While I still love painting with big free brush strokes, lately I have been playing with linear abstraction. I see the backgrounds in a few of them as water. The lines are reminiscent of reeds or tree trunks or posts. I have not put meaning on them yet.

One work seems to have leapt into my imagination as soon as I laid down the background colours. Sunset on water, with silhouetted forms in the foreground. Then I noticed that little grey shape in the lower right quarter of the painting. It reminds me of a turtle poking its head out of the water.

The painting is still a work in progress. But I can’t see it being anything other than ‘Looking for Turtles at Sunset’. This is the time to step back from the painting. To let it sit while I focus on something else. The idea is to come back to it afresh to see if I still see it that way.

Using Linear Elements

I don’t usually put a lot of linear elements in my work. Curves and arcs are more common for me. Even when I paint a lot of trees in an abstract landscape, they are usually not straight trunked. The way the elements leave their impact on living vegetation always fascinates me. Hollows, curving tracks left by burrowing insects, a lean forced by regular wind.

In the last few months I have been using a piece of timber. I actually can’t remember where I found it. Was it part of some packaging? Not sure but it randomly turned up in my studio.

Initially I just played around with it to see if it inspired me or not. Turns out it did. I now have a few paintings on the go with linear marks in them. For me, it is more challenging to work with straight lines. As I work, I find an unfamiliar tension. I enjoy the different marks yet I have a strong urge to turn them into organic forms. It just feels that they need to be curled or bent. So far I have resisted this. When I look around our bushland, the only straight lines are the sedge and spike-rush surrounding the dam. Perhaps that is why I see ‘Looking for Turtles at Sunset’ as a water -themed mage.

Logically, there are more linear marks in the human built environment. This is something to toy with, but none of the current works in progress are headed in this direction. I’m planning to display my linear abstraction works in my open studio for the Golden Plains Arts Trail. This is held over the weekend of Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th April. I’m stop 7. You can download the brochure from GP Arts Inc. There are more than 50 artists participating in 21 venues within the Golden Plains Shire, in Victoria, Australia.