30/30 Challenge: Day 21

Day 21 30/30 Challenge

Day 21! For this piece I wanted to focus on the combo of blue+ orange/yellow and golden yellow. I like the idea of contrast relationships that sort of are both generalized and specific. I used a warmer blue which I thought went nicely with the other colors that were more of an orange/yellow and a golden yellow. I added in some yellows that were a little cooler and maybe more neutral. I tried to tie everything together with the orange/yellow sun in the blue sky.

All of the pieces that I have done for this challenge so far have been based on the structure of the landscape here where I live. Some of the colorations have been my choices (based on my feelings and observations) and some were directly influenced by the artist Etel Adnan, who I have been talking about this month. It's important for me to point these two things out-that both the structure and colors used come from somewhere. I have always had the impression that much of abstract art comes strictly from imagination. That is wrong of course. Artwork comes from many places, one of which is the imagination of the artist of course, but that is only one place. The colors for the above piece remind me of the dirt and the fields that are all around me. The mountains and fields and roads-all the shapes I used-are things that I see everyday. Drawing on what I see and combining that with what I am learning is a very exciting process for me.

There will be one other post this week I think and then I am off to Peggi Kroll Roberts's class on Friday and Saturday. My last post for this week will include a collage of some of my artwork from the past five years. I did this in order to spot trends but also to establish my own bona fides, if you will. I feel like the artwork I have done this month is my own work and that it comes from what I have learned over the past five years and is based on what I see around me.  I also feel though that one of the keys that has maybe unlocked things for me is the influence of the above mentioned artist, Etel Adnan. It's difficult to explain but it feels like a stranger has given me permission to do what I want in the way that I want to do it. That may not sound right for someone who is an artist and is supposed to be "freely creative" but that is how it seems to me. I am not discarding my love of the palette knife but looking to incorporate what I like to do into a cohesive body of work.

OK, hope everyone is having a good week so far. Thanks for reading and commenting.

Libby