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CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

A Departure From My Usual Work:

I'm trying abstract art, I posted three of them. Just curious, what do you all think?

This is a request for input from people who like/appreciate abstract art generally. If you don't consider abstract paintings to be "art," or they usually trigger your gag reflex, no comments necessary. I already know that opinion is out there.

Also, I know the reproduction isn't that great - if there's a thumbs-up on the paintings, I'll put some effort into getting some better reproductions posted.

Photography Prints


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Honestly, Cheryl, I don't care for the dark blobs on Binary; whatever is underneath looks interesting, though.

The other two pieces are lovely. I'd happily find a space on one of my walls for either of those. Kudos for trying something different! :-)

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Wendy,
Thank you!

 

You're welcome! I love abstract art and hope you're enjoying the experience! :-)

 

Patricia Strand

8 Years Ago

I agree with what Wendy said. Mass Transit is my favorite. I wouldn't be surprised to see that one the Sold page (after you get a sharper image uploaded, as you mentioned). I adore abstract paintings and photography!

 

Menega Sabidussi

8 Years Ago

what wendy and patricia said.

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Thank you, Patricia, Menega, I appreciate the input.

 

Alfred Ng

8 Years Ago

I love mass transit, it is a winner!

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Hi Alfred, Thank you! (-:

 

Andy PYRAH

8 Years Ago

I find the first one too dark and gloomy- melancolic and mornful.
The second looks like prison bars.
And although I like Mass Transit, I find it rather sad.

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Hi Andy,

The first is about cyberspace, the unseen programs that run ghostlike in our computers, we only catch fleeting glimpses of their presence.

If you've ever had to spend too much time in an office... the vertical blinds catch the sunlight in interesting ways as the sun goes down, but also start to feel like prison bars.

If you've ever watched trains and buses go by at night, there is a sadness to them, especially the mostly empty ones. Strangers passing through, to other places...

Yes, that's the mood, a sadess to it all, I suppose... perhaps I should try some sunnier work. We'll see. I'm not sure I can do abstract work that doesn't have a darkness to it, life is complex and part of the complexity is darkness.

Now I have a project to do... produce an abstract with a sunny mood. (-;

 

VIVA Anderson

8 Years Ago

Compliments. Great strides towards abstraction. You're a 'natural'....

Office Window, could be anything,lol...the title doesn't define it, imho......."Rainbow" works, too, lol. ..lovely design

Mass Transit.....a winner.........clean it up,sharpen...SOLD !!

No real focal point,and not really pleasant is Binary, but those numbers drive me crazy anyway, even the word connotes confusion,lol.

Thank you for sharing your journey. Wishing you well. Spend lots of time right here at FAA for great abstracts, also, you are welcome to visit who I follow and my Fav's, some of
the very best abstraction here.....and very rewarding to see it, too, among all the other fine art on this site.

 

Val Arie

8 Years Ago

Cheryl it is so much fun to try something new! I agree with the others ...Mass Transit is my favorite and like Office Window too. Binary not so much...although what Wendy said about what is underneath the dark stuff might just be a winner.

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

VIVA,
Thank you for the compliments!
Yes, there is a lot of amazing abstract work on FAA, I've been looking at it, a bit at a time since I've been here. Some of it is just so beautiful... I will have to check out your follows & favorites.

People who do abstract well tell me it is NOT easy to produce a good abstract...

Diving into the abstract end of the pool, trying not to belly-flop!

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Hi Val,
To be honest, I like the underpainting, in "Binary" too.
I might try doing Binary again... "Binary II," perhaps... keep the general idea of the underpainting with the colors and number-pattern, and do the overpainting in a way that's not so heavy-handed and ominous. I'll have to think through how to handle the overpainting.

 

Val Arie

8 Years Ago

Cheryl I will like to see how you change it...I think the form is good just too dark.

 

Bill Tomsa

8 Years Ago

I think you're off to a good start.

One thing that may or may not be helpful for you, but I've found has helped me when I'm painting abstracts or nonrepresentationaly, is to begin a painting without any idea of what I want it to turn out to look like.

I look at it as a journey without any known destination in mind. I let the painting take me on the journey and when it tells me it's done it's done. Period.

That's why I've elected to call most of my abstracts"Jouney No.____" instead of "Untitled" or any title that may impose an interpretation on the viewer.

But that's just me.


Bill Tomsa

http://billtomsa.blogspot.com/

 

Lisa Kaiser

8 Years Ago

I love the dark contrasted by color. Undefined lines in composition is where painters experience their best works... this is just a personal opinion.

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Hi Bill: Yes, it's all a journey, it can be very liberating to "just do it" without a plan. I can be pretty uptight about planning out my work, so doing the abstract in an unplanned way will be a welcome change.

Hi Lisa: I like the high contrast, too. I know you do your paintings quickly & spontaneously, with great results, so we'll see where that approach takes me. (-:

 

Abbie Shores

8 Years Ago

The third is lovely!

