06/08/25

How I Create

Do without doing

Paint without painting

I am an undeclared Taoist at heart. When I am painting at my best, I first calm my mind with a short meditation, trying to focus on the great oneness of all. I layout my mixing palette, with white down the center and colors on the side. I have a palette for large mixes of paint next to it.

I clear all thoughts of what I will paint, what colors I will use, and what design I want. All musing on what might sell, what do people like, and even what I like or are comfortable with, are banished. My training and art knowledge are sent to the back of my mind. That information is part of me at this point and will emerge when I need it.

I chose a brush, pick up a color, and start to create. I know without a doubt that the painting is already there. I cannot see it, but I am confident it will reveal itself as I paint. Sometimes it emerges slowly. Sometimes it, or portions of it, will burst out in a flash, and I need to step back to absorb it all. As I work, I react to what has already shown up on the canvas. My next color and brush are chosen, and paint is applied, barely thinking about it. There is nothing for me to choose.  It is there, waiting. I work fast or slow, kind of in a pre-ordained rhythm. To me, it is almost trance-like, brushes moving by themselves, shapes and the design materializing in front of me. I sometimes wonder if any thoughts are even going through my head (my wife would say no). Sometimes it is hard to stop, but large paintings take time.  Each session goes through the same process, and the painting does not abandon me, but always, inevitably, shows back up. Finally, from the void, where all things exist, a new work of art is made visible.

Learn things well. Make them a part of you and then forget them. That is the path to true creativity.

09/10/25

NON-OBJECTIVE PAINTING (MY ART) VS ABSTRACT PAINTING

I consider myself a Non-Objective painter and not an Abstract painter. Is there a difference between the two? These are my thoughts and definitions on the subject.

When painters like Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, and many others started to question the purpose of art, they always took as their inspiration real objects and reduced them to intrinsic form. In other words, people, landscapes, and still-life objects were still used by the artists as the basis of their paintings. The real-life objects were abstracted. The painters used those shapes to construct compositions but were much freer in their use of the visual elements, such as color, shape, and line. These types of painters, with their compositional subjects still based on real objects, gradually became known as Abstract artists. That name is now synonymous with any art that does not try to imitate reality.

As we entered the modern era, artists were able to free themselves from the picture-making view of art and become something more akin to visual composers. They realized that beautiful and meaningful paintings did not require a link to a real object and could be composed solely using the visual elements. Just as a musical composer uses the audio elements of rhythm, harmony, tonality, tempo, and dynamics, the artist uses the visual elements of line, color, shape, value, and texture to create their compositions. These artists become known as Non-objective painters.

Non-objective paintings are created in a wide range of individual styles, ranging from meticulously planned to ones completely spontaneous. My work is in the spontaneous category, and I create my paintings relying on my skills in composing the visual elements. Because my work is primarily improvisation, I often compare my process to a jazz musician. I develop my compositions, reacting to and based upon what I have already painted. I try to develop passages within the painting and then knit them all together into a final composition.

So, to me, the big difference between abstract and non-objective art is the non-reliance of the latter on a subject link to real objects.