Skip to content

Posts tagged ‘abstract’

Apr 5

Loving Springtime

It’s been a while since I’ve posted but all for good reasons. I’ve been focusing on painting a new group of works for my upcoming feature exhibition at the Portland Art Gallery in Maine. Spring is finally in the air here in New Hampshire after a very cold and snowy winter. I love working in the wintertime as it offers more quiet time than other seasons of the year. This gives me a chance to review recent work and make plans for new directions. Some artists wing it and throw caution to the wind. Others take some time to figure out how recent work can be a springboard for upcoming artworks. I’m in that category working in sketchbooks and playing with color and techniques until I feel a fresh approach appearing. Then it’s time to come out of hibernation and get to work.

Lesson learned: Have a sketchbook continually being filled with both good and bad ideas.

Oct 7

2 Comments

Right to Left Side Changes Everything

‘Close By’, acrylic on canvas, 36×36, available now at Portland Art Gallery, Portland, Maine.

While recovering from right shoulder surgery I decided to continue working on my art…with my left hand. An awkward thing to do after primarily using my dominant right hand my whole life but I considered it a challenge as I worked to ‘loosen up’ my artmaking. I’ve tended to use clean edges with obvious texture in my work, crisp edges arrived at by frequently using a palette knife to lay down sharp edges. Now with use of only left arm for 6 plus weeks, and limited use of right arm for the past two months, I pushed my way through the awkwardness of left handedness to find ways to still make art but with a new sense of freedom. The piece above, ‘Close By’ was created with various mark-making tools and techniques that I could accomplish with my left–stamping, scratching through semi-wet layers, not worrying about accuracy but simply the gist of shapes with refreshed color palette. All in all a good experiment and now that I am on the mend with more use of right arm, I’ll still be using my left to be sure I stay loose with my upcoming works.

Lesson learned: Right and left are equally valuable. Click image below to be taken to my website.

Jul 23

A New Way

Working in a different way than I have been accustomed to is not as easy as you might think. Well-tuned moves and ideas can be difficult to adjust or change completely. In my case not using a drawing tool to rough out an idea is a dramatic change as I explore working without a plan. Using intuition rather than a set plan, even a rough one, is a change my mind is working to find its way around. The 8×8 collage shown here is a practice of pulling paper images together, selecting from them shapes, values and line to piece together something that I have never pre-thought out. My brain is still making the adjustment as it is easy to fall back on tried and true. Loving the idea of working in a more abstract way despite the stutter steps. See my recent work now at Portland Art Gallery in Portland Maine or Kennedy Gallery and framing in Portsmouth NH.

In the last couple of months I have been recuperating from rotator cuff surgery (going well so far). It has made it impossible to paint in large format until the tendon is fully repaired. I am working in a smaller format to explore ways that I might not have done before my surgery. All good things to come.

Lesson learned: Interruptions can be blessings in disguise.

Mar 2

Another Good Day

‘Another Good Day’, acrylic on canvas, 40″ x 60″, available now at Portland Art Gallery, Maine

A new studio has inspired me to create in a new way, a bit different from my recent work. My new space is much larger, with great lighting and plenty of space to breathe. Although I miss my small quaint studio space I have had since 2013, it will always be where I allowed myself to begin to make the art I’ve wanted to make. And now I’ll continue on that journey with more elbow room and excitement. NEW: I have an exhibition of new works coming up in April 2024! Opening reception is on Thursday, April 4th, 5-7pm. Please stop by and say hello, I’d love to meet you and speak with you about what you love about my work. Thank you, Ann

Lesson learned: Big light-filled dreams are possible.

Oct 16

2 Comments

Artmaking Anew

I’ve recently been shifting my artmaking to incorporate a way of making my art in a less planned way. This includes allowing a painting to unfold as I add color, line, solids and texture. Which is contrary to how I have frequently begun my work where I draw at least a thumbnail sketch of a design and then work with color and other marks. There was a bit of freedom in starting this way, as well as feeling unsure with not knowing where it was heading. This felt more like a freefall than freedom. In the end I did like how it evolved and will continue to explore this approach in the future.

#anntrainordomingue New Hampshire artist; messy, uncommon, friendly, contemporary art

Lesson learned: Try new things even if it feels wrong.

Apr 27

In the Changing Light

Visit Portland Art Gallery website to view all 15 new works. And please share! Thank you.