 

Jim Whalen

8 Years Ago

Binary is not appealing to me, the second one is fine, but Transit is REALLY good...few artists are this good with abstracts their first time trying it. I would love to see more!

 

Patricia Lintner

8 Years Ago

Fabulous to get out of the box and your comfort zone to try something new!

Mass Transit is my favorite as it looks like many others. I would suggest trying more in this abstract style and working on a series, You got something here. Just keep working on it. the comments here from everyone are great clues to where you should working on.

 

Cheryl, you've verified what I thought about 'Office Window'.

One of my corporate-drone offices was on the 9th floor of a downtown tower. The exterior wall of that office was filled with three enormous windows and, yes, I was stuck with the dreaded vertical blinds. ;-) The window was west-facing so as the sun began to set I'd pull the blinds to cut glare on the computers - but would close the blinds only partway. Through those partly-closed blinds, and when seated at my desk, I could see the top floor of a parking garage, and beyond that, only treetops and sky.

What I see in your image is those treetops, and the last fading light of the day. I was in that office for seven years, so, for me, this image is lovely, and loaded with nostalgia. I think many high-rise office workers will recognize your scene.

After sunset, the view was briefly obscured by the colonies of bats living in the many downtown garages, headed out to feed. I hadn't thought of those bats in a long time. :-)

Because of the wall of windows, that particular office rarely felt like a prison -- though the actual work always did.

That tower (the old National Bank of Commerce building, in San Antonio) is now a hotel, so tourists are enjoying that sunset view. I only hope the new owners have done away with the odious horizontal blinds. Those things were never a gift to interior decor! ;-)

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

Cheryl,

Abstract artists do live by their own constructs. Abstract artworks have organizational properties behind their creation.

What are your constructs? Or if you have not fully thought that out, how are you organizing what you put on the canvas?

Is it intentional?

Dave

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Hi Jim, Patricia L, and all of you,

Thank you for the input, that's high praise for "Mass Transit" coming from some very accomplished abstract artists. I'm hearing it's definitely worth the effort to clean up the blurry photo I took of it. I do plan to do more... but I'm pretty new at this, I don't know whether I can produce consistently good abstracts, "Mass Transit" might be a one hit wonder. Time will tell.

Hi Wendy,
Bats... I love bats. That must have been a treat, getting to see all those bats heading out for their night hunting, right outside your window. It sounds like you were positioned to get a great view of them, all the way up on the 9th floor.

You should stay in the hotel, and see if you can get the room that has your old office window... maybe the bats are still there !! LOL

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

David,
I can't really answer the question, because I've only done three of these things. I'm not sure I have a complete handle on what I'm doing yet, and as you can tell from the comments above, I've done one good, one bad, and one that people kinda like ok.

Constructs? That's a weighty and unwieldy word. I'm having trouble making it fit with what I was thinking / feeling when I did this, the process wasn't constrained by constructs, exactly, although perhaps they were there in the background - I mean the background of my brain, not the background of my paintings, the paintings didn't have backgrounds when I started. If there were constructs involved, they emerged as the painting took place, they weren't things I consciously started with.

You tell me. What do you mean when you use the word "construct," and do you see constructs in any of the three works I posted?

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Hi Abbie: Thank you!

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

Cheryl,

My BIL and sister have an abstract work done with a putty knife one of his/the artist's constructs. So the edges are a certain way as the artist intended building on the first construct. Those edges make for a forest as you intended of sorts in your second work. His art though has more texture and more control even though it is an abstract again building on the first construct. With the putty knife he works back and forth with his abstracted trees between white, black and some grays. So his palette is limited to a a few colors as another construct. He then splits the work at the bottom third to give a mirror effect as if you were on the other side of a pond looking at tall trees. This is a creative effect out of his basic building blocks, his constructs.

You do not have to have any control with abstraction. The artwork I just discussed has massive control. Neither one is limiting. That is a misnomer. His work is extremely creative.

Construct......rules of construction.....

addition: just saw the title "office windows" reminded me of trees. My bad. But you get my interpretation.

Do I see you using constructs? No and somewhat yes. But not purposely. Yes you are using building blocks to create your art. You are not thinking them through.

Dave

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

Oh and you get to build your own rules of construction.....and tear them down and build new rules......

Also as a body of work gets built on one set of rules that you continue to develop, you may find yourself far more productive.

Dave

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Well, ok, in that sense I had constructs.

To me, that was just paying attention to the general principles of good design as I worked. Sounds more banal when I express it that way, but it's pretty hard to make good art, including abstract art, if you're not choosing some rules of composition and sticking with them throughout the piece of artwork.

Making an abstract with colored trees and a pond is a good idea. I might do that.

 

David Bridburg

8 Years Ago

Cheryl,

You can see constructs at work in the Beatles music and lyrics. They were only as creative and as productive as they were
by choosing a really great set of constructs to develop. That was John Lennon's real genius.

