Rain's Thursday Art Date: Abstract

Today we're once again meeting at Rain's for her Thursday Art Date.  This week, the theme is Abstract.

I'll begin with this abstract painting from 2014 that took two days to complete mostly because of the drying time between layers.  Don't you just love humidity?

The first layer was lavender and pearl white mixed together.  The next day I added the black acrylic, then sprayed areas with distilled water.  I love how the paint moved around once the water was applied.  I'm really happy with this abstract.  I called it "Running in Circles."

I realized I had a ton of these 365 collages I made in 2019 that included yellow as part of the collage or abstract. I decided it was time to recycle a few of them, since otherwise they will only collect dust.


An abstract called "Day on the Water."

I painted this abstract of the twin towers shortly before the first plane hit on September 11, 2001.  I called it "8:25 am EDT."

This is what I wrote when I first showed this abstract:

The title reflects the time a mere 20 minutes before the North Tower was hit by the hijacked passenger jet American Airlines Flight 11 on 9/11/2001.  It was a warm, cloudless day filled with hope and promise.  Twenty minutes later, many lives were forever changed.  I tried to show the positive of this day, hoping the memories aren't too painful for those of you who see this.

As I made this piece, I cried.  I cried when I loaded it onto blogger.  I've never had anything affect me so radically, even though I live nowhere near NYC.  I hope you don't cry when you see this.  It was created as a tribute, not out of sadness, but honor and remembrance.

I called this abstract tag "Tiptoe through the tulips."

Abstract 76.722

An index card I created in June, 2020.

This is an abstract I created in 2014 for T Stands For Tuesday.

For this abstract, I got out my watercolors and watercolor paper.  They are subtle colors, some I even combined to make new colors. I'm calling it "Dreamland" because the colors are so dreamy and soothing.  The size is 8" X 8" (20,32 cm X 20,32 cm).

For this abstract, I allowed my imagination to take over.   I called this "Cat Fight" because I saw two cats' ears in this piece.  Thankfully, Bleubeard was not one of the cats.  Size is 8" X 10" (20,32 cm X 25,4 cm).

In 2014, I purchased a fan brush and used it to create this.  I didn't care for it.  It just didn't live up to my expectations.  I think it was too hard to manipulate.  I kept cutting more and more of this abstract away until I thought I wasn't going to have anything I liked.  It is 5" X 10" (12,8 cm X 25,4 cm).  I was going for circles, but didn't get that many.  Because a name didn't come easily, I called this one "Untitled with Fan Brush."

I called this abstract "The Eye."  Is it my imagination, or do you see an eye, too?  The size is 8" X 10" (20,32 cm X 25,4 cm).
 
 Now let's switch gears.

Wichita State has an impressive collection of sculptures.  There are 76.  In my opinion, this is the jewel in the crown.  It is a Joan Miro.  It is titled Personnages Oiseaux or Bird People. 

As I noted when I first shared this, there's a story behind this original mosaic of Venetian glass and marbles, the only one of its kind.  First, it is the only piece like it that Miro ever created.  Second, he donated the design, while WSU students and private donors funded production which took five years to create and install.  It was completed in 1978.

In the early 2000s, this beauty was beginning to show its age.  In 2009, the museum decided that it needed to be repaired.  It took two years to determine the best way to achieve that, because it had to be studied before it could be removed from the side of the museum building.

This is a huge mosaic at 28 X 52 feet (8,53 X 15,85 meters). Each of the 88 panels was removed and taken to a restoration specialist.  It took five years to complete the restoration, which included developing and implementing new methods and practices specifically for this work, while staying true to Miro's original design.  In addition to the glass and marble restoration, the original particleboard backing of the tiles was removed and replaced with stainless steel to prevent deterioration.  This beauty was reinstalled in late 2016 and now shines much like it must have when it was first created.

For those of you unfamiliar with Miro, he was a Spanish painter, who also worked in sculpture and ceramics.  He was born in Barcelona.  He is most famous for surrealism and abstract art, both of which are evident in this installation. 

At the Wichita Art Museum, I found this abstract and fell in LOVE with it.  It is an abstract I can wrap my head around.

 I seem to be drawn to abstract art.

This and the abstract above were photographed on the same day at the Wichita Art Museum or WAM.

And finally, I added this right before I linked.  Blame it on Rain, because her drawing was what inspired this.

This is the image I used as my word of the year one year.  I would never have thought of it as an abstract, but I suspect it is.

All art created by me.  All photos taken by me.

Thank you beyond belief for visiting today.  I am truly grateful to you, my friends, followers, readers, and lurkers for taking time out of your day.  Bleubeard and I hope to also see you at Rain's Thursday Art Date, although Bleubeard feels I should stick to mixed media and leave abstracts to people who know what they're doing.   I bet he's surprised to see he got the last word today!