Abstract art is made in many different ways, its just as broad a statement as “paintings” or “songs.” Personally, I find inspiration in color itself. When I look at a blank canvas I don’t feel intimidated, I just get tired of the white. One of my largest paintings I started by thinning out pure orange paint and throwing it on the canvas, just tossing it on there to see what shape it made. My only diptych, so far, I started by making a butterfly print. You know those things you did in kindergarden where you put the paint on one side, fold the paper in half, and see what type of print you made? Well I had always wanted to do that with a painting, so I did.
One memorable painting started with the largest paintbrush I have and some thick, bright red paint. Just to be clear, I mean a paintbrush with the heft of a hammer and the width of a hairbrush. I had gotten that brush a few months before I started my paintings but couldn’t find a place to use it, it was unwieldy, threatening, and had no place in the finishing stages of a painting. But at the beginning? I slathered some paint over the top of the brush and swung my arm like I was swordfighting. Can you imagine? I only barely could, that’s why I had to try it.
Blank canvasses are a place to try something new, something that you have no control over because you’ve never used it before. In my way of working, this makes a lot of sense because I build from the shapes and colors on my canvas. So to start, I just have to throw something down, and more often than not that is exactly what I do.