Paul Klee's Pictorial Universe

One of the artist that I've read about avidly, is Paul Klee. Born in 1879, his was a brilliant career that incorporated Cubism, and the German alternative to Cubism - German Expressionism. Working with his friend Wassily Kandinsky, considered the father of Abstract art, as tutors at the Bauhaus. Much is written about both artists.

Today I wanted to draw reference to the wide ranging subject matter and sources, Klee incorporated in his inventions.

Phillip Larson wrote " His internal source books laid out Cubist frameworks, stratified color charts, calligraphic flourishes, children's drawings, proto-Surrealist doodles, toys and puppets, caricatures, tribal masks, minute zoological/biological specimens, architectural/theatrical perspectives, pictographs/hieroglyphs, and, of course, all keys to the German typewriter. To this day, no historian has secured the critical perimeters around the prodigious collector-progenitor."

His love for music, musical instruments and the theatre were also depicted in numerous drawings and paintings.

Wall of Silence

Wall of Silence

In many high-crime communities, you dare not speak out or report what you see.

This Abstract artwork evolved using oil pastels, Employing layers of color then scratching away the upper surface to reveal the underlying colors. Metaphorically revealing the 'truth.' Injustice is fast and violent. Justice is slow, tedious and unreliable. Silence is safer. Safety is sense. It seems.

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"Verdant" - Abstract artwork

VERDANT
Using oil pastels on black paper, meandering lines evolved into something abstract but tangible. After a long dry summer the land becomes verdant once more.

Today, distant rumble, dark ominous clouds warn of a downpour.

Worked on finishing two abstract pieces on paper, yesterday. I thought I was finished, but a new thought, a new technique changed the picture. Was it a piece of bad news that impelled me to slash red paint over a 'completed' piece? Who knows. When I'm working, the impulses intervene. I'm just a hand, a conduit.

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Abstract painting- Triad 3

Today, was spent reading emails and avidly following links to gain more information. Topics ranging from how to write a more interesting blog. To write topics that will engage the reader, to hold their attention, amuse and entertain them. In Success magazine - on creating a full life, maximize your days and leave a legacy. Then in my email folder dozens of offers to get rich quickly using online marketing. Great reading.

Now to return to my blog. The painting above was started with a vigorous brush outline in black, green was added to fill the spaces, then white paint was introduced to add volume to what was emerging. Three abstract personages emerged from the ochre background. Were they members of a triad, meeting to plot something sinister? Or were the swirls representing a karate kata? With abstract expressionism, many interpretations can be formed. It's interesting to hear comments by viewers, because individuals 'see' and interpret something that is subjective and relevant to their experiences. Quite different from what I see. After all, I'm using paint, shapes, form, color and texture to arrive at this end result.

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Synthesis 6 - Abstract Painting/Collage

Synthesis- fusing abstract elements

Synthesis is defined in the dictionary as follows- Combination, composition, putting together, building up of separate elements esp. of conceptions or propositions or facts, into a connected whole, esp. a theory or system; joining of divided parts.

This abstract painting/collage - "Synthesis 6" is a fused composition of line drawings, pastel, oil pastel, collage of paintings, magazine and other paper elements to build up a new entity of expanded forms. It was one of a series on the theory of synthesizing disparate, divided elements - abstract pen and ink drawings, old paintings,colored magazine paper- into a more unified composition.
To view this painting/collage, other unusual abstract paintings, drawings, collage and digital combinations and prints visit-

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Stolen Oranges- abstract art

I guess it must have happened once too often. And that was it.

Many stories have been told, the one I heard: the owner in a fit of rage, hired a huge tractor and flattened 30 acres of his orange grove. Thieves were reaping more than he did. So he ended their plunder.

The title for the abstract work above, merely alluded to that event. What started as a monotype with black silkscreen ink, was enhanced by acrylic paint and pastels. It was done in a fast abstract expressionist style with little thought given to anything representational. It started with circular shapes that evolved into this final composition.

To view more unusual abstract paintings, drawings, collages and digital fusions visit-
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Abstract art -Squarely

In the previous post, the painting's colors were distorted. Here's another upload of "Squarely"

Abstract Art: Squarely

Fusing the formal with the informal. Contrasting loose swirls of ink with geometric squares and rectangles. Life is like that. Hot days contrasting with cold nights. Light and dark. Good and bad. Abstract and representational. War and peace. Some win others lose. Resolving issues in abstract art is a constant dialectic of countering views.

