“The Shape of Things.”


“The shape of things”. Painted February 2022.  11″x14″. Acrylic on canvas textured board. 


Day 23 of the Opus Daily Practice Challenge.  Prompt word “Transformative”.


Yesterday’s exercise was all about discovering and abstracting shapes.  Today’s prompt word was “transformative”, so I spent the day transforming the ideas I explored in yesterday’s drawing into a painting based on the same source photo.  This photo was taken in the botanical gardens in Buenos Aires.  The 17-acre garden is absolutely beautiful, and you can easily spend a day exploring the various theme gardens.  There were a large selection of exotic succulents, so I took several photos that focused on the textures, colours and shapes of these plants.  Although the painting is true to the photo, the angle that I took the photo and the shapes formed by the cast shadows makes this painting more abstract than representational.  


Since I’ve never done any abstract painting before, this was an interesting experience.  I enjoyed focusing on the rhythmic forms created by the shape of the leaves and the cast shadows.  I also chose a palette with vivid hues, which certainly reminded me of the colourful tropical gardens.  I consider this a test painting which is why I chose to use the canvas textured board.  At some point I’ll turn this into a legitimate painting.  

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