Abstracts
Learn to Paint Abstracts forms part of the best-selling Collins Learn to Paint series, providing a clear and simple introduction to a truly dynamic style of painting that is attracting more and more interest among amateur artists.Laura Reiter provides a clear and accessible introduction to abstract painting, explaining in simple terms how to paint popular subjects in a less representational way.Several simple ways of approaching an abstract painting are demonstrated using watercolour, acrylics, pastels and collage to create abstracts from simple doodles.Practical exercises, useful tips and several step-by-step demonstrations are included. It is the perfect book for those who desire an entrance into abstract art or want to broaden their artistic horizons.
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Sun Sign,mixed media on canvas, 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 in)
Laura Reiter
Tea Cuisine,mixed media on canvas, 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 in)
First published in 2006, this edition published in 2008 by
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© Laura Reiter 2006
Editor: Patsy North
Designer: Penny Dawes
Photographer: Patricia Rayner
Laura Reiter asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
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Source ISBN 9780007271801
Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2015 ISBN: 9780008161163
Version: 2015-11-26
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Contents
DEMONSTRATION ONE Pink Watermelon
DEMONSTRATION TWO Wood for the Fire
Running Horse Standing,mixed media on canvas, 45 x 60 cm (18 x 24 in)
Laura Reiter was born and grew up in the suburbs of London, where she still lives. On leaving school, she began to work as a secretary but always knew that what she really wanted to do was pursue a career in art. However, it was not until later, while bringing up her children, that she studied art at Kingston and Wimbledon Schools of Art, where she attained first a BA degree in painting and then an MA in printmaking.
Lauraâs work has always tended towards abstraction, although in more recent years, while retaining the essence of an abstract painter, she has allowed some elements of figuration to creep in. She enjoys the activity of the actual making of her artwork which, for her, is very much part of the creative journey. Working in mixed media, she uses âanything and everything that comes to handâ, including watercolour, acrylics, collage and pastels. Her day-to-day life and her travels to parts of the world such as southeast Asia are a major source of inspiration for her paintings, which encompass and represent memories of and feelings about these events.
Laura Reiter painting in her studio.
Laura has had success in selling her work, exhibiting in galleries such as the Bankside Gallery and the Mall Galleries in London. She regularly exhibits with the Linda Blackstone Gallery and the Battersea Affordable Art Show. She took part in a two-person show at the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre Gallery and a one-person show at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. As well as this, Laura has won some prizes for her work, including three prizes at the C21 exhibition at the Bankside and three prizes at the Patchings Exhibition held by The Artist magazine. As well as pursuing her own work, she has taught extensively in academic settings such as colleges and schools. She has also taught art to adults in art centres and on painting holidays, in addition to running her own workshops and giving demonstrations to art societies.
Little Drummermixed media on canvas 60 x 60 cm (24 x 24 in) The âlittle drummerâ motif in the bottom right-hand corner is drawn from a small item I bought while in Thailand, as are the red-and-white purse and the bowl sitting below it.
The term âabstractâ in painting is a general description of art that is not directly representational. An artist can move a small way towards the abstract by, for example, altering the shapes or colours of objects, or the whole way by allowing the painting to be entirely about the essence of the chosen subject without regard to its physical appearance.
How did it begin?
The invention of the camera in the nineteenth century freed artists from the responsibility for reproducing realistic representations of the world they lived in. The Impressionists were the first to experiment with different ways of painting that made use of new technology in paint manufacture and innovative theories of colour and light. The Impressionists paved the way for the Expressionist painters in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and, subsequently, for the Cubists and Surrealists who, with the emergence of the new science of psychology, began to experiment with the expression of emotions, atmosphere and the spiritual. At the same time these artists were beginning to flatten out the picture space, thereby losing the illusion of three dimensions. You may like to look at artists such as Claude Monet (1840-1926), Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) and, of course, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) to see how different styles of abstract painting began to develop.
