How many times have you looked at an abstract painting and heard someone say, “I could do that!”?

While abstract painting looks easy to some, it can actually be more challenging than traditional or classical painting. This is because abstract art defies rules and conventions. It’s up to you as the artist to break rules, be expressive, and decide what is art.

Total abstraction bears no trace of any reference to anything recognizable. Good Abstract art makes use of all these design elements in order to carry the message the artist is trying to convey. Because we do not have specific subject (example a house or flowers etc), we only have the canvass, color and design to convey what we are trying to say. 

Abstract art uses a visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references … 

Abstraction indicates a departure from reality. This departure from accurate representation can be slight, partial, or complete. Artwork which takes liberties, altering for instance color and form in ways that are conspicuous, can be said to be partially abstract. 

Three art movements which contributed to the development of abstract art were Romanticism, Impressionism and Expressionism. Post Impressionism as practiced by Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne had an enormous impact on 20th-century art and led to the advent of 20th-century abstraction. The heritage of painters like Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Seurat was essential for the development of modern art. 

All these artists made use of design to create their works. 

Design or Composition is essential to creating good Abstract Art. It is the only way to get and keep the viewers attention on what you want to say. Even in the so – called ‘instantaneous looseness’ of abstraction there is and underlying logic based on these building blocks.

In order to make good Abstract art, we first need to learn to think (logic and analysis) , before we feel, and depict our emotions on the canvass.

Composition Should Be a Tool – Not a Rule 

But!…you cannot break the rules if you do not know how they function and work.

Composition refers to the organization, arrangement, and combination of objects within the borders
of drawing space. You want to bring the eyes of the viewer toward your center of interest within
an aesthetically-pleasing composition.

Elements of Composition Integral to Good Design

We will be going into detail with each one of these elements.