Aug 24

Fish Moon Light Days Reflections

Fish Moon Days, 24×48 on canvas, 2021. Available at Portland Art Gallery, Portland, Maine

The moon has a pull that I don’t understand in its entirety, but I still find it a fascinating detail to place in my work. Even adding another where it doesn’t make sense. Am I to use my creativity to reiterate and repeat reality? Or is it to reinvent/rework/recreate/renew a common image by imbuing it with fresh ways of looking, bringing another point of view for others to ponder? As in life, encouraging new ideas and new ways of looking at things can make all the difference. Hopefully shedding light and new joy.

Lesson learned: Keep making images that bring joy and hope.

Aug 29

2 Comments

Peace Still Matters

Amid the chaos in our lives due to the pandemic and all the daily events it has affected, it is still important to find a way to peace. To try to take each day as a gift to be opened and shared especially with someone who is finding it difficult to find peace. This detail of my artwork demonstrates a bit of chaos with spots of warm orange notes or peace. Hope you find yours.

Lesson learned: Just be still for a while.

Jul 1

A Painter’s Holiday

IMG_7304You missed a spot. Not what I want to hear when I thought the job was finished. But as a fine art painter, missing a spot can turn out to be a blessing in disguise.

At times in my thoroughness to completely finish a work I find I want to rework areas no matter if they are small or large. Just want to go in and tweak or wholesale change that line or edge or shift a color and modify a shape. It is a very tricky thing to do near the end of a painting process. So many aspects have already found a balance–not perfection–just a balance of color, shapes, textures, line and form. To ‘fix’ something after the major phase of developing a painting has passed can invite some real questions–can I match that color, what brush did I use to get that texture, why didn’t I see that earlier, why did I think that bold line looked good yesterday and not today? And many more.

IMG_7314If a painting has a problem ‘holiday’ of some sort, I take a holiday too, and wait a few days before ‘fixing/correcting/adjusting/leaving-it-alone’. My mind has so many things whirring around while painting–so many decisions being made at once–that getting back into that mindset I had while doing the original work is almost impossible. If I could it would help me make the right decisions to push this painting toward the finish line.

So taking a break to reevaluate the piece is my answer. Sometimes its as long as a lunch break or as long as a year. My sort of ‘time out’ for a piece as I determine whether it is ready for prime time or not. Or as in a few cases it has been returned to me unsold from a gallery  and I have a new chance to work out the holidays or paint it over if I believe it is just not good enough.

IMG_7561Lesson learned: Take your time when deciding how to improve your work. Sometimes a holiday is actually the uniqueness of a piece and doesn’t need fixing at all. Time will tell.

The finished painting is now available at Gallery Antonia in Chatham on Cape Cod. www.galleryantonia.com Working Days End, acrylic on canvas, 36×36.

Mar 24

6 Comments

Together on the Road

16471 Life Tapestry mixed media acryl fabr on canv 54x54 sm

Life Tapestry, 52×52, acrylic and fabric on canvas

Some artworks take on a life of their own where they are directing you instead of you directing them. This one is a perfect example. I thought I would do a large piece of a couple walking together toward the woods with light coming through tree branches. Probably using fairly realistic colors and imagery. As I was working my mind went toward a larger idea of ‘lifetime’ and how we all experience different things that add up to our unique experience in life.

I believe because I had been experimenting with fabrics for other works the idea of using the colored swatches at the left of this painting to suggest the colorful experiences of life crept into my psyche as I worked on this piece. It became a focal area and a complement to the verticality of the trees. I repeated colors into the tree branches to echo the swatches. The two figures are purposely secondary as their proportion to the bigness of their life is surprising. I hope we all get to feel that our lives have been well lived and well loved.

Lesson learned during this process, I need to talk with my work to find out how things are going. It’s probably not going where I thought at the beginning. And its ok.

« Older Entries
Ann Trainor Domingue art

Messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary landscape paintings inspired by the New England landscape

The Heartbeat of Haverhill

Good News from A Great City Haverhill, MA

Brain4Rent's Blog

Scanning the world through a marketer's eyes and sometimes just regular old human eyes.

Art Biz Success

Messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary landscape paintings inspired by the New England landscape

RedDotBlog

Messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary landscape paintings inspired by the New England landscape

Mary Byrom

Messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary landscape paintings inspired by the New England landscape

TODD BONITA'S ART BLOG

Messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary landscape paintings inspired by the New England landscape

Ann Trainor Domingue Art Blog

Insights about my messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary art

The Art Law Blog

Messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary landscape paintings inspired by the New England landscape

Urban Sketchers

Messy, uncommon, friendly contemporary landscape paintings inspired by the New England landscape