What makes abstract art good?

Al Capp, the American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li'l Abner said that abstract art is "...a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered."

My high school art teacher once looked at a collage that I was very very proud of and said "thats not art."  From my own abstract point of view and from my studies, let me give you a few pointers to help you get away from the "thats not art" comments when you see abstract art.  Im not going to rip abstract art apart for you, that will be on your own time.  But I will give you some easy pointers to help you in your appreciation of the world of abstract.

1.  The feeling.  One huge element to abstract art is feeling.  What do yo feel when you see it?  Does it provoke some emotion in you?  I have looked at some amazing pieces of art and not felt anything.  I have looked at some abstract pieces of art and felt a sense of awe at the color or size or design or feel.  Sometimes an emotion isn't easy to point out, but a good abstract should give some sense of emotion to it.

2.  Good design.  Anyone (even your children or elephants) can splatter paint around on a canvas, but a good design takes an artist's hand.  Even if the abstract doesn't look like anything, there should be a good sense of design to it.

3.  Confident exploration.  In my own experience pushing the boundaries resulted in a piece that I was't expecting.  I remember when I painted my first sky red, I felt silly but it felt right and it looked great.  Abstract artists are willing to experiment and often their experiments result in good art.

4.  Paint.  You have heard people say "my kid could do that." Abstract artists do sometimes look juvenile in their painting approach but if you examine the paint quality you will see if a kid or a good artist did it.  Good artists have smooth even paint strokes, and the ones that aren't are intentional.  You can see skill in a piece that may look like a kid did it if you look close enough.  Abstract artists know technic but they are stretching beyond technic to often "feel" their way through a piece.

5.  Color Color Color.  I have the color wheel always at my side when I am painting.  I look for color combinations that will pop and come to life.  This takes a good eye and a lot of skill.  I believe that color plays a very important role in wonderful abstract painting.  Color (the right colors) play a vital role in a good abstract painting.  

One last thing.  Abstract art can be "about" a lot of things.  The piece could be about the process of their painting, it could have a social meaning or purpose, it could be about the color combinations or the materials used in the creation.  A good question to ask is "what is this about?"   While abstract art  can give us only cloudy descriptions of what they are trying to say, diving into the clouds and discovering a deeper meaning is the beauty of abstract painting.  Hopefully this will help you understand abstract works better and doesn't leave you, as Capp said "bewildered."

Forward Motion by Don Prewitt, 2016

Choices, Choices, Choices

December 1, 2015

Ritu Ghatourey once said “We all make choices; but in the end our choices make us.” I believe that artists are constantly faced with choices, choices that may not be spectacular at the moment but eventually pile up into a mountain of large choices. One of the choices made by every artist is the choice to create because he’s an artist, not because he is seeking fame. This choice plays out in various smaller choices. it's could be evident in the way we show our new art to people, or in the way we might refuse a project simply because there’s no recognition or payment in it.

Tomorrow night I get to face that choice again. I am showing my art for the first time publicly. My creations have been seen for years by the public, but not by a public looking for art. This time it will be viewed by people who have no emotional investment in me and can say whatever they feel about my art! These little creations birthed mostly in solitude are going to be exposed to people who know nothing about me. How vulnerable is that?

The questions that I have been asking myself all week are: “What if no one wants to buy my paintings? What if they laugh? What if they think that my art is far from worth what I am charging?” The vulnerable part I can deal with, the stab at my identity is a little harder to wrestle down. Am I an artist, a good artist, even if no one even steps close to my work tomorrow night? I always say to young artists that an artist is someone who creates art…period. Fame is a confusing aftermath that comes and goes for some artists (and I would imagine feels good) but can completely paralyze a creative soul. 

I heard a famous writer talk about his first bestseller. For a year after his first book made the New York Bestsellers list he drank himself to sleep every night. His identity was sucker-punched by a moment of fame and he couldn’t get past it. Everything he wrote after that was bathed in the pressure of “doing it again.” My point is this: Who am I? I am an artist. This I know for sure. Any recognition that comes from my creations feels good, but is fleeting. I choose to create because I get the privilege to create, not to sell a painting. 

Most likely if you are reading this, you too have been blessed with a creative soul. Consider making a choice to love creating because God has blessed you with that ability. Don’t create for the approval of others. Those daily choices will keep us fresh and free to create in a way that God has made us to create. If people like it, great! If they don’t, oh well. If we sell something, it is an added bonus but it won’t determine our joy in creating or cut through our creative souls and dismantle the truth… we are artists.

My Studio

November 26, 2015

I’ve been spending a lot of time in my studio getting ready for an upcoming art show in San Francisco.  Lately I find myself in the studio late at night when everyone else is asleep.  It’s interesting how my studio, or my “space for creating”, has become a sacred place.  Its there that I have thrown my brushes across the room in utter frustration, and where I’ve sat back and realized that the mistake that I had made earlier was a benefit to the picture I was painting.  Its been my studio chair that I have cried over situations in my life and at other times been overwhelmed by the goodness of God in my life.  My studio has become a sort of hiding place for me when I just need to get away and create.  And its been a place of discovery as I’ve learned how my paints want to be treated on the canvas and how brushes will best respond to my longings to engage in beauty. 

Yesterday my son came out to my studio to see me and screamed because it was so cold.  He asked how I could possibly be out there painting with no heat.  Its pretty simple: when you need to create, you HAVE to create!  And when you need a friend, sometimes your studio is the best friend around when everyone else is snuggled up in bed.  I've complained about not having enough space and being in a cold part of the house, but honestly, I like my studio.  It has become a place that I have already experienced so much of life in.  God, tonight as I wrestle with the next best color for this painting, thank you for this very special place that I call my studio.