My Process

When I start a new purely abstract painting I always begin by choosing a color palette. If I see something that inspires me I’ll take a picture and then try to match the colors I see. Since I sometimes try several color combinations before deciding what I’ll go with, I just use scraps of paper for all my sample palettes. These palettes are my jumping off point and I may add or change colors as I go along.

When painting an abstract landscape, I picture the scene I’d like to capture and pull my colors choices from the palette that would naturally occur within that scene. But often I’ll exercise artistic license and step outside of conventional colors, and shapes when I’m moved to do so. I begin by painting my canvas black and allowing tiny slivers of the black to show through between the “pieces” or sections of paint.

If I want to give my painting extra texture, I’ll apply modeling paste medium to the canvas with palette knives before I start.

While a blank canvas is an invitation to all sorts of possibilities, sometimes it can be somewhat intimidating…that’s when I start making random marks to get something out on the canvas. Some of this initial layer may or may not show through in the final painting. But I think it just adds to the end result, either by the texture that comes through or any peeks of color that show in the final version. If my color palette consists of a lot of warm colors then I may make the initial underlayer a cool blue or green so that any little bits that show through add contrast and depth to the end result.