Finished by Friday: Abstract Paintings

It’s time to share two more paintings resulting from my lessons last week with Jan Brieschke. She taught three days on how to approach abstract painting using watercolor and ink. She calls her style Fractured Light.

Last week I posted photographs of these works at the half-way point.

First is an exercise featuring iterations of a leaf. After drawing some directional lines, we traced a leaf over and over again, following the lines. I chose a red bud leaf.

The next exercise was truly abstract. It involved a string, puddles of paint and two pieces of paper. The wet string is pulled vigorously through the paper sandwich.

Initial painting. This is a close-up of the section I worked further.

Finished painting. I fleshed out the design with many, many stipples. I also used a soluable graphite pencil to augment my painted lines.

This one pleases me a lot. I found myself in the flow while working on it. Somehow I knew exactly what to do, and exactly when it was finished.

So mysterious.

I’m sorely tempted to do more work in abstract style. I’d like to know if I got lucky or if I can find myself “in the flow” again.