Watercolor Abstraction at the Art Show at Miscoe EXPO
Abstract art enables the artist to perceive beyond the tangible, to extract the infinite out of the finite. It is the emancipation of the mind. It is an exploration into unknown areas. ― Arshile Gorky
For the past few weeks, my sixth grade students have been working on watercolor still life arrangements abstracted through contour continuation.
Grace Joseph – This abstraction was made at first by looking at the still life. I drew the still life onto my water color paper and then did my contour continuation. After the countour continuation I started to water color each segment of the abstraction. I used warm colors for the still life and cool colors for the background. After I was done with the water coloring I went over the lines with a black sharpie. I think that my abstraction came out okay. I think that it could have been better with staying in the lines with the water color.
They began by sketching a still life positioned in the middle of the table, while observing light, shadow, and form in their sketchbooks. We had explored ellipses just before undertaking this assignment, and this was a great chance to employ that knowledge.
Still life
They then made another sketch, drawing just the contour of the objects and continuing the contour lines beyond the outline of the objects to fracture the picture plane. This was a big jump.
When painting, to differentiate the objects from the background, students applied warm or cool colors to the objects and the opposite to the background. The final step was to go over all the contour lines with black Sharpie. The artists then took a photograph of the painting and uploaded it to Artsonia, where they also added an Artist Statement.
Jessica Clemons – To create this abstraction, I started off by closely observing the still life in front of me. I notice the overlaps and heights, placements and size of each individual object. I then drew what I saw, making sure to represent the appereance of some objects being farther away from others. After I finished that, I used contour continuation, stretching lines from each corner of the objects, and every corner after that, then I was ready to paint. I chose to paint the objects the warm colors, and the background the cool colors. The last step was going in and tracing every pencil line with sharpie, making it look bolder and better. I am very pleased at how this came out and I was to do it again, I was be more careful with the paints, and realize that I had much more time.Kyle Miller – I think it came out pretty decent. I would do warm colors as the shapes. I could do cool colors as the backgroundHayden Gleason – The process I used to make this artwork was still life first because I copied down the objects on the paper. Second, I did abstraction because I drew the objects. Third, I used contour continuation to draw the lines out randomly. Fourth, I used the warm and cool colors. I feel it came out really good. I might go over the colors again because some are dull.Jocelyn Graham – The process I used to make this artwork is first I drew the still life. Second I did contour continuations to make many lines. Third I water color painted the still life with warm colors and the background with cool colors. Fourthly I used a sharpie to draw on the contour lines to finish the abstract art. I think that the art I made came out pretty well. If I were to do this again what I would do differently is I would make it so there is less white space.Kayla Vallecillo – I feel great about my still-life abstraction, the contour continuation is complex as well as simple, and the colors are vivid and bright. If I could do this project again, I would make less lines in the contour continuation. I would also add less water to the brush so that the colors don’t sleep into eachother. I liked hot the painting had warm colors for the objects and cool colors for the background. It attracts attention to the objects, and overall I enjoy the final product.Kayla Aubut – To make this piece, first I drew the shapes, then I used contour continuation to continue the lines to the end of the paper. Then I filled the shapes with water color (the objects where cool colors and the outside was warm colors). Finally, I sharpied the lines. I do like the end product, but I wish it was less blended. I would have painted the squares separately, because the colors bled into each other.Harmony Melendez-Torres: I think my artwork came out really well. If I were to do it again I would draw the objects larger. I had decided to use cool colors for the still life and warm colors for the background because most people decided to do it the other way around, so I did the opposite for it to be different. I think I did a pretty good job with my contour lines and abstraction.
This artwork and so much more will be on display at the Art Show at the Miscoe EXPO on Wednesday, April 10 from 6-8pm.
