Abstract Post-Modern/Contemporary Paintings… Brace Your Eyeballs!

Below you will see all of my “exhibit” for this Post-Modern blog post. I must warn you, though, these paintings are VERY vibrant and they might make you feel things you have never felt before (or maybe that’s just me!).

I went for the theme of abstract post-modern paintings with vibrant colors that stand out amongst themselves because I feel that it is so hard and so beautiful to just paint from the “soul”. All of these following artists describe painting these various artworks just from their minds and not really thinking about it, but just DOING it. The very act of just painting for the heck of it is what I really appreciate. So what kind of emotions do these painting evoke in you that happen to stumble across my page?

To first begin, here are two works from a abstract post-modern turned surrealist/realistic painter named Daniel Chiriac. As you can obviously see I picked two of his works from his abstract career, which is what he first began with. He uses oil paints as his primary medium on many different sized canvases (some with multiple pieces as you can see with the second painting I posted). But as he started to progress he began stretching the subject matter of his artwork into more complex, somewhat concrete ideas and images. His work started to have the view of surrealist or realistic artwork, but with a somewhat modern twist to them. If you wanted to see his realistic artwork go Daniel C. Chiriac. His newer artwork is exceptional in it’s detail and accurate depictions of the various still-life’s or human figures he’s trying to portray.

To specifically talk about the two paintings I picked, what is there to say? Everyone is going to interpret them differently. Personally I just love the way colors act together to form the piece as a whole. In some artwork you can look at different parts of it and appreciate each individual part for what it is. With these paintings by Chiriac I don’t think that;s the right way to do it (but it’s art, you can argue for the exact opposite of my opinion and it be just as truthful and supported by facts). I love looking at these pieces as a whole unit of art because of the way everything interacts together. In Chiriac’s first painting below, Big Eye, I especially appreciate the circular blue lines he put in the middle to signify where the “eye” is at. With the differences in the lineage and how some paint is going one direction and some is going in another it really causes a big, aesthetically pleasing scene. With his second painting I just wanted to show how beautiful green, blue, and red (in their brightest forms) can cause such a breath taking interaction. I mean, how could you not smile at that when you walk by it? Maybe you don’t find it as interesting as me (which I really really really find these styles awesome!), but there is still an appreciation that I feel like we should all have because of how hard it is to get paints to interact together like this.

Big Eye – Daniel C. Chiriac (2008) – Unknown Location

(To see more of Daniel’s paintings go to the below link)

http://www.danielchiriac.com/gallery/abstract-post-modern-art/

Sunny – Daniel C. Chiriac (2005) Unknown Location

For the next two pieces I chose another abstract artist of the 21st century named Laura Warburton. While looking at a short biography about herself and an interview transcript conducted with her I found out that she has no formal art education. When asked where she studied art, who influences her, and some of her favorite artists she basically has no exact answer for these questions because she just paints from within herself. She began officially painting as a full time artist in 2007 to get away from the stressers of everyday life. It was basically an outlet for her, and because she chose the path of abstract art she didn’t have the stress of making a certain piece of her artwork look like anything in particular. It just relaxed her and caused her to “zen” out. She does have formal education in human services, specifically psychology, and the knowledge of human interactions and personality through her studies has impacted the way she deals with life, and thus she came upon her own style of artwork. Below is a quote that I pasted from her website discussing how she feels about abstract artwork:

“I love the freedom, the acceptance to “paint outside the lines” so to speak. Abstract work makes you as an artist really feel the art , and abstract work makes the viewer work. It is not a given. Abstract is not as easy as ‘Oh, it is a beautiful landscape or a portrait.’ Not to diminish the enormous skills required in those works… abstract for me however is all about the viewer and what they see… not what I paint.” – Laura Warburton

What I really appreciate about these two pieces I picked are the color components (like with Chiriacs) and how all the colors really stand out and don’t smudge together. What I think is really nice about Warburton’s work, specifically, is how they aren’t “flat” looking, meaning she uses layers and layers of colors to build up a texture amongst the paints. She uses acrylic paint plus other mediums along with big thick brushes to really capture this. I think it’s really neat when an artist paints and image in 2D, but it starts to come off the canvas (literally) and becomes both a 2D and 3D piece. I didn’t really pick these two paintings for any reason in particular other than just the fact that I thought they were the most beautiful and interesting ones among some of her work. Warburton’s paintings are so beautiful and soulful that I’ll go ahead and attach her website here so you can view more if you want. Laura Warburton

Luminescence – Laura Warburton (2010) Toronto, Canada

(To see these paintings and more visit Laura’s website at the below address)

http://www.laurawarburton.com

Self Talk – Laura Warburton (2010) Toronto, Canada

 

With this final artist, Destiny Womack, one can see that she goes by the “no limits” philosophy. There are no specific images shes trying to represent in the below paintings I selected from her, so one could definitely say she is an abstract artist of the 21st century. After being born in Washington and living the majority of her life in south central Alaska (she’s from Alaska!), Destiny settled down in Oklahoma to begin her life as a full time artist. She describes how she had no official art education. Her inspiration and want comes from within and how her mother always wanted her to express herself when she was little. Besides just doing beautiful, complex, and crazy artwork of combining together bright, vibrant colors, Destiny also creates artwork with some realism in them, like using dead trees as a focal point (here’s her website if you want to see her other types of artwork: Destiny Womack).  However, her artwork screams “freedom” and “experession”. She can even be quoted saying, “I have never really tried to classify myself as a style of art, for no other reason then I don’t like limits! I  have said before I don’t like to stay inside the box, I like to cut it up and shape it however I see fit.   I try to let my emotions, my colorful vivid dreams and anything that has inspired me take control of the painting, with me there just to guide it, never holding it back”.

The paintings I selected show her basic “style” of combining a bunch of different colors into an amazing scene of vibrancy and vivacity. For me I get so much energy and positive emotions when viewing her artwork. I just feel like I can do anything if I really set my mind to it. It’s an interesting thing to feel because there is no subject matter in these two paintings, yet I feel such strong emotions about life from them. Anyone else feel that way?

Song of the Soul – Destiny Womack (2005-2009) Oklahoma, United States

(To get a closer look at Destiny’s painting(s) see below link to her website)

http://www.destinywomack.com/art-gallery

Wonderland – Destiny Womack (2008) Oklahoma, United States

 

But yes, as you can see I love abstract, crazy paintings that swirl bunches of colors together to from a piece of art that needs to be viewed as a whole. All these artists have the same idea in common: that they get their energy and motivation from deep within and just let their minds take over when painting. They have no limits and do their artwork in, what could be, a few minutes to many days or years! I just love these abstract pieces of art, as I hope you enjoyed them as well.

 

 

Citations:

For paintings and artist info on David Chiriac: http://www.danielchiriac.com/

For paintings and artist info on Laura Warburton: http://www.laurawarburton.com

For paintings and artist info on Destiny Womack: http://www.destinywomack.com