Art of Abstract Painting – review
The Art of Abstract Painting by Rolina van Vliet is an excellent guide for any painter who’s interested in moving in abstract directions.
It’s especially helpful if you’re stuck in realism and want to break out with more juicy, vivid or personal statements.
For me, this book’s interior illustrations are interesting but not inspiring. In fact, I like the cover illustration far better than what’s inside.
However, I rate this book highly because of the information and inspiring text inside.
For example: On Page 36, van Vliet explains how to move from reality to abstraction with your work. Her six suggestions take the artist from gentle, “Leave out details” to extreme, reducing the entire work to a few outlines and shapes, or even composing the work on your own.
Frankly, that’s brilliant. No matter how stuck I am in realism (or Tonalism or Impressionism), this list includes something that will move me out of my painting rut.
Generally, I don’t buy a book like this unless the interior photos are juicy and inspiring. This book is an exception. The illustrations show a wide range of approaches to abstract paintings. While few will be inspired by all of them, you’re likely to find at least one or two (or more) that you’ll look at and say, “Yes! That’s the kind of art I want to create!”
For anyone trying to wrap their brain around what makes abstract paintings abstract — and what makes them work — this book may be all you need to take your art from realism to abstract, almost effortlessly.
The Art of Abstract Painting offers over 160 pages of information, tips and inspiration.
I recommend it if you’ve been working with abstracts and haven’t a clue why they’re working for you (I’ve gone through phases like that) or if you’d like to expand your work into the field of abstracts.
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Expressive Oil Painting: An Open Air Approach to Creative Landscapes
Expressive Oil Painting: An Open Air Approach to Creative Landscapes, by George Allen Durkee is a good, instructional book for oil painters. Artists working with acrylics will learn great tips from it as well.
From the start, I was impressed. Instead of using the usual photos of art supplies as he talks about what he paints with, Durkee actually painted pictures of his art supplies.
That’s pretty cool.
Then, he lost me when he talked about objects being based on one of four shapes, or a combination of them: A cube, cone, sphere or cylinder.
I’d seen my mother feel constrained by that approach; she’d learned it in art school (Mass. College of Art) many years ago, and… well, that’s one reason why she didn’t want me to go to an art college. She didn’t want my creativity cramped by rules like that. So, that section of the book was an instant turn-off for me.
However, Durkee’s artwork is refreshing. His use of color is so free-thinking and vibrant, it’s almost at the fantasy level.
His tips and instructions are insightful and useful for landscape painters. For example, on page 50 he said, “… as the flat plane of land recedes, you see it through a thicker layer of moist air,” and “… receding hills become lighter and cooler with distance.”
This is the kind of information that will help any landscape painter identify the areas that he (or she) can improve.
All in all, I like this book. Though it’s not as exciting as some books I own, it’s a book I’ll refer to often, especially to develop my skills as a landscape painter.
Expressive Oil Painting: An Open Air Approach to Creative Landscapes by George Allen Durkee
Buy this book at Amazon.com
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