The outcome of this exercise were five watercolour paintings.

1)      Electronic Pop/Dance music – Faithless: Bombs (from the Album ‘To all new arrivals’)

2)      Electronic Pop/Dance music – Paul Kalkbrenner: Sky and Sand (Single)

3)      Jazz/Dance music – Metropolitan Jazz Affair: Moanin’ Darkness (from the Album ‘MJA’)

4)      Classical piano music – Edvard Grieg: Lyrical Pieces Collection, played by Emil Gilels

5)      The same music, later hearing

Assessment of my experience of working with music

I had been looking forward to this exercise because I love music and thought it must be very pleasant to paint while listening. But the practical side began with practical problems: My stereo is from Europe and doesn’t work with the lower US voltage, and I have no speakers for the PC. The PC alone has horrible sound quality. So I used headphones, attached with a long cable to the PC. The sound quality was good, but I felt disturbed by hanging on the line.

The second problem was the choice of music. I have some choice of music: popular/electronic/dance music, some jazz, some ethnic music, and also classical orchestral and piano music. My liking of the dance music is more a memory of liking music – at the time, I heard those pieces again and again and loved them, but now years later I have trouble listening because it gets on my nerves. With the other types of music it’s very mood-dependent, but actually I tend to hear no music at all because I’m typically working on something in full concentration and don’t like the distraction, besides knowing most of the pieces by heart already. I also usually don’t listen to the radio, because I prefer being in a quiet environment.

So I had some trouble selecting pieces I cound stand listening to and working on the paintings in parallel. I pre-selected a pack of 10 CDs of different types and wanted to choose from them after some initial listening. It turned out that from these, only one was later retained for painting because I simply couldn’t stand the others. So I switched strategy and just went through the collection on the PC. I started with an electropop/dance piece, then found another which was heavier on rhythm. Then came a piece of Jazz/Dance mix, and finally I made two paintings while listening to a classical piano recording.

Overall, I found working with music quite irritating because when I listen, this absorbs my concentration and painting at the same time becomes like dancing on the paper, guided by rhythm and the mix of sounds I perceive. This did not work very well with the technicalities of watercolour painting like having to dissolve a hardened piece of paint by rubbing the brush over it before the intensity is good for painting. The dance pieces also made it hard to focus on anything particular to paint and the watercolour sheet was full of paint in a few minutes. This changed a bit with the Jazz/Dance piece, where I chose watersoluble coloured pencil and graphite with which it takes longer to fill a page. I had more time to follow the swing of the music with my movements before the paper was covered with marks.

The character of the experience changed completely with the switch to piano music. The first painting reflects my irritation with the different style after being in the swing of the dance music then thrown into the soberness and brilliancy of classical solo piano music. I decided to make a second one with the same music after having listened for a while, and the second one is more in line with how I perceived the music. It was the ‘Lyrical Pieces’ by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, played by Emil Gilels. I always thought that this music was very orderly and clearly structured, but my paintings tell a different story and it made me perceive different qualities in the music. I realized that they must have been quite modern and disturbing at the time they were created, because they are very improvisational and atmospheric. I think the second painting looks a bit like a lawn with summer flowers on a bright day, and that’s how I perceived the music. The music also has darker and melancholic parts, they seem to be more prominent in the first painting.

I don’t think that working to music is currently an option for me, because I’m so disconnected from the musical world and have a hard time finding something I actually like to hear. This may change, because as said at the beginning, I like music a lot, and if I had something I wanted to hear, I’d certainly enjoy hearing it. But there are also the practical problems as mentioned. It might work better if I used a simple medium like graphite or charcoal because there wouldn’t be interruptions from having to prepare a brush with paint, but then I’d miss out the possibilities of colour in the painting altogether. So overall, I guess working with music is not for me at this time. Nevertheless, I found the experience interesting and would certainly be open to try again now and then.

I finished these paintings over two days and got along quite well. I did not select one of the suggested titles but tried to find my own themes. In all cases, I had a broad idea and a keyword for my painting, but the actual title developed while I was painting and trying to get to the core of the subject. All three paintings are 33 x 43 cm, landscape format.

The devastating virus (Ebola)

The first painting takes up a subject that concerns me since reports about the current Ebola outbreak appeared in the media. It’s not so much the fear of contracting the illness but rather a sense of horror when thinking about the effects of the virus on the human body.

