"I don't care for abstracts, yet I made four of them..." Topic

I don't usually care for abstract art. I think a few pieces are really incredible (I like some Picasso, some Dali, and a few others). But, for the most part, I find that a lot of it is just crap wrapped in attitude. Yet, last week, I was playing with some new digital painting software and actually created some of my own. The software is Twisted Brush and it, like Painter, is designed to mimic real-world media. You can pick different canvas types (paper, canvas, bamboo paper, wood) and paints/media (watercolor, oil, acrylic, pastel, crayon, and more). I used it during my lunch hours and created four pieces that wound up having a theme: the four seasons.

These were done strictly for play and enjoyment, but I thought a few of you might enjoy seeing them, so here they are:

Abstract Spring
picture

Abstract Indian Summer
picture

Abstract Autumnal Fractal Dance
picture

Abstract Winter Winds
picture

I loathe this sort art usually but yours aint bad at all. Now sneak into a gallery and replace study of the colour red (Red on red canvas) with one of those.

My favourite is the spring picture- that would look good in my conservatory- its just as good as a lot of stuff out there in art galleries/shops retailing around £200.00 GBP or so.

Try to resist the temptation to cut your ear off though:)

Thanks guys. As I said, I hate most abastract art because it's just pure B.S. (as I said, "crap wrapped in attitude"). Like Scurvy said: red on red? That's not artistic skill, it's salesmanship of crap.

tabby: Thanks. My favorite is the "Indian Summer" piece, but it was the Spring piece that inspired me to make another… then another… and so on.

I'm not sure abstraction is wrapped in attitude. In my view, abstraction focuses on personal interpretation. In contemporary art, you see a lot of art focused on ironic metaphor. The problem with metaphor is that it often involves a play on morals or a value judgment. Therefore, if you do not subscribe (or do subscribe) to that moral/value, then the art is all about attitude.

nycjadie, I don't mean to be rude, nor do I intend to dust off any of the vocabulary I picked up during my critical studies in college. I'm not saying that ALL abastract art about attitude, nor is it about morals or values. To be honest, I feel that is a very condescending attitude (not from you, per se, but from artists I've met) who contend that when their art fails it is because we mere mundanes :just don't get it."

It's not about that at all. What it IS about is simply this: Most of what passes for successful abstract art today is CRAP.

It is poorly executed without artistic ability by snotty little posers who are pretending to have talent and who have used their "attitude" to create a sense of style that convinces others of their worth. It's a scam and many pretentious, gullable idiots fall for it.

Now, there are GOOD abstract artists (some of the stuff from the Met toured here in Houston and I liked some of it). I recognize talent and skill in some of the material. Admitedly, I was looking at some of the best modern/abstract/impressionst art (Picasso, Dali, Monet, Sarat, Van Gough). These artists had skill and visions to break through our perceptions and evoke something new from the audience.

But most of the stuff I've seen in my life? Pure crap being churned out by somebody who, if the world were to judge their work fairly, would be back flipping burgers where they belong.

We will have to do a gallery tour one day Mr Mitchell. Somehow I think our combined scathing critique of crud passed of as art would be akin to a viking horde let loose in the vatican.