Home » Visual & Performing Arts » Oil Painting » Abstraction Through Nature

Abstraction Through Nature

© Susan A. Wenz-Denise

Nature has always been one of the favorite sources of inspiration for oil painters since oil colours were invented. The intrinsic organic qualities of the medium make oil paint a perfect choice in rendering objects of nature. Perhaps that’s why abstract oil paintings that derive their inspiration from nature are so compelling. This article outlines a few ways ordinary objects in nature can be used to create a great abstract painting.

Magnification
Objects in nature have born in them an aesthetic beauty from afar, but even more so from a very close up point of view. An organic object, no matter what size, can provide the ultimate inspiration for an oil painting even when just the tiniest portion of it is the focus. Georgia O’Keeffe is famous for her magnified interpretations of organic flowers, cropped to a point where the flower is almost unrecognizable, but the aesthetic beauty and design the abstraction creates is enchanting. Magnification allows the artist to communicate the delicate intrinsic qualities the viewer may not notice in the object’s actual size. Natures’ beauty through abstract design becomes the channel through which a new understanding is formed. Although the object may be unrecognizable at first, upon realization the viewer is afforded the luxury to experience life through a fresh point of view.

Exaggeration and Accentuation
A friend of mine is working on series of paintings using mushrooms collected from her own backyard. Using them as a study, she focuses on the curves and folds of these unique objects, accentuating them through her use of line. She spends no time on shading or perspective to give a realistic portrayal of the mushrooms, but instead allows the growths to dictate a pattern that she mimics in each of her paintings. On first sight it is not clear that her paintings are representative of mushrooms, but the appreciation for the uniqueness of these exquisite objects is suggested through the bold yet graceful organic texture.

Distortion
Surrealism and Cubism are great examples of movements in art history that were known for the means of distortion toward an abstract end. Nature wasn’t used exclusively as inspiration for these movements, but was often prevalent, and the concept suits our purpose here. Similar to magnification and accentuation, distortion of nature can allow for a fresh new approach toward understanding the world as we know it. Distorting the proportions of an object or certain qualities can cause abstract visual stimulation that opens doors to new thinking.

The copyright of the article Abstraction Through Nature in Oil Painting is owned by . Permission to republish Abstraction Through Nature in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.