I am an artist

I will freely admit that I know little to nothing about art. You could put a Rembrandt, Picasso, and a Renoir in front of me and I'd have no clue which was which. But that doesn't mean I don't like art. I just know what I like.

I like color, and I like defined shapes.

Many years ago Spouse & I saw this framed print by Kandinsky in IKEA and I fell in love with it. Spouse liked it too, and since it was inexpensive we bought it. It remains one of my favorite pieces.
While watching a decorating show on HGTV some years ago, I heard a designer refer to a piece of art she called "Mondrian-inspired". I liked the piece so much I looked up Mondrian and found lots of stuff I liked, such as this:

We don't have any Mondrian pieces nor any "Mondrian-inspired" pieces, but it is a style of art I am attracted to.

Just a few months ago when Steven & Thad were here Thad saw a painting in our house and said it looked "very Mark Rothko". "Very what?" I asked. I'd never heard of Mark Rothko, but when I looked him up I understood what Thad meant. Here are 6 separate paintings by Rothko:

I love them.

The paintings in our house that reminded Thad of Mark Rothko are these: (click to enlarge)

I painted them about 5 years ago to decorate my very dull office. They were my 1st ever attempt at 'making art'. I bought canvases at a craft store and used left-over latex wall paints. The green was in our kitchen, the purple was on a single wall in our bedroom, and the red/burgundy was on our fireplace mantel in our previous house.

When we moved to our current house I hung them in a bedroom that serves double duty as my office.

Interestingly, I hung them in a different order than before without being aware of it until now. I love that my art is flexible!

My 2nd attempt at 'making art' were landscapes. Each painting is done with just one color plus white. These are the same left-over wall paints I used for the "Rothko-inspired" paintings above, but with a very different effect. These hung in our library/den in our previous house.

Now they hang in a hallway at our current house.

Once again, I hung them in a different order than before without being aware of it until now.

Last weekend I felt 'inspired' by the long blank wall in our new master bathroom, so I picked up some more canvases at the craft store, along with some acrylic paints. (When we moved from our previous house we threw away all the left-over wall paints.) I wasn't sure what I wanted exactly, but I knew I wanted it to have a somewhat bold and reckless feel, to juxtapose the soothing, earthy tone of the space. This is what I came up with:

Without trying to copy Kandinsky, I think I created something "Kandinsky-inspired".

I was a little unsure of them at 1st, since they are not as controlled as my other pieces, but when Spouse said he like them, I banished my doubts and silently told myself "I am an artist. I AM an artist!"

Hmmm, sounds familiar. I hope I'm not taking this 'empowerment' thing too far.

Crush du Jour: Geoff Begnaud