Having Fun With Acrylic Paint!

Like most artists who begin their painting careers, I initially focused on the absolute basics. How to draw, learn perspectives, understand light and shadows, and seemingly a hundred other important techniques and methods.

Along that journey, the advice I received from other artists seemed to have a few key themes, one of which was to try out different styles. Don't just do one type of painting, they would say. The conversation went along the way, I don't know what I enjoy and feel passionate about if I don't experiment. Focusing too early might prevent me from my true calling.

I'm always up for a challenge so with a brush in hand over the last few years, I've tried a lot of things. I didn't expect to be good at any of it and with my bar set low, I met my expectations! Despite the frustrations and lots of lousy paintings, I enjoyed the process of learning and occasionally doing something I thought was half-decent. But it is true when you support an artist by buying their work, you are not just paying for materials and their time, you are supporting them and the countless hours of work, trial and error, and projects that failed over a long time.

For me, I've found that I keep migrating back to both an impressionist style and an abstract style. I don't think these two styles have much in common although I've been in art shows where I saw what I considered true impressionist paintings entered into an abstract category. I'm sure I have more to learn about the art world. And I'm sure like many genres (of any form) there are sub-categories and if you don't know what I mean, take a look at the movie categories that Netflix uses, there must be hundreds!

So in these last several months, I decided to focus on my abstract paintings and I'm enjoying it. If you are reading this blog, then you know that my website only has my abstract paintings for sale. And I do a few variations of abstract including geometric, textured, and what do you know, impressionist! Who knew there was such a thing!

Two months ago, I just happened to read something about another artist who described what she was doing as abstract impressionism and I realized that is what I was doing, I just didn't know it had a specific name. Then the real clincher happened just last week. I was helping to hang paintings in a new art show that is going to be on through the end of the year. Of course, I had entered 3 of my paintings. The lady I was working with (the person curating the exhibit) saw my paintings and said "what beautiful abstract impressionist work you've done."  I had to smile to myself.

So while I am secretly still painting a few true impressionist paintings but not sharing them publicly as well as going full speed ahead with my abstract work, I've realized I must be a "two-timer". I'm not able to commit myself 100% to only 1 style (at least not yet) but I'm so happy that there is a category that my abstract work fits into that allows sort of a combination.

Just for fun, here is a "true impressionist" painting I finished up recently:

                                                                                                 Marina Dunes

Thanks for reading along and learning about my discoveries. Please check out my website for some wonderful abstract paintings that are for sale.