(un)consciously influenced

I’m working on a new painting and just did a search for an image by Edmund Tarbell. I adore his interiors especially the ones in which the floor is the focus of the entire foreground. While doing this search I came across this image by Degas–also a favorite artist of mine for his use of color and composition and evocation of intimacy. Note the resemblance to this small abstract painting I created last year during a month long challenge with my former studio mate, Aili Kurtis, to “flirt with abstraction”. My goals with this exercise were to lighten up my palette, get juicy with my paint and to look inward for imagery/symbols/form. Evidently, Degas was in where I was looking. I hadn’t seen the connection until just this moment.

These small scale abstracts were very difficult for me to do, maybe because I was trying to start with a blank canvas and find my own unique visual language without a prompt. I now know that I much prefer setting something down on the canvas and working that image into my own. Good lesson learned from the challenge. These looking inward paintings were very popular and only a few remain unsold. You can check them out here.

#abstractpaintings #lookinginward