In February/March I took an online painting class at Woodmere Art Museum in Philadelphia, PA. The class was called BLENDING ABSTRACTION AND REPRESENTATION, and over 5 sessions our class explored the continuum between these two endpoints of a line. This set of classes is a continuation of the previous group with the same teacher and the same group of students.
The class was structured so that we worked on our individual artworks in our home studios while participating in discussions and vewing demonstrations by the teacher. I did quite a bit of work and I’ll be showing them to you over a few posts.
Thanks to my instructor, Lesa Chittenden Lim, and my classmates, for a good experience.
As I said in the previous post, our class assignment was to choose an emotion and depict it in a totally abstract way. I made some attempts in my sketchbook – and I wasn’t satisfied with them. To me, emotions are not paintable. Things, people, events, that evoke emotions, they are visible and can be depicted. That’s how I see things.
So I decided I would just paint in an abstract manner. My goal was to make nothing recognizable in the picture, just paint. This painting was done at the same time as the one in the previous post. Working on more than one picture at a time helps me keep from overworking/overthinking. Just paint!
Here is the second in this series. It is called “Heavy Circle” and is 11″ x 14″ on masonite.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
Woooooohooooo!!!! Love this! It’s a complex composition that works so well – and those COLORS – delicious!!! (I don’t understand the “depict a feeling in an abstract” thing either, but this painting makes me want to explore every part of it.) 👏👏♥️👏👏 Hang on – Philadelphia? I’m about 25 miles away. 🙃
Thank you. Color is everything! Yes, I live in a suburb of Philadelphia and Woodmere is very close for me (though of course for now we are on Zoom).
I think depicting an abstract emotion in a visual way would be incredibly challenging for me. I would not know where to start. I love what you created in response to that prompt. I especially like the use of the zesty, tropical colours to create that punch.
Thank you. I’m with you, I think the idea of painting out your emotions for me leads to the depiction of something concrete. That is just how I think.
I really like this. It seems very spiritual. (K)
Thank you. It’s not large, only 11 x 14, but somehow it has a presence. I like how this one turned out. I think it is the circle that makes me feel this way.
Circles are good.
Interesting assignment, all kinds of things could happen there! Heavy Circle says so much!
Thank you. I found I enjoyed doing these abstracts, which in the past had made me feel anxious and in a hurry to be finished (if I could even tell when I was finished). Somehow this worked out better this time.