The introduction of the internet and the web has opened new avenues for better control by the artist in exposing their work to a much wider audience. No longer the strict guiding hand of those who had exclusive access to buyers. Now there is much more control of the way to produce, promote, market and be better rewarded. Recently reading Hazel Dooney and her strong views on controlling every aspect of her work, was an eye-opener. With access to an online gallery - Yessy.com, this blog, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and my email, I've widened my access to an international audience. Hopefully, sales will follow.

This blog, helps in clarifying my thoughts on art and putting them out in short snippets, that when read in its entirety, will provide a better understanding of what I do, even to myself. At times, I'm inclined to explain the process of painting as a purely intuitive one. But, after painting, drawing and observing the works of countless numbers of artists, reading widely on their thoughts and style, I believe what emerges from my pen and brush is the cumulative output of years of study.

I'm totally engrossed in the creative process, when painting and drawing, oblivious of my surroundings, almost in a semi-conscious state, solving and resolving issues on art. Recently, I've started combining art with musical compositions, uploading on YouTube - http://youtube.com/Emooyoung This has opened new ideas and thoughts for future developments.


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Skeletal forms

Skeletal Forms
The abstract artwork, "Skeletal Forms" was painted a long time ago. While exploring bones, structures and the uncanny strength that supports so much weight, led to a total re-arrangement of how our anatomy is structured. The elements would be now used in an abstract and random combination, To form a new 'personage'. Paint, color, line and form would take precedence.

The charcoal drawing underlay, led to color being introduced, then background color was added, scraped, changed, obscured, new forms revealed and blended into a new and unique composition.

Acrylic paint is versatile-it can produce from pale watercolor washes, to heavy impasto, it can blend with any medium or technique and it can be over-painted endlessly. Thick watercolor paper is essential for this rigorous process. To seal and preserve the painting, two coats of acrylic varnish is recommended.

To view other unusual abstract paintings, drawings, collages and digital fusions visit
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Abstract Art-Seated Figure #7

Seated Figure #7, quietly emerged from a series of vertical lines. Lines drawn with pastels, oil pastels, charcoal, pencil and acrylics, the personage took a seat quietly. The lines accentuate planes of diverse thoughts and tangents, returning, eventually, to the central figure.

To view other abstract paintings, drawings, collages and digital prints, visit-
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Picasso's remarks on art

While browsing through my dusty collection of art books, I came across "Picasso on Art- A selection of views" by Dore Ashton.

Christian Zervos, in 1935, put down these remarks of Picasso immediately after a conversation with him. Here's an interesting excerpt,

"A picture is not thought out or settled beforehand. While it is being done it changes as one's thought change. And when it is finished, it still goes on changing, according to the state of mind of whoever is looking at it. A picture lives a life like a living creature, undergoing the changes imposed on us by our life from day to day. This is natural enough, as the picture lives only through the man who is looking at it."

Abstract Painting -Roots

Consider the force of a tree root thrusting downward into dry parched earth. What a quiet but relentless force. Perhaps moving a millimetre per day. But if it is to survive, thrust it must. The abstract painting above "Roots Force" attempts to allude to this phenomenon. The small acrylic painting on paper, tries to demonstrate in plastic form, the aggressive movement of the brush in an abstract expressionistic style. In working, no real thought is given to styles or techniques, just a response to the intuition, guided by thoughts, mood, music and the colors at hand.

More paintings and drawings can be viewed by clicking on the videos at right.

Additional abstract paintings, unusual abstract drawings, collages, digital art and prints can be viewed at
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Purple Haze-Abstract painting

The Abstract mixed media painting is entitled "Purple Haze".

Must have been listening to Jimi Hendrix though I'm not so sure. Just glancing at "Are you Experienced" The CD by the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Surprised to see that he, at various times, backed B.B. King, Sam Cooke, Solomon Burke, Chuck Jackson, and Jackie Wilson. He also backed Little Richard, Ike and Tina Turner, before he started his own band. What a great start to his stellar, but short-lived career.

Just missed going to Woodstock to see him perform. A performance that some have described as one of the greatest guitar virtuso the rock world had ever seen.

