July 17th - Abstract Painting at the Sebastian River Art Club

Today, inspired by a lecture on Abstract Painting at the Sebastian River Art Club, I completed--well almost completed--this fun and fast painting.  I was a-slapping the paint on like it was on fire!  Didn't really know what I was doing, but just kept going, hoping it would turn out ok.  It's got lots of room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy with the technique.


Abstract Seascape on gallery-wrapped canvas, using acrylic paints and plastic grocery bags

 First I troweled acrylic paint in blues, blacks and white on the canvas using a palette knife.  Then very quickly I started ripping plastic bags and sticking them on "willy-nilly" to the wet paint, scrunching them as I went, trying to cover the whole canvas, including the sides.  After covering the sides I began slapping paint on top of the plastic bags, being more careful to create the storm cloud shapes, the water, and the glistening horizon, all the while painting very fast to keep up with the fast-drying acrylic paint.  I struggled a bit with the frayed edges of plastic, and began cutting the excess wherever it appeared.  Next time I will make the plastic gather in such a way that the water has horizontal waves, like the sky.  It was a lot of fun, and completed in less than an hour and a half.  I plan to take this to the next level. 

Judy Burgarella
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