Before you paint, imagine your personal experiences at the beach.
One of the most important art movements in the United States was abstract expressionism, which saw painters like Willem de Kooning creating abstract human forms. According to the Museum of Modern Art, abstraction was a way for the artists to convey strong emotions and expressions. To capture the essence of these types of artworks, make a do-it-yourself abstract beach painting. Go out to your favorite beach and soak in the waves and the smells and then capture its essence in your own acrylic painting on canvas.
Instructions
1. Gather beach reference material for your painting before you start. Take photographs of a beach visit or sketch out the beach onto drawing paper with a pencil. If you do not have access to a beach, look at books with beach scenes. You are not recreating these images, but they should help conjure up ideas for your painting. Also write down your thoughts about a beach experience.
2. Sketch out a preliminary drawing for your beach painting using paper and pencil. It helps to think in advance about composition, or image placement, before you start. Otherwise, you can do your own action painting like Jackson Pollock, who relied on chance and pure intuition for his paintings. Instead of brushing paint on his canvases, Pollack dripped, poured and threw paint onto his paintings on the floor. Rather than sketching out his ideas in advance, his work was random and completely unpredictable. "One: Number 31, 1950," is a well-known action painting from Pollock that is completely made up of paint drips.
3. Hang your prepared canvas, which is a canvas that is ready to use. Hang your canvas on the wall with picture hooks or place the canvas on a easel. It is easier to paint the canvas while vertical rather than laying it down on a table.
4. Squeeze the acrylic paints you wish to start with onto your palette. Start with a walnut-sized portion since acrylic dries quickly and cannot be used once it is hard. Start with a few colors and squeeze out more as needed. A beach painting most likely uses blues, greens and tans.
5. Paint with your sketch as a guide. Abstract paintings use the emotion and feelings of the artist. Ask yourself what you want the audience to see and how you want to express yourself in the beach painting. For example, if you want to capture the beauty of the ocean, you may paint lots of different blues. You can add subtle white for the foam and waves. Consider adding abstract sea creatures or swimmers.
6. Add more paint to your artwork. Step back every once in a while to look at the overall beach painting. In abstraction, you are very free to paint however you choose. Continue adding more paint in whichever color you decide until you feel that you are finished.
