Abstract Botanical

 

Because I use so many images layered multiple times with different layering effects, the number of potential choices I could make at times seems infinite. Often it boils down to what mood I'm in. Do I want to see something almost realistic? Something more abstract expressionist like this one? Or something in between? This piece uses the same images as the last one I posted on this blog. But in this one I was attracted to the almost chaotic but quite deliberate effects that occur when the same images are used multiple times. Deliberate in terms of making specific choices based on hunches and wanting to shift what doesn't work for me, but also with the desire to be surprised and delighted. And that's when I call it "good."

This is all done digitally but prints and prints on various surfaces are available on Fine Art America.

Caught in a Web Between Time and Space, (Berries in a Net), New Oil Pastel Painting

© Copyright 2018 by Sheryl Karas

I'm playing in this piece with combining multiple impressions seen on the same walk: berries on a tree, plastic netting falling down. The berries in real life were not in the net. This is an invented image. But I like the juxtaposition of natural and manmade, a barrier being warped by the weight of the berries and the impact of space and the passage of time. 

The original piece is 12" x 12" oil pastel and acrylic gel medium on cradled panel mounted to 16" x 16" on another cradled panel painted black. It's called "Caught in a Web Between Time and Space." Contact me for more information. Prints, prints on canvas, and other printed items made from this piece are available on Fine Art America. 

Green Sage, Wild Grass Abstract Pastel Landscape

"Green Sage, Wild Grass", © 2017 Sheryl Karas

This was a study I did for a larger piece now hanging in the lobby of the Chico Breast Care Center. I was experimenting with techniques for creating a pastel painting that did not need to be framed under glass and this was the first one that succeeded. I tried out lots of types of marks and types of pastel in this piece, never meaning to present it for sale. Years later, I look at this and love the freedom and spontaneity in it, thinking it really does stand on its own. So I finished it and will eventually frame it (not under glass). In the meantime, prints and prints on canvas are available on Fine Arts America.

Okay, this is finished now. It's 12" x 12" on cradled panel. Then I mounted it on a second 16" x 16" cradled panel painted black. It's ready to hang without framing (although I suppose you could add a frame if want to, but no point in adding glass).

Abstract Expressionist Grass, Abstract Digital Painting

Abstract Expressionist Grass, © 2016 Sheryl Karas

Another in my series of wild high desert grass dancing in the wind! This abstract was created with so many layers of photographs that I lost count. I really love how the series has evolved into something so very expressive—it's more about the wind and the dance than about the form of the grass very much now at all.

Prints and prints on canvas, etc. are available on Fine Art America.