and learn more about the artist, please visit her website at www.thaneeya.com

Tonight I’m inspired to use the example of a friends’ collages as the basis for an exercise for a student project. The following exploration of Color, Space, and Pattern can benefit students from the approach of Color Theory, Painting, as well as Mixed Media applications.

All of the textile-based collages represented on this post are the creations of Janet Silver (a fellow artist at Six Days Art Cooperative).

The composition at left is a quilted collage, using a combination of bold and subtly patterned fabrics. Janet selected varied colors of different sized rectangles and squares, in this case, she stitched several fabric pieces to an underlaying fabric.

A similar type of composition could be created using either acrylic paints or mixed media collage:

Color and Repetition

1. Create design that includes 6-10 divisions of space, using geometric shapes or free-form patterns (this number is fairly arbitrary… the aim is to keep it simple)

2. Create each segment in different tones of either CONTRASTING or ANALAGOUS colors (choose 3-4 colors, in a range of varying values).  You could also choose a split-compliment or triad theme for the composition.

3. Create a simple, repeated PATTERN or TEXTURE into each of the divided spaces. These patterns can be achieved by direct painting, or by collaging painted papers.

Combining painting and collage, you can might begin with the painting and then add collaged papers, or begin by painting papers, then decide on the design as you glue them to your substrate. You might choose to paint directly onto tissue papers, then paint more details into the composition. (See my article on creating texture, for a multitude of surface techniques).

Think of ways to achieve a BALANCE of visual weight (i.e. larger shapes counter-weighing multiple smaller forms).  Decide on a COLOR THEME before you begin (analagous, complimentary, split-compliment, triad, etc).  Use a color wheel, and try to match the hues of chosen colors.

If you are skilled at using image editing software, it can also help you to decide on a color composition.  To illustrate this, I’ve taken images of Janet’s quilt/paintings and altered them through Photoshop software, to experiment with different palettes:

The first panel in my illustration shows her original compositions.  By selecting “Image”, then “Hue/Saturation”, you can alter the hue to a gradually shift it to multiple settings.  In addition, you can affect the brightness/contrast, or even invert the colors.  It’s a quick way to make some color choices before you even get out the paint!  This is also a good way to use photographs as a source material for artworks.