I have been looking at the work of Richard Diebenkorn as a way to abstract a landscape and I have found myself here: Painting abstract images of my neighborhood, Lower Ranchitos near Taos, New Mexico. For references I am using printouts of the area from Google Earth.
All morning I listened to my Miles Davis Pandora station which did not stray too far outside, nor did it stray into prosaic territory, and it was a perfect inspiration.
This WIP is of the Highway 240 corridor near the Callejon intersection. In reality, it looks nothing like the above, but I confess it was the inspiration for the shapes and I can only credit the jazz for the brush choices and paint handling.
I’m pretty sure this isn’t exactly what Robert Parsons had in mind when he suggested abstracting things but it certainly is a good exercise in breaking things down to their basic forms.
Did I mention I have a couple of Robert Ellis’ paintbrushes? Each time I use them, I hear him remind me of where, exactly, to hold those brushes.