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© 1998, 1999, WetCanvas! |
[ Home: ArtSchool Online: Watercolors: Abstracting from Nature ]
Abstracting From Nature
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© 1998, 1999, WetCanvas! |
| One of the ways you can abstract your subject matter is to simplify it into basic forms. When you look at the paintings below and the photos they are based on, you can see where I used simplification and stylization to distill basic shapes from complex subject matter. By doing this, it allows me to substitute nature's complexity with a more ordered complexity of my choosing (i.e.patterning). It works! | |
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After the Rain:
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Tag, You're it!
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Window View:
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| Ellen Fountain on Her Art: "I was born in Lewiston, Idaho and spent my first five years there. Our family then moved to the north fork of Moon Creek, a few miles from a small mining town (Kellogg) near Lake Coeur d'Alene. My work as a watercolor artist today has been enormously influenced by that move." | |
 Ellen
Fountain has been working primarily in watercolors since the
early 1970s. She has exhibited in over 100 invitational, solo
and juried shows, and has won over 4 dozen awards since 1982,
one third of which are national awards outside of her home state
of Arizona. She teaches workshops and classes in many locations,
and loves sharing her knowledge with others.Ellen is a contributing editor to Wetcanvas, and be reached via email at efountain@access1.net. For more information on Ellen and her wondrous watercolor works, visit her online studio at www.fountainstudio.com. |
Sometimes the simplest thing will
set off an idea. I saw reflections in a mud-puddle along side
the road, and from that photo (left) and some sketches, I developed
the painting at the right. It's one of the pieces from my Southwest
Series.
Can
you find the lizard on the rock in the photo at the left? He
was chasing another lizard I wasn't fast enough to get in the
photo, but their game of tag inspired the painting on the right
- a good example of abstracting, stylizing and simplifying forms.
The painting at the right began with the
photo on the left. A horrible photo, except that the cat shape
was so clear. A lot of imagination, abstraction, distortion of
space and arbitrary color turned it into a finished painting.