Trying my hand at abstract art with Benjamin Moore paints

Greetings, friends and color aficionados worldwide!

I hope that this finds you well this fine day. As an emerging artist, I’ve created a routine of experimenting with different subjects, sketching styles, materials, scale, colors and so much more. Every week I sit down to create at least one new type of piece, and it is all an experiment that I hope will teach me something about myself as an artist.

2021 is a year to evolve and develop an artistic “signature” and simply explore what kind of art I want to create. What I do know is that I’m an artist who loves people, global travel and languages, and that this forthcoming art will somehow capture color, culture, landscape and colloquialism. Let’s see where this leads, friends.

My latest art experiment is a large scale abstract piece. I selected the following Benjamin Moore colors, which include a cream from the Off Whites collection, a deep green-gray and an orange-yellow from the Williamsburg collection, and a warm reddish-brown from the Affinity collection.

White Down OC-131

Tavern Charcoal CW-90

Massicot CW-380

Satchel AF-240

As I gathered materials and measured wall space and art placement options, I learned that art canvases can be quite expensive. It just so happens that I found an inexpensive art canvas in the perfect size at a home decor store. It was only $40, so I bought it and painted the whole thing in my White Down OC-131 (cream) color to get started.

Let me tell you folks, though, that creating an abstract piece is much harder than one might think it would be. I had such difficulty creating this piece that I created no less than four layers of “mistakes” underneath the finished work.

Pablo Picasso said this about abstract art: “There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.”

What I started with were many lines and geometric shapes that made no aesthetic sense whatsoever. That was my start! From there I kept experimenting and creating layers and layers of texture with these mistakes.

The predominant color is the orange-yellow Massicot CW-380.

Can you see the texture of the piece? That is one “happy accident” that happened after four layers of testing!

Now all I need to do is hang the piece, and that in and of itself is a project!

My first ever abstract art gave me a new appreciation for this art form.

There is only a hint of the warm reddish-brown Satchel AF-240, but originally I planned to incorporate it as the focal color. As I progressed, I realized that I wanted to focus on the cream and orange-yellow tones. The color Satchel AF-240 can be seen more on the left side of the painting (not easily visible in these photos).

Well, that is it for today, friends. Thank you as always for your readership. Let’s see what I come up with next week.

Yours in color,

Lauren Battistini