I had mixed feelings whether I could allow myself to choose this topic and considered using a different title to mask what it was really about, out of respect and empathy with those who are ill or at risk. There is a notion of shame in my knowledge that I live in a relatively safe part of the world and can luxuriously paint something of which I have no real idea. But then again, the sense of concern and empathy for others is real for me, as is the scariness of the virus’ activity. So I decided to stay with the subject and hope it is not perceived as lacking respect.

I used black ink and a bamboo pen for the virus-like creatures and their tentacles and made additional tentacles in transparent wax. I continued with watercolours on wet paper by hitting the colour-loaded brush so it would make drops and splashes that would run into each other. The wax lines created an interesting barrier effect in some spots.

To me, the choice of media, technique and colours works well to convey the destructive work of the virus to turn healthy tissue into a bleeding mess. These drastic words correspond well to what I had in mind. But I’m also surprised about the aesthetic effect of the applied technique and wonder whether anyone would have so grave associations if I’d choose a more innocent title.

Sunny autumn day

This painting was inspired by my idea of the colourful autumn foliage in upstate New York. It’s an imaginary landscape with a postcard blue sky, a view on trees whose foliage is about to turn from green to yellow and red, and an earthy ground. It was painted in a wet in wet technique over some yellow oil pastel and transparent wax marks intended to create a glittery light effect.

I like how the colours run into each other and the technique is something I’d have wanted to explore much earlier, so this was a welcome late occasion. I’m less sure wether the image idea comes across, because the tree area also looks a bit like a burning wood. There is a lack of visual clues for the size of the trees and and the depth of field is unclear. My conclusion is that abstract landscape paintings would benefit if I had more practice with landscape painting. I’m quite sure that I’ll get back to the landscape subject again, I’m just having so many practical issues with making excursions that I keep postponing it.

Dental surgery

This may sound like an even weirder idea than that of the virus, but I chose this subject because it refers to a recent incident of very intense emotions of fear. I had to undergo a medical procedure involving all teeth and I experienced the minutes when I received the numbing injections as very painful and frightening. Making this painting brought back the emotions, and writing about it does so as well. Luckily the surgery went well, it was necessary and I’m glad it’s behind me!

What made me choose this topic was the memory for the intense feelings I had, and I wanted to try whether I could capture and convey them. The emotions are reflected in the way I painted. I started with the black lines using oil pastels. They were made in violent, rushing gestures and stand for those moments of consecutive painful injections. These were followed by feelings of dark numbness, interrupted by tinglings through the mouth when nerves responded to the Novocain, before they went numb. The tinglings are symbolized in the yellow broader oil pastel marks surrounding the center, made with equally forceful, quick gestures.

From a compositional point of view, there’s something like a center of pain, followed by numbness in the middle, surrounded by quieter, unaffected areas of both my body and my mind.

I think this painting works really well even without saying anything about the actual story behind it. There’s much energy conveyed in the black lines, and it’s quite disturbing, thus creating an interesting contrast to the abstract shapes and flow of colours. Maybe a less obvious, more abstract title to capture the essence would be ‘numbness and pain’, or ‘fear, numbness and pain’. But again there’s a striking contrast between the bright and exciting colours and the more or less horrific subject.

Some thoughts about free expression

What I particularly liked about this exercise was the freedom to choose my own subject, combined with the relief of not having to worry about resemblance with observed objects. It allowed me to concentrate on colour, on brush movements and on what happened on the paper. It was also naturally more open to an experimental approach. I’m realizing that I feel much more at ease with the abstract approach than with the observational approach, that’s quite interesting and highly appreciated experience.

I also see the correspondence of this exercise with using art as a therapeutic instrument. It was impressive how I was able to connect to lived emotions and how powerful these emotions still were.

Guided reflections

Did the title summon up images before you began?

Yes I think so. I started with searching for feelings/memories that would work and when I had decided on a topic then some imagery developed. It was quite faint and abstract, rather a quality/perception of visual movements than concreate objects.

Did the title suggest colour, line or shapes?

It wasn’t the title but the suggestions came when I immersed myself in memories and feelings associated with the title. This guided my pre-selection of colours and choice of media.

How did you progress with the painting?

I tried to stay focused on my subject and live through the associated emotions while painting. I also tried to let the emotions guide the gestures I made with the painting media.

Did one gesture lead to another or did you have clear idea of your intentions from the outset?

