What is Great Art?

What is Great Art?  we must define that first, before we can understand What makes great abstract art... lets be honest there’s a lot of paintings that are thinly disguised as art... patterns or paint effects that look good... But is that truly art?

Free Hand 2
For more info about this painting click 

Painting and the act of Abstraction is an exploration of the human state.  The ability of the Artists to be story tellers or poets to inspire the powerful stimulating visual impact that abstraction has. Artist create a vision through there eyes that anyone can relate to, in colour, line, shape and form.

Great Abstract Paintings creates and evoke strong reactions within us. They Remain Fresh, Vibrant and Relevant even over time and creates stimulating powerful visual impact and energy as a definition of what it is to be alive.

All Great art has timeless quality that retains relevance over the years that brings the story of the painting closer to us and our lives and makes us consider or even just react. Great art is all of these things and that little bit more...

This is just a snippet of the full article hosted on my website helping you to chose and buy Abstract paintings for your home or Office (click hear to read the full article) by understanding what is grate art you can better understand what makes abstract art great.

Click here for more great art articles....  

Thank you for contributing to this community I deeply appreciate your valuable time as I realise that all comments allow us to learn from our mistakes and build on our successes

abstract painting

abstract painting, a photo by Mjo-art on Flickr.

this piece was inspired when I took down a shelf in the garage to clean it... The shelf was rotten but the surface was covered in grime and the rust marks from some old paint tins crating an interesting pattern and effects... I just had to get out my brushes and have a go... What do you think of this pleasing acrylic painting.

Acrylic paints on paper

Via Flickr:
Acrylic paint on paper painted as an exploration that I thoroughly enjoyed as an exercise in control and design

Easy abstract paintings in acrylics

I spent a few moments today having a quick browse around google and came across a really interesting site about how to paint abstract paintings with acrylic paints in a variety of styles and methods...

Well worth a look if you are interested in abstract painting and exploring new and interesting ways to paint beautiful paintings that capture the imagination. There are lots of simple to follow video tutorials and much more besides that got into detail about tools and techniques  that make it easy for any one to paint fantastic acrylic paintings. 

abstractartoriginal.blogspot.co.uk

one small thing and the world is changed

Its seam a funny thing, you change one small thing and the next thing you know a whole world has in some small way altered. Perhaps it just a perception but sooner or later that feels like a reality even if it dose not become one over night.

My profile image on Google+

Ok so why all the fuss, well, I changed my profile picture on Google +, in part as a protest over a couple of bills that where going before congress concerning as I saw it the freedom of information and what I believed was some kind of censorship that was being allowed through the back door. 

But you don't even live in the USA some said. True, but the internet don't know that, even if it gave a toss... The simple fact is as an artist my work is seen and interpreted by others based on their values and not mine, my reasons and ideals often mean nothing to someone else.

I knew at the time and had no doubt that my little protest would make any impact on the events of the time. I mean its just a small photo of me that I fiddled with, to almost black out my image. However as time has gone on I have looked again and again at the half seen image straining to see more... Which set me to wondering is that not how we normally see the world around us... 

Do we as individuals and artists alike really take the time to look and see, or is just a collection of half seen images and fleeting glimpses that we take for granted and where we allow our brains to fill in the blanks, assuming that is that we even care about what we see based on the thousands of images that are thrust upon us every day through the media, advertising and the internet.

The simple fact is that few of us have the time to really look at the world as it rushes by. For me Facebook and Google+ are just a collection of images that might catch my eye from time to time drawing me to the headline that might, if its really lucky get me to look a little deeper and even read a few words on a good day, assuming I have the time... and the inclination.

The more  that I have thought about the more that I have been playing with the images I see and have actually stated looking at the idea of painting those half seen images as though that are a reality...  

Different by far, a painting that breaks the mould.

The shape of things that are
80 X 65 cm, oil painted canvas,

Far removed from the normal style of simple abstract paintings and the minimalist lines or shapes that normally predominate in my work. This abstract painting is an expression confusion and frustration, using textures and colours that are very different, but also exciting and distinct. I truly feel that this painting breaks a mould and pushes the boundaries of my abstract artwork.

Despite being about disorder and frustrations. It has a calmness and ease that belie its subject. The green is vibrant and energetic bursting with life and in complete contradiction to the warm greys and reds. It is both fugitive and pastoral while holding firmly to the abstract.

For my self I cant quite decide if I like it as a painting. But the real value for me, was what I gained as and artist and painter from pushing beyond the fears and doubts that would have had me maintain, the status quo. How dose this abstract painting make you feel ?  

the best Hubpages article... how to paint a better picture

Making better art is as much about how you see the world as it is about what you do within It. I have just written my best Hubpages article to date. The article, entitled "How to pain a better picture" is despite how the title sounds not about painting skills or style but rather how I as a modern artist deal with the problem of focus and objectivity.

Being an artist requires a lot from me and painting I have realised is only one small part of what I do... Reading, learning, understanding and growing as well as writing are vital to producing fantastic modern art. Hubpages is just one of a number of places that I invest my time and energy as well as this blog I write several others and contribute articles and comments across the internet all of which allows me to channel my thoughts and I believe and hope is as much a benefit to others as it is to me.

Art is a universal world wide language

I believe that Art is a universal world wide language.. I is not that pictures speak a thousand words its just that we understand the words spoken. last night while drifting around on the web I came across a shot video file for CHANGE an artist action group in Montréal called the ATSA that help the underprivileged there.

As an individual I am not a big supporter of charities although I do make regular payment to CARE International and I do buy poppies in November, in fact when ever I see the stand I empty my pockets of all the change I have (sadly my pocket are not deep) however I was so struck by the video I left a comment and decided to have a closer look at the ATSA and there CHANGE initiative.


