New Abstract Painting: Byzantine Blues

Byzantine Blues - Lynda Lehmann c 2011

"Byzantine Blues" is one of my recent series of small paintings, just 11 x 14 inches.  It's one of those paintings whose name seemed to arise out of the ether as I finished it.  While my title does not really fit the definition of Byzantine, I still like it for this work.  Since it's my painting, I guess I can call it whatever I wish!  One of the added joys of making art is the freedom to associate ones image with words and name it thus. That is, to see an image in your own unique way.  

The viewer too, is called upon to see whatever he or she wishes, and that is the freedom that is inherent in the ambiguity and mystery of abstract art.  Although the bottom line is that titles are not at all necessary to the visual experience, especially of abstraction, and may even detract from the viewer's freedom to see it in his or her own way.
Dictionary.com defines "Byzantine" as follows:
4.  Fine Arts . pertaining to or designating the style of the fine or decorative arts developed and elaborated in the Byzantine Empire  and its provinces: characterized chiefly by an ecclesiastically prescribed iconography, highly formal structure, severe confinement of pictorial space to a shallow depth, and the use of rich, often sumptuous color.
You can see that this painting does not resemble the "ecclesiastically prescribed iconography," of Byzantine Art at all, although the confinement of pictorial space to a shallow depth and the use of rich color, may apply.  You can read more about the Byzantine Empire at Wiki.  
Why have I just written several paragraphs to outline why my title doesn't really fit my image? The answer is that creative process is messy.  It doesn't conform to the parameters of logic or conscious thought. It's not rational. And that's what makes the journey interesting.
Although I appreciate the beautifully rendered realism of masters such as Da Vinci or John Singer Sargent, my preferred style of painting is abstract.  What is your favorite style, when it comes to making or appreciating art?

All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my primary site at http://www.lyndalehmann.com/gallery if you would like to see my acrylic paintings and more of my photography and digital art. I hope you enjoyed your visit to my blog!

Ponderosity: From My New Series of Small Abstract Expressionist Paintings

Ponderosity - Lynda Lehmann c 2011

An artist friend recently told me that she likes my black and white paintings and I had to ponder on the appeal of black and white.  

I've always loved design and I think painting in black and white gives a very graphic allure and perhaps a stronger design/compositional sense than using color.  Using color most often makes the color the "truth" of the painting, at least for those of us whose wild color-love becomes unleashed when we dip our brushes (or other tools) into lush pigments.
This small painting on gallery-wrapped canvas measures 11 by 14 inches, and except for a few linear brush strokes applied at the end, was done with a palette knife. 
According to Dictionary.com "ponderosity" is a related form of "ponderous," an adjective which means:

1.

of great weight; heavy; massive.

2.

awkward or unwieldy: He carried a ponderous burden on hisback.

3.

dull and labored: a ponderous dissertation.

Here's wishing you an artful day.  May nothing too ponderous come your way!
Note:  I'm aware that I have a code glitch or two on my page, and I'll eventually figure out how to fix it!
All images and text on this blog are copyrighted material, and may be used only with written permission, except where syndication rights have been granted. All other rights reserved. Please visit my primary site at http://www.lyndalehmann.com/gallery if you would like to see my acrylic paintings and more of my photography and digital art. I hope you enjoyed your visit to my blog!

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A Ballet of Blossoms

Peachy Petals - Lynda Lehmann c 2009

Watch the petals of irises sway, billow and gently gesture in the breeze. It's like watching a ballet: the dance of sweet spring air over translucent sheaths of brilliant color, orchestrated interplay of air, color, and light....

Irises may be my favorite flower, for their intricate, sculptural forms, whose graceful spatial relationships flourish in 3-D. I think they're much more interesting than tulips, for example, whose colors are just as beautiful but whose petals form a more symmetric and predictable, cup-like structure. As with the process when I paint, I enjoy variety and a few surprises!

The closer I move with my eye or my view through the camera, the more I see of the fantastic architecture of the flower kingdom.

What's your favorite flower?

All images and text c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

My Latest Abstract Acrylic Painting: "Island Interlude"

Island Interlude - c 2010 Lynda Lehmann

I dance with my brushes until something happens. What happens is that colors and shapes interact to please my eyes. Some friends and relatives keep telling me to paint realism, because "that's what sells." But I don't paint for money; I paint for the love of it. I feel great joy each time a new visual experience is born, and I would not give up my excitement for anything. It's our passions that make life worth living. Of course, I do love a good sale!

What are some of your passions, that you couldn't live without? Besides pasta and coffee and chocolate, this is....

