Painting: Surface and Gesture, week 2

On arrival at the studio, jolly things left on the easels from the previous class -

 ... and interesting things laid out for us - the theme this week is abstraction -

 The markings on the tables provided some abstract compositions of their own -

 We had a choice of unprimed canvas (primer was available) or canvas boards, and acrylic or oil paint, and were told about choosing brushes, flat vs round.

I decided to "keep it simple" and use different widths of flat brushes, and mix up each adjacent colour without preplanning. Call it "getting to grips with your tools". The effect is staid, but cumulative -

 Then a layer of white to tone it down -

 A pleasant way to spend a morning, especially as I'm having to fight with myself to give up on "painting" altogether. I like seeing the colours happen on the surface, but have absolutely no desire to "make a painting" - and certainly not to "express myself"!

Out came the camera for some detail shots -

 The foggy effect ...

 A bit of "found abstraction" -

Next week, life painting - !