My Art: Painting for Aunt Suzy

Well, here's my latest painting. It is a belated Christmas present. I wanted to explore the blues & grays some more, using multiple canvases.

Although I really enjoy creating and painting, my current goal is to get to a place where I'm content with the finished product of my work. When I look at my paintings, all I ever see are the mistakes. I guess I have two options, get better at painting, or get better at designing it so that mistakes are less obvious.

My Art: The next steps...modern and abstract

Well, the next logical step in my artistic development was to go completely abstract. I also wanted to go bigger. All my prior paintings had been done on canvases that were smaller than a piece of paper. Thankfully, I had received some gift certificates for art supplies, so I bought a bunch of bigger canvases.

With a pile of canvases lying around, I also decided it would be interesting to try creating a multi-canvas piece (or two).

The most enlightening moment in my artistic career came while at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. I came across a piece by Piet Mondrian. It was so simple, just white boxes with a few boxes in the primary colors. It was inspiring. I decided to do my own take on his painting, by recreating it with multiple canvases.

My recreation vs the original Mondrian

 With this new found inspiration, I started developing my own style.

My Art: First Abstract Paintings (with a Greek twist)

After deciding to move away from realistic paintings, a couple things happened. For one, I enjoyed mixing paint directly on the canvas. Secondly, I was taking a Biblical Greek class. Well, the result of this is that I created a bunch of canvases that were essentially just backgrounds. I decided to add some of the Greek I learned. I also enjoyed adding shapes (circles, triangles, etc) and trees/vines.

"Sound"

"Hameen" (a nickname I was given...i.e. Ben-Hameen)

"Mind the Gap"

"Orangina"

"To Live"

"I Am the Vine"

"Do Not Fear"

"Thanks be to God" (Charis Series)

"I was found" (Charis series)

"I have been heard" (Charis series)

"I have been loved" (Charis series)

"I have been saved" (Charis series)

"I have been loved" (Charis series)

"The Word's Conclusion"

My Art: First Realistic Paintings

So, when I decided I wanted to use paint, I started to paint "real" things. I quickly realized that I'm not that good at making things look like things. I wanted painting to be something enjoyable. It wouldn't be that enjoyable if I felt the pressure of expectations to make a tree look like a real tree, etc. But, here are my initial attempts.

Here is my "Ode to Bob Ross"

Here is a "Stormy Sea and Tree"

"Sea at Sunset"

My Art: Construction Paper

So, when I first started to explore my artistic side, I went simple. Drawing on my experience with stained glass, I started with construction paper. I would choose 3 colors, cut up a bunch of pieces, then glue them together. I had one basic rule: try not to have two pieces of the same color touch. There was no planning ahead, it was very freeform. As a result, the ending shapes were very varied.