NOTE: I call this painting "Island Interlude," simply because I have to give my pieces a title. You will find in it, whatever you find in it. To me, it has a Caribbean feel. It's 14 x 20 inches, done in acrylic on Arches watercolor paper. I'm beginning a series of paintings on watercolor paper because of the cost of canvases. The heavy Arches paper takes the paint quite well and because of my savings, I can afford to sell these paintings at a lower price.

Image and text copyright Lynda Lehmann. All rights reserved.

If you would like to view my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

Presentiment: A Fractal Composition

Presentiment - c 2009 Lynda Lehmann

This is an active and gestural fractal flame, begun in Apophysis and processed in Photoshop. I know nothing about Apophysis, and I don't know how much I'll actually learn in the coming months. But I do love experimenting with it.

Fractals are enigmatic. As organic, flowing, and spontaneous as they may look, they are based on mathematical formulae. It's the same kind of mathematical underpinning that gives our universe order and elegance. So indeed, looking deep into the heart of fractals is like a glimpse into the heart of the cosmos. I'm all for feeling mystical....

If anyone has suggestions for free fractal programs or shareware, I'm all ears. Apophysis is free, so you can download it if you want to try it out. I'm not sure what the newest version might be. I downloaded this one is about three years ago, and have experimented with it a handful of times.

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend. We're making our own sunshine here, because it's dreary and gray outside. Not to mention "raw." But spring is only a month away!

All images and text c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

"Colliding Orbs," My New Abstract Expressionist Painting

This is my latest acrylic painting. It's 24 x 36 inches, and titled "Colliding Orbs." I was going to call it "A Stitch in Time" because it reminded me of agitated clocks and a vision of time run amuck, which might have been a more fitting title when considering the chaos in our world. What do you think?

When I paint, I'm after the physical, kinesthetic experience of moving around a surface and applying pigment to it, and watching what evolves. It's like a mad dance or ritual color-celebration, in which I pursue a new visual experience. I'm not trying to replicate anything from our everyday world, but rather, to immerse myself in a novel sensory experience that will yield an equally unpredictable product with its own life and totality. It's this evolving and dynamic process of finding color, composition, and form in new arrangements, that gives me excitement and makes my days interesting.

Wikipedia defines Abstract Expressionism as:

Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and also the one that put New York City at the center of the art world, a role formerly filled by Paris. Although the term "abstract expressionism" was first applied to American art in 1946 by the art critic Robert Coates, it had been first used in Germany in 1919 in the magazine Der Sturm, regarding German Expressionism. In the USA, Alfred Barr was the first to use this term in 1929 in relation to works by Wassily Kandinsky.[1]

Technically, an important predecessor is surrealism, with its emphasis on spontaneous, automatic or subconscious creation. Jackson Pollock's dripping paint onto a canvas laid on the floor is a technique that has its roots in the work of Max Ernst. Another important early manifestation of what came to be abstract expressionism is the work of American Northwest artist Mark Tobey, especially his "white writing" canvases, which, though generally not large in scale, anticipate the "all over" look of Pollock's drip paintings.

The movement's name is derived from the combination of the emotional intensity and self-denial of the German Expressionists with the anti-figurative aesthetic of the European abstract schools such as Futurism, the Bauhaus and Synthetic Cubism. Additionally, it has an image of being rebellious, anarchic, highly idiosyncratic and, some feel, rather nihilistic.[2] In practice, the term is applied to any number of artists working (mostly) in New York who had quite different styles, and even applied to work which is not especially abstract nor expressionist. Pollock's energetic "action paintings", with their "busy" feel are different, both technically and aesthetically, to the violent and grotesque Women series of Willem de Kooning (which are figurative paintings) and to the rectangles of color in Mark Rothko's Color Field paintings (which is not what would usually be called expressionist and which Rothko denied was abstract), yet all three are classified as abstract expressionists.

Abstract expressionism has many stylistic similarities to the Russian artists of the early twentieth century such as Wassily Kandinsky. Although it is true that spontaneity or the impression of spontaneity characterized many of the abstract expressionists works, most of these paintings involved careful planning, especially since their large size demanded it. With artists like Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Emma Kunz, and later on Rothko, Barnett Newman and Agnes Martin, abstract art clearly implied expression of ideas concerning the spiritual, the unconscious and the mind.[3]

I'm one of those people who finds fascination in the spiritual and subconscious aspects of art-making. I paint for the love of it, and I try to leave the critical adult behind me in favor of joy. For me, the joy of painting evokes the childhood happiness of free expression, exploration, and spontaneity. It provides the stimulation and excitement of a unique experience. In this case, THE VISUAL EXPERIENCE. I have capitalized this phrase because it so succinctly defines my goal and describes the gratification I feel in the process of putting pigment on canvas.