Picasso once said " Everybody wants to understand painting. Why is there no attempt to understand the song of a bird. Why does one love a night, a flower, everything that surrounds a man, without trying to understand it all? Abstract art is difficult to explain verbally. It alludes to something. Something simple or profound. It can move you, to love it or hate it. The effect can be immediate or transcendental, a challenge to the known, to the orderly.

To view more abstract paintings, drawings, collages or digital experiments visit-
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Abstract Painting influenced by Science?

I just read an interesting theory about the radical shift in thinking and the conception of reality that took place at the turn of the 20th century in Modern Art.

To quote from 'Painting in the Twentieth Century' by Werner Haftmann, - " Dates seem to suggest that some kind of connection exists between science and painting. The radical changes in painting took place between 1900 and 1910. Significant dates are: 1905 Fauvism; 1907 Cubism; 1910 the first abstract painting. A concordance of of dates important in the history of science runs thus: 1900 Planck's quantum theory; and Freud's Interpretation of Dreams; 1905 Einstein's special theory of relativity; 1908 Minkowski's mathematical formulation of the dimensions of space-time."

Many artists such as Klee, Kandinsky, Delaunay and others have stated that their encounters with the discoveries of natural science often threw light upon their own intuitive and artistic activity.

What do you think? That there was a close connection between the new discoveries in science and the radical shifts in the way art was viewed by the prominent and well read artists of these early periods of the 20th century? I think so.

Abstract art on the verandah

This abstract digital artwork evolved from a photo of our verandah, full of plants, that has been completely reworked. Digitally painted, retouched, splashed splattered, erased and then reworked again.

The bits and pieces of abstract color are symbolic of many hours spent sipping intensely satisfying cups of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee in the morning, watching the misty covered mountain and the sun interplay then sneak over the top. Here I've drawn many sketches, noted many thoughts...seeking to redefine myself, to welcome the new day. To live in the moment. To Awaken the Giant Within. As Tony Robbins states, the single most important step in weeding the gardens of our mind is to interrupt our limiting patterns. So the verandah provides the quiet time to prepare for the new day. Yesterday is past and gone forever, never to return. As some wise person has said- today is a gift, that's why it's called the present. Tobias Wolff states "we define ourselves and our deepest values by the choices we make, day by day, hour by hour, over a lifetime."

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Abstract Digital art: "Light Variations"

Unlike the fear of a blank canvas or paper, when nothing seem to happen. The mind is as blank as the paper. Using a digital photo as a starting point brings its own set of mind freezing possibilities. The objective: to create something entirely new, unique, entirely different and... abstract.

It must have been music that encouraged me to keep abstracting, refining, reforming, retouching and reducing a digital photo into increasingly flattened forms. The various components artists use include line, shape, form, color, space, value and texture, to create a composition.

The fixed elements in a photo require that the aesthetic manipulations are in more selected areas. leaving central elements almost untouched. You 'arrive' at the outcome when you've exhausted many trials and techniques.

To view more abstract digital fusions, contemporary abstract paintings, unusual abstract drawings, unique abstract collages and prints, visit: http://www.yessy.com/emooyoung/gallery

Hierarchy in Abstract art

The definition of hierarchy in the dictionary will not be useful this time. The abstract painting alluded to the interlinking of family and the generations past, the myths, rituals, superstitions that resulted in what we have today. It is an abstract concept translated into a lyrical abstract expressionist form.

It's an experimental work, weaving from corners to the central forms and shapes leading to an undefined form. Background color was later added to the initial pencil drawing. The exploration continues.

More experimental abstract paintings, drawings, collages, unusual digital fusions, and prints can be viewed at
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Group travel:Escape into abstraction

Have you ever thought about losing everything? Escaping into the night with just the clothes on your back? So often, we read and see these stories, real life brutalities, more macabre and murderous than a Shakespearean tragedy. Unfolding on the nightly news. The genocide in Darfur and other places. The mass movement of thousands, even millions of people to refugee camps. People who once had a home, a family... a life.

One night of mindless slaughter and the panic begins. It's survival and communal, it's the desperate exodus to save the family. It's Group Travel.

Though the title came after the painting, no attempt was made to be descriptive of the real situation, abstract painting, drawing, form and color was used to allude to the tragedies unfolding nightly.

The triptych- "Group Travel" is a combination of acrylic paint, drawing and mixed media techniques on paper.

