Years ago in 2013, I decided to sit down hardcore, and study color. I was always poor, and could not afford to take a course, so I taught myself. I went to a Hardware store, and cleaned them out of every single paint color sample there was, and then sat down and studied. I asked myself how would this color go with a room, and what colors would compliment it? I knew the basics of the Color Wheel and looked into that deeper.
Complimentary is self-explanatory, and you have to have a good eye for it. The weirdest colors compliment each other. Yellow compliments blue, purple compliments gray, etc. This is the most common and sought after decorating method, if done correctly a room can really pop with color. I made the rooms digitally below:
Analogous color scheme is colors next to teach other on the color wheel like red and yellow rooms, blue, violet and purple. Southwestern design is a good example of this because of the same colors of red, orange and yellow.
Monochromatic is a room of the same color throughout it. This can be scary and overwhelming if done wrong. A lot of Contemporary, Minimalist rooms look like this.
I punched up this Monochromatic room by adding one element of color using the Photo.
Art needs to be a centerpiece in the room, usually hung over a TV wall, a Fireplace, on a mantel, a Dresser, etc. I can help you do this if you purchase one my artworks. Go to my Services page for more information.
You Were Born For This, by Jennifer Underwood. Copyright 2021
I wait until the right moment to paint, and sometimes summer makes it hard. But I turned on my music to a song I had not heard in a long time-Unsecret-For this, you were born for, featuring Ruelle, another favorite singer of mine. As I heard this song, the painting came out naturally, and powerfully. It took a long time to paint, so other songs were played afterwards, but the mood was still the same, I felt empowered and let everything flow freely with exact strokes, as I wanted them. There is a method to the madness.
16×20, on flat canvas board, in acrylic. Go to my Gallery page at the bottom to purchase.
This painting was started in 2019 as a finger painting, it is the black in the back of the white. I left it like that for a long time, and decided to add more white and work over it. As usual, I plugged myself into my dreamy Indie music by playing: “You” by Voyageur. It always helps the process. I used wiping techniques in careful swipes, until it felt right. Black speaks to me for hours. Adding white to it, adds an emotional element also, both colors are very deep.
Sometimes I stop and think what the style of art is that I do because I like to analyze it. I often put on music to paint, and it seems impossible for me to paint without it. Music stirs up the right emotions to let out in order to paint properly. Everyone is different, but to me expressionism is a flow, it is feelings more than thoughts. It starts by hearing a song, letting the tune carry me to a certain feeling and then painting out of it.
I do have ideas in mind beforehand, but often they are a vague image. I can look at other works for inspiration, but mostly for use of color and structure, but I end up doing my own thing in the end anyway, which is good. Who wants the same painting someone else did?
Recently, I had my acrylic pad out, and got frustrated, and mad, and just belted out on paper a quick bunch of lines. Oddly enough, it looked decent and I was once again proven the point that expressionism is good for those who get it.
Let yourself be open to it. Expressionist don’t like to paint with many rules, that ruins the whole process. But it also is not entirely crazy and without order. When I paint, I care very much about stopping. That is the key word. I will make a stroke, or a brush line or shape, and it is knowing then to STOP that matters, and can make a break or painting. I can go too far and ruin it in seconds. It is strategic and thoughtful, but also quick, and spontaneous. You don’t want the flow interrupted for anything. My paintings are mostly fast, and take as little as 20 minutes. I have done some in ten minutes before. The larger it is, the longer it takes. It depends on what look I am going for. If I really have a dramatic concept and want layers, I can spend a lot of time, but it is not all at once.
A few paintings I did like Speak and Full Expression was done by coming back to it several times. There was once painting I did that was blocks of color but I hated how normal it looked so I painted white all over it but it kept fading so I had to keep coming back for the look I wanted.
Left to right: Full Expression, Speak, and “I have to Paint”(Last one was dont angry)This is the painting I was talking about with white covering over blocks.
I can’t speak entirely for other Expressionists, I just know that our minds have strong feelings, strong emotions that want to come out, and need a voice, but that voice ends up being through lines and shapes, and you wish there was more, or some unique tool to express it, so you just use what you can. I use rags, sponges, house hold tools, scraper. The scraper is my best friend and I use it from the beginning.
I am very happy with strange ideas and unique tools other than just a brush. I have used brushes though more recently so I can see what they feel like, I had to get to a point where I understood that in expressionism there is no such thing as perfection. This is not still life, or landscapes, the award goes to those who express the most emotion with the best use of color. Color is representative of the emotions you want displayed. I do have my favorites though. Purple dark blue, and yellow seem to be the ones I gravitate towards the most. I like bright cherry paintings also of pinks, oranges, and blues.
Black is the most powerful color of emotion there is and has to be used exactly right.
White can be used to break up things when too many colors are present.
Hope this helps those who want to understand the process more!
I go on the back porch in the mornings, and casually glanced down at my paint table that reminded me to paint again. Sometimes I don’t paint for weeks at a time since I want to get it right when I do.
So, I look down and notice the designs on the table are of quite significance and meaning. It shows the toil and the work put into making a painting and how it is so passionate, it falls on the table. I made it like that on purpose because its raw and real. I use garbage bags to catch most of the paint, but there was a time I let it fly on the table. Maybe I need to start doing that again. I took a photo of it, and now have it on Red Bubble, available on different products. Check it out!
New paintings in the form of three abstract expressionist paintings were done yesterday on my back porch, on acrylic paper. I have plans to make one into bookmarks so that one will be in print only other than the bookmarks. The other two are for sale.