Some elements were clear at the outset, but then the painting developed gesture by gesture. In the virus painting, I started with the black spots and created the tentacles. The colour splashes then developed out of this. The autumn painting started with an idea for the blue sky, the burning foliage area and the earthy ground. The surgery painting began with an idea of lines or arrows and a central dark area. The coloured areas developed around this.

Are there figurative elements to your painting? If so, what?

Yes, there are the black virus elements and the black lines representing the injection needles.

What has influenced your painting?

The first painting took up imagery developed in the ‘Collage from random elements’ where I was inspired to draw ink tentacles out of the paper strips glued on the surface. I was very impressed by the sense of illness and morbidity it conveyed and apparently there was a need for me to get back to the topic.

The influences for the autumnn painting are more difficult to trace. Maybe it was the friendly sunny atmosphere that morning, where I looked at the potted plants outside which are now with green, yellow, red and brown leaves. It makes me think of the beautiful autumn foliage for which this area of the US is well known. I wish I’d be better organized and get myself out for a trip to actually see this, rather than just fantasizing about it!

The final painting might have been influenced by my research on Robert Delaunay the evening before. I was quite impressed by the colourful abstract paintings and remembered the paintings of rings and circles in bright intense colours. Before starting I went through more abstract ideas and was considering to make a painting in the style of Delaunay, but decided against it in favour of an emotionally more intense subject. I think the influence manifests itself in the intensity of the colours I painted.

This was an interesting exercise. As my topic for magnification, I choose a photograph from the trip to Greenwich, CT, which had been part of the themed collage and painting (previous exercise). I really liked the rock formation, and thought it was a good idea to work on this because it had been the weakest element in the earlier painting.

I started out with the original photograph in portrait format and then isolated a section of it which was in landscape format. The selection process was based on intuition. I searched for an interesting and balanced composition by looking at different sections of the large photo and finally sectioned out an area in the lower middle. This section of the photo was the basis for all subsequent studies.

I started with an observational drawing in my 23 x 30 cm sketchbook, using pencil and pastels for colouring.

Overall, I made 10 paintings in two series, the first series of 6 (34 x 48 cm) and the second series of 4 paintings (33 x 43 cm). I was tempted to follow the course materials’ suggestions on ways to produce abstract paintings, but I felt it would be more beneficial for me personally if I allowed myself to struggle and find my own way.

The first painting was an enlarged watercolour painting where I focused on similarity with the original, not yet on abstraction. I used oil pastels and watercolours for this one. The next 5 paintings were aimed at working out what I considered the essential elements of the composition: The shapes of the rocks, the white areas around them, the deep black shadows, and the patches of blueish sea water, green moss and brown seaweed. I alternated between transparent wax and white or light coloured oil pastels for the white dry areas. I tried out light green vs orange oil pastels for the moss, and tried to create a brownish organic texture for the seaweed. I used washes of Sepia or Payne’s grey over the oil pastel marks for the stones. I employed indian ink to achieve real black for the shadows which wouldn’t bleed when painted over with watercolours.

In these paintings, I tried to capture the fluorescent colour effect of the moss, the layered texture of the stones, and the separation of areas within the rocks through white dry lines. I recognized the similarity of the dark shadows with Chinese Calligraphy and tried to incorporate this into the painting. I also wanted to capture a feeling of transparency, fluency and depth for the water areas.

In this series, I think my attempts at abstraction were only moderately successful. I felt I was working too close to the original which hindered me to “go abstract”. I also felt that my concern with resemblance restricted the energy that was conveyed in the marks I made. I think I got about as far as I could with my chosen approach, but I wasn’t satisfied with the degree of abstraction I had achieved.

For the second series, I chose a slightly smaller paper format and allowed myself greater departures from the original. During reflections on the first series, I had recognized that I had different qualities in my composition: The organic (seaweed and moss), the anorganic (the rocks), and the fluid (water). I then tried to focus on these essentials and to work with more energy, less restriction in the subsequent paintings.

For the first painting, I deliberately chose colours and techniques to achieve the opposed effect to the essetials I had identified: I chose blue watercolour tones for the stones and applied them in a very fluid manner so they’d resemble more water than stone. By contrast, I chose red for the water patches and applied it so that it would look very flat and like a concrete surface. The textures for seaweed and moss were made with oil pastels and look quite soft. So the first painting of this series was quite a departure from realistic depiction.

In the next painting, I took up the idea of energy and movement and got back to the “white on white” resist technique explored earlier. I wanted to use this to convey more fluidity in my depiction of the rocks. I started with transparent wax, then made energetic oil pastel marks in orange for the moss and black for the seaweed. I worked over this with ink marks for the shadows and after drying, a wash of Payne’s grey for the rocks, and dark red for the moss.