How do you feel about Abstract Expressionism or about abstract art in general? Does it excite your eye and resonate for you? Who are your favorite artists, abstract or otherwise?

Detail of "Colliding Orbs - Image c Lynda Lehmann

Image and text c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can choose from several sizes and paper types or buy my prints plain or matted and framed. >

Blue Genesis, The Texture of Life, Damariscotta Dream

A few of my friends have asked me how I manage to paint when we are in Maine, working on the house. So I'll tell you that I paint at the top of the garage, where I have no running water. I have to carry it across the street and up a LONG flight of stairs in containers, and use it sparingly to rinse my brushes, seen here. Often I leave them soaking and keep my fingers crossed that they won't mold or rot before I can use them again. It's inconvenient. But hey, where there's a will, there's a way!

Here are a few of my recent paintings. I've done ten of them in the past few weeks. Which was a good thing--I had not touched brush and pigment for the past four months, as that big ole' train called "life" kept coming at me with other things!

Blue Genesis - Image c 2008 Lynda Lehmann

Damariscotta Dream - Image c 2008 Lynda Lehmann

The Texture of Life - Image c 20008 Lynda Lehmann

The Texture of Life has been loaded for the SAATCHI SHOWDOWN round that ends on September 29, so there are just two days left to vote. I meant to post this sooner, but it got away from me. http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=165621

A great big THANK YOU to my blogging friends for your comments, and for sharing your thoughts and interests on your blogs!

Images c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind, where you can buy my prints plain or matted and framed.

"Untitled Gray" Entered for Saatchi Showdown Vote!

I've entered "Untitled Gray" in the SAATCHI SHOWDOWN round that runs this week, from May 19 - 26. Can you please take a minute to give my painting your vote? Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to vote in the past.

On most days, the site loads quite fast, and the voting takes just a second! Thanks again for your support! Wishing you all a productive week and sunny skies.

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=139563

Image c Lynda Lehmann. If you would like to view more of my art or make a purchase, please visit Lynda Lehmann Painting and Photography or my gallery at Imagekind .

Monkey Business

Monkey Business - c 2008 Lynda Lehmann

I've done several new paintings in the past week, hoping to have more work for my upcoming show. I had great fun with this one, and that's probably somewhat obvious to you in looking at it. It's 24 x 36 inches, painted in acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas. It's very colorful and full of gesture and motion, but my eye is usually comfortable with chaotic compositions. This one is somewhat surreal and musical, with an organic feeling to it. I'm not quite sure whether the bottom right corner is finished. It's seems a bit empty to me, as if it's calling for a little more articulation of the detail there.

Another problem for me is that at times I prefer this as a vertical composition, and other times I prefer it on the horizontal. This is a mystery to me, as I usually have a strong preference one way or the other. How do you like it best?

I'll try to post a few more of my new works before my show, and later on, photos of the Opening. Thanks for your input and support! I wish you a creative and fulfilling weekend!

Saatchi Showdown - Please Vote on My Painting!

Here is my bid for shameless self-promotion! Please take just one minute and vote for my painting at Saatchi Gallery's Showdown. I will be forever grateful. (well, maybe not forever...)

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=99900

If you like my painting you can give it a 10. If you don't like it, you can give it the boot with a "1" rating! It's your judgement call!

I know you're all very busy, as Thanksgiving is almost upon us, so I doubly appreciate your support! Have an enjoyable holiday, everyone!

Lakewind at Twilight

A recollection of the sweet, serene magic of the twilight hour on a placid lake--the whole world a panorama of brilliant color and the play of a gentle breeze echoing the motion of the water.


Image c 2007 Lynda Lehmann. Acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas, 30 x 40 inches. Available at www.lyndalehmann.com .

Peacock Elegy

Of course, when you look at an abstract painting you can take whatever you want from it. The interpretation is yours to make. I think about our ailing planet a lot, and that's how this title probably surfaced in my mind. If you want to help preserve biodiversity like I do, and you know that the presence of squirrels and Blue Jays or Robins in your yard does not mean we are not losing precious species every day, why not check out the action alerts of some of the reliable environmental groups. I have some posted in the sidebar on this page. Let's all be part of the solution!

This flowing abstract expressionist painting is done in acrylic in shades of blue, mauve, purple, and orange, 36 x 48 inches on gallery-wrapped canvas, with an Oriental look. It reminds me of a tapestry. Image c 2007 Lynda Lehmann. "Peacock Elegy" is available at www.LyndaLehmann.com