Dave

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Repetition is a design principle. You get a set of constructs, rules that you choose for yourself, repeat them, and.... voila, good composition. True in any art form, not limited to visual art.

Music & poetry have structures, some of them are very formal. The verses + chorus structure of many songs, classical music has lots of different formal structures, for poetry we have sonnets, limericks, haiku, and many more.

I used a couple of constructs in "Binary," the pattern of 0 and 1 in the background, an attempt to tie the work together and create contrast with areas of black. People really don't like that painting. Possibly those would be an examples of constructs NOT to develop.

 

Ken Krug

8 Years Ago

I like all three. At first I didn't like Binary so much, but the more I look at it the more I like it.
Just opinion, but when I cover the lower left area where the sunglasses shapes are surrounded by a lighter
area of color, the work seems simpler and more effective, more pleasing to look at, to me anyway. Easier to look at.
But conversely it then makes me see the top right quarter more like traditional work, though still abstract.
Like a pink lake, then looking through a drape framed window, with a yellow-orange sunset, with a darker blue-green sky higher.
The dark shapes also look like trees.

I don't know if you would consider that good or bad, or if it is good or bad, but abstract can work on different levels.

- Good abstract beginning, nice work, I like Mass Transit, too, interesting color and pattern, well balanced.

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Hi Ken,
I consider that a "good" comment. (-:
It does simplify the image to cut off the lower third. Maybe the black bothers people because it is too complex and busy.

I like the windows concept, I've done some more realistic paintings of windows, showing partially viewed landscapes through them. I like that, the ambiguity of something only partially seen through a window.

 

Sharon Cummings

8 Years Ago

I am all about color...I like the Mass Transit piece a lot!

 

Ronald Walker

8 Years Ago

Mass Transit is very appealing and I caught it immediately . Office window is a very strong piece and the feeling of bars keeping the real world out, or the office world in, was very powerful, enjoyed both of those works a great deal. Your third work Binary has been the least liked and in some ways the most abstract and the most challenging. My advice would be, don't touch it, at least for now. Set it aside for a while and then in a few weeks pull it out. It could well end up being the strongest of the three but perhaps needs something subtile to pull it off. I am very impressed by all three works, awesome job!!!

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Hi Sharon,
Thank you!

Hi Ron,
Thank you, also thank you for the bit of advice on "Binary." Time will tell.

FYI to all: I spent the afternoon working on a 4th piece. It's interesting, but I've painted myself into a corner, so to speak, it's atrocious right now. If it transmogrifies into something ... you'll get to see that one, too...


 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Ok, I think I got something worth posting. Thumbs up? Thumbs Down?


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Stacey Chiew

8 Years Ago

I think you are talented Cheryl in all that you do, whether one likes it or not, it's a matter of preference. :) I see abstract art as a means to express their inner self. Some people know all the rules to break the rules. That's what creation is all about, it changes. So I respect your thoughts in creating your artwork. Colors do impact one's emotions and perceptions. I like happy colors, that's why I pick mass transit. :)

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Hi Stacy,
Your art is happy colors and warm, happy subjects. I like to think that says something about who you are, a warm happy person. (-:

 

Stacey Chiew

8 Years Ago

Thank you Cheryl for you lovely comment. That's because in where I stay, we don't have winter. :) I only give "constructive comments" to my students. Most artists I know have gone through some kind of professional training, some are self-taught and have painted for many years. Really, there's nothing to "criticize" about. Art is about exploring our own imaginations in our own unique ways. To me, art is a life long learning process. I have known some famous artists who are still painting in their 70s, these people are extremely humble. The most valuable lesson I learned from them: Empty vessels make the most noise.

 

CHERYL EMERSON ADAMS

8 Years Ago

Well, I'm noisy...I'm one of the Big Mouths here...LOL.

I'm interested in people's input - I've never been skilled at judging whether abstract art is good or not -- I know what I like, but that's not the same thing as expertise, and it's kind of hard to get a thread going on abstract art without getting a whole bunch of people commenting who basically don't think abstract qualifies as "art." The whole thing disintegrates into an unproductive debate about "what is art?" and of course there are no real answers to that question.

Mostly I'm interested in sharing what I'm doing. When people get bored with looking at what I'm posting, they'll stop reading this thread & responding to it.

 

Stacey Chiew

8 Years Ago

Recently, a famous local artist showed his latest abstract painting in a gallery. It was so simple, the whole canvas was painted in red, with some brush strokes, nothing else. You and I can paint the same thing in less than an hour. But that's not the point. I know his style, so I was actually kind of shock to see his "effortless" work. However, it contains deep meaning, this is what makes it beautiful in its own way despite the painting looks "childish". Thanks for sharing your work Cheryl, thumbs up for all. :)


 

Andy PYRAH

8 Years Ago

I like the colours but the application is too "dauby" for me, sorry I couldn't think of another word at this time of night.
However it reminds me of my daughter's room just before I have to make her tidy it up.

 

This discussion is closed.