To view other striking abstract paintings, drawings, mixed media artworks, collages and prints visit- http://www.yessy.com/emooyoung/gallery

Contemporary Abstract Collage-'Global"

Watching an episode of "Locked Up Abroad", reminded me of a small abstract collage painting I produced a few years ago - "Global".

Global travel is usually meant to be fun, educational or for business connections and development. But with the advent of 9/11, travel has its rewards but also filled with danger. North Korea, Iran and other countries can make innocent explorations a real trial. You could be designated a spy and that could be the beginning of a long and torturous journey back home.

"Global", is an abstract collage using elements of magazine clippings, line drawings, acrylic paint and oil pastels. The aligning of interlocking and diverse elements create new meanings, some ominous.

Additional and unusual abstract collages, contemporary abstract paintings, unique pen and pencil drawings, digital abstract fusions, and prints are available at http://www.yessy.com/emooyoung/gallery

Abstract art- "Germinate"

Is there anything tougher than a tamarind seed? This hard protective coating would need a sturdy hammer to crack open. Yet, when conditions become favorable, they soften and soon a delicate young shoot emerges. They process is repeated in so many other seeds, preceding germination. Ideas, too, need time to percolate. To be stimulated, then burst forth and emerge. It's a force of nature, defying simple scientific definition.

The abstract painting- "Germinate" merely allude to this phenomenon. Organically evolving on the paper, bounded by flowing lines, a section exceeds the boundary and emerges from the compartment. Is it, like a seed of corn, emerging in a time preceding drought, doomed to wither and die? Or are there gray clouds looming in the distance, signaling stormy conditions, rain and then prosperity? Painted in acrylics and flowing lines, the answer is to be seen.

For additional contemporary abstract paintings, unusual abstract collage, unique mixed media collage, giclee canvas art,and abstract line drawings, visit- http://www.yessy.com/emooyoung/gallery

Abstract art - Exploring a theme

ABSTRACT ART AND AUTOMATISM
Thinking abstractly, sometimes the thought is to enjoy the most freedom in drawing in a confined compartment. It brings to mind Automatism.

This style can be described as a technique for freeing the imagination to produce creative works that are free of conscious control. It emphasizes the importance of the unconscious as a source of inspiration. Automatism is a technique made famous, initially, by the Surrealists painters. Taking many forms. Many styles.

In a parallel development, Jazz musicians created new styles - such as non-idiomatic improvisation called Free Jazz.

In this series, called "Freeing the Lines" 1-4, the attempt is to create free, abstract, active improvised lines in restricted spaces. Then make small explosions of color at random.

More contemporary abstract paintings, drawings, unique abstract collage art, digital fusion prints can be explored at
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Abstract Painting -Germinate

Abstract Art Collage-"Flurry"

"Flurry" is a small abstract art collage, using a combination of pen and ink drawings, small paintings, acrylic painting and a flurry of rapidly drawn lines, vigorously executed.. In a sense, it's a flurry of activity, a flurry of elements combined to create a new combination, a new relationship to each other.

More abstract art collage, unique abstract expressionistic art, abstract pencil drawings, contemporary abstract art, experimental digital art, and prints can be viewed at http://www.yessy.com/emooyoung/gallery.html.

Whipping up an Abstract drawing - Flagella

Whipped into Abstraction, into Existence

Artists staring at a blank sheet of paper can be stilled into inaction. Whipping out a pen and drawing in a 'whiplike' manner can start the process of creating a piece of abstract art moving. Randomly moving across the page, in a dream-like fashion, the process continues. Color is slowly added, a scribble here a slashing line there. It's a whirlwind of random acts.

The title came to mind - "Flagella". A flagellum, the singular form, is the latin word for whip. A flagellum is a tail-like structure that projects from the cell body of certain prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells and functions in locomotion. An example of a eukaryotic flagellated cell is the sperm cell. The cell uses its flagellum to propel itself through the female reproductive tract and the end result is a new life.

Abstract painting and drawing can encompass many forms, any subject. It's about anything and everything. It evokes meaning, it stimulates emotions, it can be a complex mass, a simple line or the choice of colors that render a poetic feeling visible. It should speak for itself, if anyone is listening. On the other hand, it can be tumultuous and exhilarating as a four storey drop, while sliding down a chute at Aquatica. While trying to look cool to my grandkids.

Other unusual abstract paintings, abstract drawings, collages, mixed media contemporary art, digital experimental fusions and prints are available at http://www.yessy.com/emooyoung/gallery.html

Abstract drawing -Erratic/erotic

"Erratic/erotic" is an abstract artwork comprising lyrical abstract drawing using colored pens and markers.

