How to Create an Abstract Painting

You can create abstract art by making consecutive abstractions from a realistic rendering, but you can also start with pure design arranging your colors and shapes into an abstract pattern. They call the second method non-representational art. Even though the image is pure abstraction in this case, artists sometimes speak of their response to music or scenery or mood states.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. View Mondrian's abstractions of a tree. Note how he started with a recognizable tree but each painting in his series distills the image until he has a work of pure horizontality and verticality.

2. Look at Matisse's five Jeannette heads in a 20th century art textbook. See how he created a series of abstracted heads by distorting the image little by little.

3. Do your own series of abstractions. Start with a realistic portrayal of an object from nature. Then gradually work your way to an abstraction of the image with a series of paintings.

4. Emphasize the outstanding qualities of your object. If you're rendering a tall, thin man, exaggerate his height and his thinness until his attributes are completely abstracted.

5. Try a non-representational response to a slow jazz piece. Let your feelings go as you paint your response. Then build up surfaces until you have an abstract statement.

6. Try a collage from a photo. First, paste the major shapes down. Then paint into the shapes, distorting them, bringing out sharp contrasts and values until you have an abstract pattern you think captures the essence of your photo.

Resources

• Look at Mondrian's abstracted tree.