Cultivating Wonder

"Cultivating Wonder" - mixed media on aquabord, 16" c 20".  Ready to frame, or can be leaded agains a wall upon a shelf.  Available here and at Artfinder.

The final installment of a three part exploration of abstracted landscape.  In this version, the small shapes have been simplified and merged into blocks of color and texture.  Vertical forms simplified, no longer trees, but maybe just whispering "tree-like" in a very soft voice.  The waterfalls have vanished, replaced by the suggestion of movement.
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The hardest part of the final piece was resisting details, erasing obvious forms, allowing the paint to move and become something unplanned. 

Cultivating Wonder

watercolor sketch

Abstraction is a form of surrender without losing your voice.  Surrendering to the paint, the shapes, the textures.  Surrendering control and forced outcomes.  Surrendering realism.  It is like squinting your eyes at a scene - blurred shapes and colors, details lost but implied.  And doing that while still keeping true to your own esthetic.  And it never fails to create a sense of wonder in me when it all comes together and whispers (or screams!) that it is finished.

​I'll be joining the AMAZING Stan Kurth for a four day abstract workshop next week (my second time learning from the grand master of abstraction) so the blog will have a little vacation while I push around some paint and throw my hands up in surrender.   I'll be posting pics on facebook and instagram if you want to follow along with the workshop and see what secrets Kurth is sharing with us.  

Tumbling Down (sold)