I have begun teaching an abstract workshop for adults! This is a dream come true after many years of thinking about it. However there is a learning curve for me to get the desired results from the students. One obstacle is trying to explain how I developed from traditional representational art to non figurative abstraction. This process developed for me over many years and I want to give my students the experience in three short hours. I have come to the conclusion after teaching the workshops a few times that I need to develop two classes: one for artists with previous art experience who want to depart and explore new ways of art making and another class for beginners who have limited practice making art. The beginner class would explore the basic elements of design and mark making. I have done this one once before but I need to advertise the classes to two different audiences in the future.
Check out my new collection, "Touch of Earth", on Fine Art America. This work is from a new series where I am incorporating neutral colors into my palette while exploring line, shape and mark making. The many layers and delicate lines give each abstract piece a rich surface. Fine Art America offers prints in a variety of sizes and on many products. I think the weekender tote bag looks especially nice with my art. Please check it out!
This painting, Pink Notes, spoke to me in new ways. I find the process of collage so satisfying and an inventive way of working. I have been trying to bring that way of working into painting. This painting has some collage added to it and it has a history of layers but still retains some of it's initial thin washes. This is the first time I thought of shapes not just coming together to construct something but expanding apart and still relating to each other. I love finding those relationships and to me this is visually composing. I have very limited musical knowledge but this process and painting feels like visual music to me. Notes (or shapes) hanging in the air, expanding and leading to another.
Here are some closer pictures so that you can see these beach inspired paintings a little better. I love Golden acrylic mediums, they can alter the paint to be fluid, creamy, transparent or grainy. Perfect for capturing the feeling of the ocean.
I like the layering of these two new paintings and they look more mature or artsy. I think if they were anyone else's I would think they were cool. I personally would like the subject matter to be more feminine. These are of male face's probably because I have been drawing and doing studies of my sons' faces. When I start working without any preconceived ideas it is amazing how things I have drawn, read or thought appear. I guess I should draw some things that I want to paint later. I have a list of meaningful symbols that I would like to appear in my work. I started with one of them, a ladder, in a "Boy's Life". I also want the composition to be non-linear and dream-like as in the center of "A Boy's Life". I like how the face in "Listening to Living Music" is dimensional, expressive and layered. I wish I could love the entire paintings as much as I love one part. I'll keep going believing it is all going to come together.
www.carolbarber.com
Painting for the love of color, the joyous process of layering paint and the inspiration of the wonderful world around us. I have been an exhibiting artist since 2002.