I found the different areas in that painting not coherent enough and therefore in the following painting, made an experiment with washes and wet-on-wet over transparent wax. Unfortunately the wax became covered and did not protect white areas as I had intended, but I quite like the areas where the colours mixed on the paper.

For the final painting, I chose yellow oil pastels to indicate the lighter areas and the contours within the rocks, then laid washes “wet over moist”. This time I did not use ink because I found the deep black did not integrate so well, and used only watercolour to indicate moss and seaweed.

Over the course of these 10 paintings, I think there was indeed some progression towards abstraction and I’m satisfied that I ventured into finding my personal way of doing it. I like the energy in the yellow lines and the play of colour in the washes in the last painting and think some significant abstraction has taken place, compared to the initial paintings. I also like that this painting conveys the characteristic fluidity of a watercolour painting – as opposed to the first painting which looks more like an oil pastel drawing.

To summarize, I’m glad I took the challenge of working towards abstraction following my intuition and think it is an approach I could develop further in the future. It was an interesting experience that using several media began to feel quite natural, whereas a few weeks ago I had strong objections and a sense of awkwardness when combining watercolours with other media.

This exercise did not work well for me. I was very uncomfortable with the suggested process of using bits of photographs or studies for a collage and to use this as a starting point for a painting. The first problem was that the photos I had chosen were made with a zoom camera and thus my elements did not fit very well together in size.

The second problem was that once the collage was done, I tried to make a realistic painting and saw no way how the suggested working sequence might encourage me to work towards abstraction.

So the result is a loosely worked, mixed media painting of a seaside landscape. I used Jet black pencil for the underdrawing, then watercolours to block out my compositional areas with light tones as suggested, then used oil pastels as resist and to give some more structure, and finally reworked the painting with watercolour and white gouache.

Possible future applications

I was surprised and a bit disappointed how uncomfortable I actually was with the suggested process. I’d have thought that this is a very good way to develop a composition from a selection of photographs, and it would have been a great and convenient way for me to work, because I always have the time to take photos when I’m out but it’s much more difficult to sit down quiet and draw a sketch, a study or even a considered painting.

Actually I don’t know what went wrong and why I did not find a way towards abstraction. Maybe my image idea was too ambitious and I get along better if I use only a single photo and select just a section of it to study the abstract nature of what I see. After all, I’ve been working quite a lot from photos directly off the computer screen. A typical phenomenon is that I try to include everything in the picture, which is quite a pain as the photo includes so much detail, but only on a small scale.

The exercise leaves me relatively confused and doubtful of future applications of the technique.

I chose an 18 x 24 inch watercolour paper for this exercise, as A2 format isn’t available here… the sheet should be roughly the same size, maybe a little larger. For papers, I used a scrap bag of coloured Mulberry paper in all different colours. I sorted them by colour and then selected some green tones, blue tones, grey tones for muted colours and yellow, red and orange for some bright accents. I tore them apart into small pieces which gave a nice effect at the torn edges because that paper contains lots of longer fibers. I also prepared short bits of paper band and some brown craft paper for different shapes and textures.

I let these fall over the paper sheet on the floor colour by colour and obtained a nice and very arbitrary pattern. The trouble began when I tried to glue the pieces. I had layers of bits and wanted to glue them in the order they had fallen on the sheet, but this meant glueing those at the bottom first and so I had to lift up those on top – which swirled the entire heap and I lost the original patterns. Then the pva glue was a nightmare because it soaked through the paper bits onto my hands and made them so sticky that I hardly could fiddle the paper bits off to get them back onto the sheet. But after two hours or so, I had finally glued my composition on the sheet and found it looked quite interesting.

Maybe it would have been better to glue one colour before getting to the next, but I guess then I’d have lost a bit of the random character in the colours. But for practical reasons, I might do that if I repeat the exercise.

Assessing the pictorial qualities of the random composition

Are there colour combinations or juxtapositions that especially appeal to you?

I like the red and yellow-orange bits because they stand out as accents against the more muted colours, just as I intended them to be. I also like the pieces of paper band because of their different shapes which adds interest. Then there’s a degree of transparency where pieces are glued in layers which I think should correspond nicely to the transparency of watercolours.

The feathery torn edges versus cut edges and the fibers in the coloured papers add a nice textural element.

