My Three year Old Can Do That – Abstract Art #9

The Art Lady – As Seen in Villager Magazine-by Arrachme #9

Have you ever heard these words, “My three-year-old could do that?” Possibly you might have even uttered the words yourself. Does abstract art takes skill or not? 

If you have been watching social media like Facebook – Meta, YouTube, or Tic Tok, you may have noticed an insurgence of what is being called abstract art. Sometimes the abstraction is focused on color, sometimes there are many shapes, some seem to be many marks on a surface. The paintings seem unfinished or not cohesive, hence the phrase, “My three-year-old could do that.” Yes, this is true for a lot of what is out there but let’s stop for a minute. In 1947 could the public has said the same about the painter Jackson Pollack. When he first appeared with his signature abstract expression, drippy house paint style, it must have been a shock!  Could the same thing have been said about Mark Rothko’s big squares of color, or William De Kooning’s disjointed blotches of color combined with unusual combinations of mediums? These people were abstract expressionists looking deep into their souls in the effort to express feeling and emotion on canvas. 

Is It Skill or Just Happy Accidents?

The fact that abstract painting takes much skill becomes apparent when artists try to duplicate these styles. It is no easy task. I guarantee that anyone that tries to replicate their art, will never utter the words, “I have no skill, so I will just become an abstractionist.” Completing abstracts is far more difficult than realism.  Why is this true? When we look at drawing realism, it is the act of copying a photo, or drawing an image then going through the process of filling in the color using various techniques. Hence, the statement, “It looks so real, or it looks exactly like the photo.” Various types of mediums can be used to do this from watercolor to oil. Abstraction is encapsulating ideas or feelings using various techniques and mediums. There is no limit to the mediums or combinations used.  The viewer as well as the artist has the freedom to experience the painting. My included painting, “Harvesting Echoes”, is non-objective art. It was influenced by my musician husband who told me that when he is deep into playing music, the notes turn into colors. He feels the music and plays by ear. This abstract painting of mine has been acknowledged by world organizations and exhibited internationally over three times. Can you identify the design principles- elements of fine art?  It now is owned and resides in one of our lovely neighbor’s homes.

It has not always been fashionable to be an artist but in this current time in history, it is. With the mass insurgence of people working from home, painting has soared to the top of the desired occupation list. They come from various backgrounds like politicians, actors, sports figures, and everyday people. Modern movies are being made with an artist or painter in the storyline.  Many news anchors are working from home. Have you noticed that the walls behind the commentators have revolving paintings?

So, what is happening?

This flood of artists, many abstract, may seem overwhelming but based on history, I promise that it is a good thing. Everything goes in cycles. After spending many years owning a successful Interior Design firm and school, I realized that I had to teach myself to see patterns and predict trends. A designer must buy their store samples up to a year in advance. If only current samples were bought, by the time the books arrived, the samples would be outdated. Setting the time aside to study history and apply it to the modern-day was critical.  Art plays a major role in interior design. The average person redecorates every seven years, not every year.

Hyperrealism, before the 1800s, was the only art that the salons would exhibit in Europe. The new impressionist artists wanted to paint their impressions of what they saw but were dismissed as not real artists.  In the early 1900s, the camera started to take hold in art. Impressionist painters were still using realism as subject matter with figures and landscapes but with blurred, loose edges. Photography was soon the go-to medium for realism.

The next period in history closely relates to where we are now. The abstract expressionists moved to New York finding work as realistic muralists but painting abstraction at home studios. They took feeling to a whole new level. This group of artists could paint art that was not only interesting to look at but engaged the audience, as well. The paintings did not necessarily have figures or any recognizable images. Non-objective art (void of realistic images) allowed the viewer to spend hours just being with the painting feeling and imagining. Mark Rothko and William De Kooning are a couple of my favorites from this era. Rothko said his goal was to bring forth so much emotion with his shapes and colors that the viewers would cry uncontrollably. They knew how to use techniques and rules, then experimented with breaking them. An example of this is when William De Kooning used water-based acrylics, mixed egg into oil, along with pure pigment oil paint on the same canvas. The similarity to today is that there is an extreme amount of experimentation being put forth by new people entering the art world. My included painting, “Wall Street”, uses similar methods as the admired William De Kooning. It has been acknowledged by an international client of the dealer that represents me.

So Why Is All This Good?

Right now, we are in a movement like the periods mentioned above. Thousands of people have entered the art world. Some are picking up a brush, some are using technology, some are creating marketing hoping to sell marketing programs or apps to the mass of artists that don’t quite understand the art world. Ultimately, painting takes passion and unrelenting focus. Nothing can replace daily hard work and dedication to creating.

The flood of artists into the market opens the door to an abundance of experimentation. It was during these abundant experimentation periods in history, as our current time, that Picasso reinvented an already existing technique into his version of Cubism. The adage, take something good and make it better applies. Evidence of what we have been discussing, art evolution, is a current form of digital art combined with traditional forms called Augmented Reality. This will come and go, as trends do. Another example that you may be familiar with is paint pouring. It was a new trend in the early 2020s then eventually became mainstream in the craft world.

So, we have determined that successful abstractionists use necessary elements such as harmony, balance, variation, gradation, rhythm. To the trained eye of someone that loves this category of art, these aspects are sought out. The most important part of abstract art is that the painting evokes the emotion or feeling that can bring the viewer to the present moment.