I always get excited when I start to see a pattern emerging in the art I follow.
Does it mean it's a new trend? Does it mean several of my favourite artists are being influenced in a similar way? Is it a response to current cultural conditions (which are hectic and unpredictable)? Or perhaps the logical step on the path way from realism? Or is it just that I'm noticing them more?
For whatever reason (and I'd love to know what it is), again and again, what's catching my eye is colour stacking. I don't know if these artists fall under colourists, abstract expressionists or intuitive painters, but I'm loving where it's going.
Geometric, muted colours, landscape-inspired. The artists themselves have described it just as "pushing paint around" and "playing with colours", but there's a calm beauty about them too. Should these inspire my next colour palette of exploration?
"I am much more interested in representing an internal world of diverse thoughts, ideas, experience and feelings." ~ Rich Aaron Ward
I think that this way of painting and expressing what can't be seen is going to be a blossoming field in the future. Psychologists have often tried to come up with experiments that could identify the thoughts and feelings of creative people as they are working, and I feel that this type of intuitive painting will be at the forefront of inner exploration.
How do you paint a feeling? How do you make sense of all the imagery that flashes in your mind? Your preferences for one colour over another? For one shape over another? Will is possibly allow transcendence - the ability to be completely yourself in your work?
For someone who hasn't had any formal training in art, I often see these kinds of works typically from those who attended art school at a high level. They have spent their years creating very competent landscape and portrait work, and now are able to use their painting language to express themselves more freely.
Alain de Botton spoke of being attracted to art that might offer the missing piece of the puzzle in your own personality. A controlled person may seek freeing art to fill the gap (art like Pollock's). Or a messy, chaotic person might look to something perfectly executed and realistic (art like Botticelli's).
I'd love to be able to create something like this and be happy with the result. Whether that block is to do with an inability to fully access what is within, or whether there's a need to produce work that is recognisably good, I'm not sure yet. They say the only way to work it out is in the work, so I guess I'd better get painting!
