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Approaches to Abstraction in Painting
An undergraduate course offered by the School of Art and Design .
- Code ARTV2506
- Unit Value 6 units
- Offered by School of Art and Design
- ANU College ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
- Course subject Visual Arts
- Areas of interest Visual Arts, Creative Arts
- Academic career UGRD
- Course convener
- Elisa Crossing
SELT Survey Results
- Code ARTV2506
- Unit Value 6 units
- Offered by School of Art and Design
- ANU College ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
- Course subject Visual Arts
- Areas of interest Visual Arts, Creative Arts
- Academic career UGRD
- Course convener
- Elisa Crossing
SELT Survey Results
- Introduction
- Learning Outcomes
- Indicative Assessment
- Workload
- Inherent Requirements
- Requisite and Incompatibility
- Prescribed Texts
- Preliminary Reading
- Other Information
- Fees
- Offerings and Dates
This course introduces the basic principles for the development of abstract paintings, considering a variety of historical and contemporary examples. This includes abstraction developed out of organic sources, geometric principles, optical effects, materiality and matter painting, and hybrid forms. Studio projects expand the student’s conceptual and historical understanding of abstract painting, introduce a range of paint-handling skills, develop their knowledge of acrylic, oil and other media and understanding of how formal and material qualities contribute to the generation of meaning and affect. Studio work is informed by lectures, seminars and discussions. Work health and safety (WHS) instruction is an integral part of this course.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
Contents- competently utilise a range of skills relevant to abstract painting, in response to course projects;
- explore the potential of material/s used in course projects;
- pursue the inventive application of concepts and processes relevant to course projects; and
- engage with material processes, and historical and theoretical contexts relevant to an independently driven abstraction project.
Other Information
School of Art & Design studio courses have a limited enrolment capacity. Students are advised to enrol as early as possible to maximise the opportunity of securing a place.
- Body of studio work weeks 1-6 (40) [LO 1,2,3]
- Body of studio work weeks 7-12 (40) [LO 1,2,3]
- Drawing, research, visual diary (20) [LO 3,4]
The ANU uses Turnitin to enhance student citation and referencing techniques, and to assess assignment submissions as a component of the University’s approach to managing Academic Integrity. While the use of Turnitin is not mandatory, the ANU highly recommends Turnitin is used by both teaching staff and students. For additional information regarding Turnitin please visit the ANU Online website.
What is the course about?
– Exploring different pathways into making abstract paintings.
– Providing a stimulating atmosphere for personal discovery.
– Encouraging an imaginative, sensitive and individual handling of acrylic paint with the edition of other water-based mixed media and collage.
– Becoming familiar with visual language by looking at a variety of artists’ work.– Visual language in painting: colour, composition, tone and paint application.
– Different methods of arriving at abstraction: eg. starting from observation, using experimental methods, randomness, conceptual systems and translating different sensory information.What will I achieve?By the end of this course you should be able to.
– Select the pictorial and material means with which to express a range of ideas, sensations and emotions
– Use with greater confidence the visual language common to both representation and abstraction
– Be more confident with your use of colour.This is a course for anyone with an open mind and/or some basic drawing or painting skills.
You should be able to follow simple written and verbal instructions, demonstrations, hand-outs and health and safety information, and will be invited to take part in group discussion.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
You will be guided through several processes to produce abstract paintings referring to specific artists or genres. As the course progresses you will develop an individual approach to making abstract paintings. Experimentation will be encouraged.
There will be practical projects, individual guidance and encouragement, group discussion and examination of artists’ work.
Close Up
“Before Walter Smith and I were married in 2006, he had made a journey to the Arctic on a Russian ice breaker. As I loved to travel to unique places, this journey to the Arctic was a sign to me that Walter would be willing to go with me on my travels. I dated men whose dreams were about houses on golf courses, and that was not how I wanted to proceed in life. Before I made this painting, I put out all of Walter’s photographs on the ice breaker and closed my eyes and imagined what it was like. I also watched videos online. Then, I went to make the painting thinking about water and breaking through ice. This is a very expressionistic painting, but very typical of the way I paint.”
“With the last two solo exhibitions I have had at Studio Gallery, I changed my emphasis from location to personal experience. In 2014 I discovered that my 13-yr hip replacement was failing and the fragments from the replacement were attacking my greater trochanter. The x-ray of my situation looked very strange and I couldn’t get it out of my head. I decided to concentrate on learning more about the human hip bone and I began to draw and paint it furiously.”
Experience-Based Abstraction Con’t
“In 2015 I decided to do a show about “My Beautiful Bones.” I knew this would not be a big seller – but I needed to resolve my issues about my hip joint that had plagued me my whole life. These were not really abstract paintings, nor were they medically correct in all ways. It was a cathartic experience for me and gave me great solace.
In 2018 my second husband of 12 years died of cancer, and once again, I was faced with a personal experience that overshadowed any other subject that could be a theme for a solo art show. My husband was such a fun character, with many peculiar sayings and ways, and I decided to use those as the basis for my paintings. Fighting my way through grief and making large abstract paintings was about the most challenging thing I have ever done.”
Abstraction & The Public
“The paintings may have been ambiguous to the public, but when I told the stories behind the paintings, the art took on new meaning for everyone. I used my own visual vocabulary to remember the good times of our marriage.
I don’t think abstraction is more meaningful than realism. Perhaps there is more mystery in abstraction, but both ways of creating can be satisfying for an artist and, hopefully, the public.”
