What exactly is abstract?
Ten years ago if you asked me what an abstract was, I would have mentioned Picasso or Jackson Pollack. I didn’t think that would be anything I would ever want to pursue. It made no sense to me.
I even remember my first ever watercolor class. It was with someone I was told was a famous landscape artist. His paintings were exactly what I thought I should paint….rolling fields. forests, mountains. I had never been to an art class before, but a friend had convinced me to go. She had taken several classes with him and told me how much she had learned. Perfect! I was living in a new state with only a few friends, so let’s go!
On day three of this workshop, we were working on coloring some bushes in a landscape piece. I had gained some confidence over the past few days and was feeling pretty good about this piece. As I added some intense pink to indicate the bougainvillea I saw in the reference photo, the instructor stopped behind me shoulder. He said “Oh, I see you like abstracts” and I could tell that was not a worthy goal to him. He then proceeded to grab the brush from my hand, “fixed” my abstract flowers, then said “Better” and walked away. Now if someone did that they would have to wrestle the brush from my hand, but this was my first foray into art. He was the instructor, so he must know better.
So what exactly is an abstract?
The definition I have applied to my work is “the absence of detail”. A more schooled definition is “having only intrinsic form with little or no attempt at pictorial representation.” I think of my art as abstracted reality…you know it’s a flower, but there is very little detail to tell you specifically what kind of flower.
Of course, this is my definition. I don’t believe in hard and fast rules regarding art, so make up your own definition. It makes no difference what you call it. Abstract can mean anything you want it to be and that can change over time.
“Abstraction allows man to see with his mind what he cannot see physically with his eyes.””