I have to say I am impresed and have included links so you can get involved or just have a look as I have done ether way the world is a better place if art can and is used to help and not just as a soap box for radicals..

change website
ATSA website
CARE International 

Modern art in Barcelona

I gave two friend a lift to London the other night, so that they could go and see Moby playing at the Palace theater. On the way home we soon all got chatting about Art and Barcelona as it is a place we have all visited at one time or another. I spent 5 wonderful days in this city with my girlfriend a couple of years ago. While I was there I managed to visit a number of art galleries and exhibitions that where going on at the time which was brilliant. Although the Picasso Museum was fabulous and is so well known I am however always surprised that the museum of modern art in Barcelona MACBA is hardly talked about. Not only is the building a brilliant example of modern architecture, the collection of painting, art and sculpture is stunning and well worth the time spent immersing your self in for an hour or two....
the beautiful photo from: MorBCN

Hope and the essence of life it's self

This post has taken a long time to write it has been a long and difficult and personal challenge to compose forcing me to confront many difficult issues.... so where to start! well since this financial recession started which I have to admit has had a huge personal effect on my both personal and working life drawing me away from painting and imposing financial restrictions that challenged my core beliefs, attitude and sense of personal value

last year was the worst for me! It forced to take a Job for a time as a chief just to put food on the table and keep the wolf from the door, the emotional and psychological effect was devastating at a creative and imaginative level drawing me away from painting, drawing and any creative act’s, even activities like reading, writing and play where affected. For a time I believe that I had lost hope its self….. But art and the very act of painting is what makes us alive it drives the soul and feeds the mind it is the blood that courses though my veins it is the very essence of who I am…. Without it. I am nothing!

Finally I can now, with all honesty say that the worst is over. I have begin work on improving and enlarging my studio space although this might take some time as it is economically restricted to a degree. I have started work on updating my website Mjoart.com with a new layout, copy and images. I am also helping a number of individuals and business with marketing and web design projects that all involve creative applications and solutions. I have become involved with Marketing and website of a local cleaning business D.K.M. Cleaning in Essex and is doing very well and I am writing. Writing about all sorts of things, things that I had never seen myself writing about such "Small business websites!" on Hubpages.. But I have! I am writing about myself, about self help and improvement, about marketing and business, and about art, painting and the essence of life its self.

But best of all I am Painting and Drawing.

What do i find....?

This blog is all about art or that's what i believed but even I have a sense of humor especially when I pop onto the blog to make a quick post about what I have been up to lately and find a Google advert in the sidebar promoting Laser Vision Surgery which I just found so amusing considering my last post "Discovering myself again" which concentrated on an injury I had to my eye! well we are all entitled to a giggle once in awhile.

Little Pink bunnies

Along with a group of others this local property investor I know walked us through to a conservatory. What I saw amazed me. In the large open space the floor was covered in a patchwork of green, felt and baize over which where hundreds of little pink bunnies hopping about. You know the sort of thing you would find on a market stall, small no bigger than your hand, stuffed with batteries and all fluffy, shocking day-glow pink, hopping about and making an awful racket of mechanical sounds and squeaks. She was stood there pleased as punch with herself, in a sexy little nightie that left little to the imagination and to be honest with you even I have never thought of her in that way. She fielded the barrage of questions with ease but no one asked Why? Art it is, but she is not an artist why had she done this I had to know. "Because she could", "Why not" and "It seamed like a good idea at the time" where some of the responses that she gave to my question. Finally she admitted that she "I Just like It" and went on to add, "The funny thing however is that all the bunnies can hop anywhere, but they don't, they stay in their own little area or territory within their own groups and if they do stray into another area they get knocked over you don't see it, it just happens. Each tribe of bunnies keep to themselves they don't mix or anything its weird. I did not plan it, it just happened that way". I found myself saying, that in all the studies, test and computer models that have been carried out over the years that I have herd about the same thing happens, larger groups sub-divide and define territories for themselves its one of the great mysteries of life, we then got on to discussing its merits as art.

I woke with a start, the cold still, darkness itself seamed to be shaking me awake, It was a dream thank god for that. But more likely It was a nightmare, all these little pink bunnies hopping about in my head it could not be anything else but a nightmare could it? I lay there awake for what seamed like an age trying to understand, Why Pink Fluffy Bunnies? Art for me is the study of the human state and the little pink bunnies is just a reflection of that, most of us spend our whole lives desperately trying to fit in to our chosen group we even put other things in what we decide is the group that they belong to, I mean who said that Picasso is a cubist painter! the fact is that his cubist period only lasted for a few brief years of his long and productive life and yet we still class him as a cubist painter . Why? The truth is that my vision of the bunnies represents great art and my investor friend is stood on the very edge of an automated society both fascinated and involved yet aloof from the whole is as equally a part of this fantastic piece of artwork. I am not a great fan of instillations however this is certainly something that I would one day like to undertake, but perhaps something other than little pink bunnies would be called for, for my own sanity.

Essentially the creative process follows two courses, the first and perhaps most common is that of the route of discovery and exploration steadily heading towards an unknown goal, tentatively feeling your way forward through each stage ultimately to a finished work . The other is the top down approach as I call it, Here starting with completed or near completed piece and unravelling or exposing the layers in an attempt to comprehend the hidden values and meanings that relate to any given idea. I am intrigued by the Pink bunnies idea as although it is a finished work all be it in my own head it still requires both methods of this creative processes in its completion and the involvement of my scantily clad property invertors friend giving it a greater dimension and depth that is necessary in such a piece.