Process: Acrylic Abstract Expressionist Painting

I started my abstract expressionist painting by adding long, gestural charcoal marks that I used as a template for later painting. I originally thought of a city as I began to build up values and hues, but by the end of the first day, the painting didn't feel unified on account of the wide variety and number of distinct forms. From there, I tried to bring unity back to the piece by extending colors from their original forms and blending them together. At this stage, I saw the difficulty in finding the identity of a painting, only to lose it and find it again. Even after unifying the piece to a greater extent, many colors didn't seem to fit the overall vibe, and the painting was far from complete.

When I came back to work on the painting two days later, I decided that the smooth, clean blending of colors was just too homogenous, so I decided to focus on my brush strokes. I eventually developed a small, loose brushstroke that felt almost impressionist. I didn't hate it, so I continued expanding this brushwork systematically throughout the piece, ensuring that some areas were still smoothly blended to provide enough contrast.

As I finished up the piece, I tried to add more negative space using an off-white to add more interest and variety. I continued to use the same brushstrokes, but in retrospect, this addition of negative space largely framed the painting in a rather basic manner, enclosing it on the four corners of the canvas. I didn't particularly notice it when I finished the painting, mainly because I had finally painted something that I was happy with, but in retrospect, this framing lessens the originality of the piece. In the future, I plan on staying attuned to such framing to ensure that I do not accidentally incorporate it into another work of art.