As I was painting these, I had many thoughts going through my head, and I realized something else that I need to remember always-I am never more free when I paint and let go, and just be myself, then it is 100% true to form, and real. Any line or shape that I make will be my own and nobody can do it like that. Not being narcissitic(lol) it is just something I realized. When I paint, I throw everything I can into it, but the more I let go and relax, the more things flow smoothly.
Left: Title: “Many Thoughts”, right: “Everything Has Meaning”-11×14
This one will be available in print on RedBubble. Go to my shop page in the menu. And Bookmarks will be made also.
Title: “Be Yourself”-11×14 on paper
Go to my Gallery page to see these paintings for sale and click through to Paypal if your interested.
I noticed there is this stigma I did not existed because I was wrapped up in my own world as an Artist. I get the strong impression most people think that they cannot be Art Collectors unless they are rich, or have a fancy home. None of that is true!
Art is a courageous purchase, something you do from your heart because it speaks to you. This means the average Joe on the street can own any piece of art they want! In the past there were restrictions, some people want the full payment up front, but I am no offering a service where you can make payments on a painting you like, and own it when you finish your last payment. The payment holds the painting and keeps it from being sold, and you claiming it as your own.
The idea of the snooty art collector is now a thing of the past. Art now means something personal to the buyer, and it is an emotional exchange. A buyer to me carries a piece of my soul with them in my work. They now mean something to me. Every time someone buys one of my paintings, it is a serious heart issue, not a place filler on the wall, but something special.
I hope you will let nothing stop you in your pursuit of finding Art that hits you, and compels you!
I typically sell two types of paintings-Flat Canvas and Wrapped.
Flat means it is a flat board with no backing on it to hang on a wall, so you have to purchase canvas hangers, you can get them anywhere.
Wrapped means there is an inch thick side and on the back there is a wooden column that goes up the back. This can hang on a wall but it might need extra help to get it straight. These are very lightweight.
Flat canvases can lean against a fireplace, or a dresser if you don’t want to hang them.
The back of a flat canvas, 16×20This is the back of a wrapped canvas. A board goes up the middle of it. This is a larger size example about 20×24
This painting was inspired by a random photo I saw of an image frame next to a gradient image. I changed the colors and painted with oil pastels. As I was painting, it felt like a frequency like you see in music..waves that go up..and I can’t stand straight lines, so when I came time to close the box, I didn’t. I swept out the colors into the “whitespace”. This phrase came to me from a book by Bonnie Gray, Finding Spiritual Whitespace. She says that whitespace is negative space in art, but it is anything but empty.
So as I glanced at the painting, I wondered: is this blank space empty? What can it represent? But that is the beauty of art. The meaning can be quite complex and deep if you want it to be. You can get lost in this simple painting. I am inspired by the Post Minimalism movement of squares that do not quite connect, and I used that concept here. The messy lines, and the extra static of paint, the spillover so to speak is there on purpose. I always leave the ruggedness of a painting as raw as possible because to me that speaks more of life and how real things are, and that there is nothing tidy about it.
I call this painting: Whitespace. 16×20 on a wrapped canvas. Oil pastels.
To buy directly, go to my Gallery page in the menu. If you want to message me and chat about this painting, I am on Facebook, navigate to the bottom for the icon.
I am learning once more that painting in general…every stroke matters. When I first started, I read Nancy Hillis blog. She said that for an exercise make six strokes on a piece of paper. She said nobody will do what you do, that alone makes it different. I reminded myself of that today when I painted my latest painting.
I also learned that I have a signature style I keep coming back to. It is something I always recognize in other Artists but never thought about it myself, but yet when I paint, I tend to use the same techniques and gravitate towards them.
I put on my song playlist and started, and got wrapped up in the details. A few songs came on that really got to me so I ran with it, and hoped it came out in the painting.
So run, wake up and run, my little one
wanna tear down these walls that can’t hold you inside
And rip out the cords and uncover your eyes
We’ll make our escape in the dark of night
I need you to see this-SYML, Girl
I looked at the painting several times and tried to see what I could get out of it. Color and the lines i make are always directional, and flow well, and tend to float almost. I started off oddly enough with an inspirational photo I took of the sunlight a few months ago:
Here is what it ended up being instead, I paused halfway through to get photos:
So to me, no matter what each line, each shape means something all on it’s own, the true magic of expressionism.
To buy directly, go to my Gallery page in the menu. If you want to message me and chat about this painting, I am on Facebook, navigate to the bottom for the icon.
I write this post because of something that happened to me. I am on Instagram, and do not have hardly any engagement on there with my art. I don’t spend much time there because even when I follow all the dumb rules of marketing, I still don’t get my work known.
I use the account for personal comments also, and I follow Christian Author: Bonnie Gray. Her birthday was a few weeks ago, and I wrote her a comment, and she just now wrote back weeks later, after I had given up.
It was a small move that meant the world to me. I get zero mentions of my art,, and nobody knows I exist. I have worked hard for two years and I am still the artist that is never recognized. Bonnie is a beautiful person and someone I aspire to be someday.
I was down before opening Instagram, and it is rare to when I get to experience much of any feedback on any issue in my life. I am single, have lost my friends, and have nobody, so I am trudging through life alone with God, and hoping to come out the other side.
I know it is horribly cliche, but be an encouragement if you can. Today,, all we are on the internet is hateful monsters. There is massive division in the world, and there is nothing but hate on all sides. We need to look to basic things in life, and connections no matter how small to find meaning.
Jennifer Underwood 