Leftover Paint

I want to do abstract art but I am quite intimidated by the prospect. I get these images in my mind and don't know how to execute them. For that matter, I don't know enough about composition and design. So I have been putting off actually committing a canvas to an abstract painting.

In the mean time I have been using up paint leftover from my each of my paintings to dabble with some stream-of-consciousness exercises. In other words, I am tossing the paint onto either watercolor paper or a sheet of canvas, only using the colors at hand, without much thought to design, etc. I simply start with a general idea of where I want to go, then let it happen.

So here are some of the results.

acrylic on 12 X 16 inch watercolor paper

acrylic on 12 X 16 inch watercolor paper

acrylic on 16 X 12 inch watercolor paper

acrylic on 12 X 16 inch watercolor paper

acrylic on 16 X 12 inch watercolor paper

acrylic on 12 X 9 inch canvas sheet

acrylic on 16 X 12 inch canvas sheet

acrylic on 9 X 12 inch watercolor paper using palette knife

Sunset on San Salvador, Bahamas

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on 18 X 18 inch canvas

This dramatic sunset comes to you courtesy of a photo by Li Newton that I found in the Wet Canvas reference image library, at http://www.wetcanvas.com/RefLib/showphoto.php?photo=177968. The view is from the photographer's window. Magnificent isn't it. I hope I have done it justice. Thank you Li Newton for contributing the lovely photo to Wet Canvas. Li is an artist as well as a photographer. You can see some of here work at her Shutterfly web site, https://linewtonartandphotography.shutterfly.com/

Autumn is in the Air

Painting by Vicky Christensen, acrylic on canvas, 18 X 24 inches

My furnace/AC fan stopped working a few days ago, during some relatively warm weather. I finally had it repaired yesterday, and was happy to have the air conditioning running again. Today the temps took a dive, and fall is definitely in the air in Minnesota. Looks like I will be switching the thermostat from 'cool' to 'heat'.

Today's painting is hard to categorize. I had intended to paint a Minnesota waterfall and had it sketched on the canvas. At the last minute I decided I just wasn't in the mood to do the waterfall. I decided to paint this autumn scene instead. The painting evolved into a much looser, more abstract style than I had originally intended, and it has very little resemblance to the reference photo.