Are there areas of tonal contrast that are interesting?

The dark blue papers in the center create strong tonal contrasts with their adjacent bits, but also the red bits stand out quite dark against their respective backgrounds.

Are there elements of patterns emerging?

Yes, I think the composition has a center weight in the middle area of the sheet and from there it seems to explode to the outer edges. It looks quite energetic. But I think I will not work with this too straightforward, rather “slow down” a bit for a less violent overall effect.

Can you read in possible figurative elements?

Maybe a bird or a dancer.

Can you link up separate areas to make a more satisfying composition?

I think the current random composition is dense enough to permit multiple linkages of areas. The challenge will be to establish some of these to achieve an overall interesting result.

Completing the painting

I started with a light yellow watercolour wash for the upper area because I thougth this colour would match nicely with the colours of the glued paper bits there. As I moved downwards on the right side, I mixed in some red to work towards orange and red for the lower area. This was supposed to take up the orange coloured piece on the bottom and create a colour contrast to the blue papers of that area.

I began realizing that my washes could respond to the colours of my glued papers in different ways, and I tried a dark blue next to the center blue papers and from there added yellow to get into green which corresponded to the green papers to the middle left. From there, I added more yellow and thus met the starting colour in the upper middle area.

After a break I began with black ink for wiggly lines emanating from the tighter ends of the light green paper strips. I tried to maintain an intuitive working style with micro-movements and meandering pathways for the lines.

Again I needed a break where I just looked at the painting and let myself be inspired for the next media to add. I thought that my coloured accents needed some more weight and began working with oil pastel. Rather intuitively I began making wiggly marks that took up the fiber textures and extended over the boundaries of the coloured papers like tentacles. I wanted to intensify the colour effects and therefore tried to match the colour of the papers, plus adding a tonal variation, for example yellow and orange on a yellow paper.

At this point, the painting began to look quite scary to me. I had associations of fibrous growth and something very unhealthy. I was fascinated and repelled at the same time, but felt that I was doing the right thing because I responded to my own composition so far. I think it was the fibers of the mulberry paper that inspired me to do the wiggly ink lines and oil pastel marks. When I realized this, I was ready to take it a little further and worked out the oil pastel marks over most of the paper bits. Then I used ink to add even more wiggly lines to support and emphasize the oil pastel marks.

In another pause where I assessed the painting so far, I found there were too many “empty spaces” between the papers with their wiggly extensions, and I remembered I technique I had seen a while ago in paintings by watercolorist Sherly trevena. She uses watercolour pencils to scrape off some pigment over a wet area, which creates interesting speckles. I thought this would be the right thing for my painting and went ahead. Now my wiggly paper bits really came alive and they looked like little water creatures emanating particles while flowing through their space.

Taking another break, I thought that the painting was quite done, but somehow not yet finished, and I wasn’t sure what exactly was missing. I let the painting sit for an hour or so, them came back for the final assessment. Looking at it from a distance, my eyes wandered along the cut edges of the papers, and I found they would benefit from being brought out a little stronger. I really hesitated but then went ahead with more black ink and a piece of watercolour paper that I used as a ruler for straight lines. I emphasized some of the paper edges and found this added depth and a sense of purpose to the cut edges. It was very difficult to decide which edges to emphasize and how long to draw the lines. Not all my decisions were right but I think overall the lines were a good thing to add, because they provided additional structure and from this point on, my eyes had a sense of orientation when wandering over the picture surface. The lines seemed to support a visual exploration process for all the little things that happen in the different areas.

There was a moment rather at the beginning where I hesitated if I should take up the idea of a bird and connect my elements to form a bird-like shape. But I decided against that because I found it too literal and did not want to become concerned with resemblance. I think this was the right decision because it meant that the entire process stayed more open and experimental.

I think the final painting is quite successful and starting from my initial perception of something like an explosion, I think I have developed it into an “organic explosion”, something like a floating growth process. So in a way, I’ve accomplished the goal of creating something less violent than a typical explosion.

Working in such an abstract way was really interesting. There were moments where I found the painting ugly and asked myself why I never seemed to be able to create something “pleasant for the eye”. But I said to myself that this was about discovery and it was not important how pretty the outcome would be. I think by letting myself be guided by some intuitive notion of what the painting needed, there was a nice turnaround. It probably had to do with a change in approach from trying to conceal ugly parts to going forward and emphasize what I found in front of me. This somehow turned the ugly parts into something visually interesting and important for the entire composition.