Art is an act of destruction

Making Art is in essence a process of destruction! In effect changing one image to create another means destroying the previous image. One way to do this is to distressed/damage the painting which forms number 30 on my list of simple and interesting painting ideas. In this case I splashed household bleach over Marker pen and acrylic paints. The effects where both interesting and unexpected. The bleach did not behave quite the way that I had envisioned in some places it fully bleached the paint while in others it just altered the colour or had limited effect while on the marker pen it left a brown stain of varying degrees. 
 

#23 9 x 9 inches approximately 
Marker pen and acrylic paint painted on paper





                                     
       
#24 Ink and acrylic paint on paper   
9 x 9 inches approx, Mixed-media on paper



In the piece (#24) I used Marker pen, conté crayon, charcoal, acrylic paint, oil pastel and bleach. In the areas that I applied conté crayon or charcoal I found that these media did not adhere to the surface, remaining lose and unstable.  Like  #23 I had made a decision to distress the paint with bleach, which had some unexpected results. The bleach is difficult to control as the effects are uneven and varied but interesting and worthy of further investigation.

Note: the bleach not only affected surface but permeated through to up to 5 sheets of paper below altering the colour and texture of the paper itself.

please leave a valued comment which is always appreciated thank you!

Making abstract or modern art Fun interesting and diverse!

Making a list of 50 fun, simple and interesting art ideas started as a torrent of creative ideas, however things started to get more challenging as time went by and by the time I got to 42, I was struggling to keep the ideas fresh and unique. However I am confident that the list will continue to grow as I am still adding to it and examining a number of exciting ideas that are showing real promise. And have already made some obvious conclusions about the recording whole art project.

Publish often: make regular posts alongside a photos that have a direct value to the subject.
Study different styles and art movements: making short descriptions of the art movement and links.
Explain each piece:  how it was made, the media used and what was learnt or gained in the making of it...
Keep it simple: make my descriptions straightforward and rewarding as far as possible
Record the good the bad and the interesting: by concentrating on those pieces that offer the most interest or value 
By following these points, I should make it easy for me and better for you as even in the two weeks that this art project has been running I already have 30 pieces in this growing body of artwork. However, it is proving time consuming recording and writing about the successes and failures which is almost as important as the making of the abstract and modern artwork itself, as it is forcing me to consider and evaluate far more deeply than I had originally imagined. I have also have realised that this project offers clear benefits to artist, students or anyone with an interest in art. Sadly I recognize that to document every piece of artwork would be just too time consuming and in some cases pointless and have chosen to include only those pieces that present worthwhile interest or value to my mind.

This simple list of fun painting techniques, covers every sort of medium raging from acrylic paint, water colour, oil pastels, crayons, inks, mixed-media, film, photography, found objects, and even “Installations”. admittedly I understand that different subject are at times more suited to one media more than a another, but trying to use unusual medias will add to the interest and diversity throughout the project.

Along side the different media and techniques I have also considered exploring some modern art movement and styles that are both familiar or unfamiliar to me, along with a brief explanation and references for further study, adding to the value gained in the making art from this list...

Recording the failures and successful pieces of artwork along side those that I think add value to the body of work that this art project represents, offers a chance for others to develop and gain an appreciation of modern and abstract art however I fully understand that you might have more questions or require further explanation and I openly welcome any comments or suggestions you might have to the information or how make this site better or easer to navigate.