I’ve been drawn to abstract art lately, and it looks so easy to do. Just slap some colors on the canvas and call yourself an artist. NOT! This process has surprised me with its challenge. I’ve been watching the instructional videos of Betty Krause — her work is luminous, the colors are gorgeous, and her tutorials are explicit. (See her YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_LtcQkDngMzTtnGtdl1gxA.) So I’ve tried to follow the general direction of her work. Here are two of my attempts.

The one above started life as a filler paper for a frame. I painted it with gesso, and then, ala Betty Krause, filled it with random marks using colored pencils.

I used water to spread the pencil marks around. Big slashes of black acrylic paint came next.

I then added random blobs of warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows), let them dry, and then added random blobs of cool colors (blues, greens, purples). Going back and forth between warm and cool colors, I eventually ended up with this.

I wasn’t quite happy with the overall construction, so I added some intentional marks with acrylic paint and china markers. Here’s the completed piece on temporary display in my living room.

Here’s another one I made, following the same steps as I’ve described above.

This one’s hanging in my half bath with a wrong-color mat. Once quarantine lifts, I’ll need a trip to the craft store to try out different mat colors!