Abstract Expressionist Art

Its raining so I thought I would work on my personal sketch book for a while. I've enjoyed putting together sketch books since I started at the college, and find that they are a very useful resource for my continued learning. There isn't any pressure involved with this sketch book, its just a random book of art and photographs with daily emotions and feelings stuck on the pages. Today its Abstract Expressionist art, yesterday it was Child's Play, the day before I was philosophising about the nature of "being all that you can be," tomorrow and the next day may be something completely different.

Pages from My Sketch Book

I felt like doing some painting and the artist who sprang to mind was Mark Rothko (1903 - 1970). The critic David Sylvester said of Rothko's work that "we are faced with a highly ambiguous presence which seems, on the one hand ethereal, empty, on the other solid and imposing, like a megalith. It possesses the sort of sublimity to be found in a wild landscape and clearly springs from the Romantic tradition in western art." (Bedoyere. C. et al (2006) A Brief History of Art Flame Tree Publishing London)

Rothko was a self taught painter, a leading figure in Abstract Expressionism. He worked on a large scale. He wanted to immerse the viewer in a total colour experience. He said "I paint large pictures because I want to create a state of intimacy."

Mark Rothko Paintings

Rectangular expanses of intense colour