Abstract art collage - "Upward"

"Upward" is a lyrical abstract collage with line drawing and painting elements.

After a 3 week hiatus in Florida, I'm ready again to blog.
Saturday, June 27, saw the "world's fastest man", Usain Bolt win the 100 metres at the National Senior Championships in Jamaica.
Saturday July 18, visited a number of galleries in Miami Art District.
Saturday, July 18, tried all the scary rides at Aquatica in Orlando with grandkids.

For more unusual abstract paintings, drawings, collage and digital experiments visit
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Abstract window

How's this for singlemindness? I once read a short article about a photographer who lived in an apartment overlooking Central Park. From a specific window, he recorded the varying changes that occured at certain times of the day, the changes of the seasons, the changes that occured when the weather moved from summer to winter and from stormy to sunny days. The changes must have been remarkable, all from one window, as varied as the patterns on a croton leaf.

From many windows in Jamaica, the views from the north are the hills and mountain ranges, to the south the ports and beaches, the sugar cane fields.

To the east, the rising morning sun, streaming through the mango trees. To the west more trees, the setting sun.

The painting "Window" is an abstract culmination of many views fused together. All sourced from memory and the imagination.

It's an acrylic painted modern abstract artwork, a network of animated, dancing forms. It's a small abstract painting, with much larger implications in an ever changing polluted world.

These and other unusual abstract paintings, powerful abstract collages, contemporary mixed media original art, original pen and ink drawings, unique digital fusions, giclee prints can be viewed at
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ART Quotes for Today

Jackson Pollock (1912 - 1956)
It's not your painting anymore. It stopped being your painting the moment that you finished it.

Jeff Melvoin, Northern Exposure, Fish Story, 1994
Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.

A thoughtful quote for today. That's why I skillfully decline requests for portraits, You're safer with Abstract Art. Of course, if you have an aunt like mine, she may tell you "abstract art is the product of a confused mind."

The Fine Art of Wandering Abstractly

Aimlessly wandering around New York City is one of my great joys, on these now rare occasions. There is a surprise on every corner. The longer you stay away, the greater the surprise. Once I hurriedly took an early morning train, transferred to the MTA bus, in great anticipation, for a visit to the Metropolitan Museum. Did I say it was a Monday morning? And they're closed on that day? Well, wandering I did, slowly traversing Central Park. Going to 57th street, where I was an art student in 1970. Remembering the student protests in Columbus Circle. Eating at truck drivers stops. (You get huge helpings, cheap). Those were interesting days.

Wandering, is a pursuit I enjoy. Deliberatly, heading nowhere in particular. My favorite Delicatessen, book shops with old books, antiques, old maps, very old magazines. The Russian Tea Room. I once saw Muhamed Ali on 57th street, near the Art Student League, surrounded by fans. Moving towards Broadway, the theatres, movie houses and peep shows. How can there be so many gift shops in a block?

"Wandering," the abstract collage above, evolved out of a wish not to discard a well drawn map. Obviously of no use to me now, probably inserted in an old National Geographic, I decided to create a collage from it. A central drawing emerged from the now mental 'wandering' across the surface. Collage elements were added. Acrylic paint embellished certain areas. With the advent of GPS in most new cars, a map is now becoming obsolete. Who can read it anyway? Who has the time?

In this abstract collage painting, a new life was restored from an old map.

To find unusual abstract collages, unique abstract paintings, pen and ink drawings, mixed media artworks, mixed media digital art and prints visit
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Arbitrary abstract acts-Tripartite

Divisions can be arbitrary. Imposed for abstract reasons. What started as a wandering pen line, soon required painting, light washes of color as forms began awaken and emerge. As in other pieces in this blog, the end result seem like an archaeological dig. Revealing. Mystifying.

It raises questions of life. And death. What will archaeologists find a hundred years from today? The ancients had their beliefs about death and the journey to the hereafter. Has modern man, armed with genetic codes, contemporary scientists unlocking the cures with new medical breakthroughs, provided a better answer? What becomes of the inner voice? Tripartite - life, death and the hereafter. Only the Father knows for sure.

Abstract thoughts for an abstract painting.

Other unusual and strange abstract paintings, drawings, collages and mixed media digital artworks are available at
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