Unveiling Composition and Exploring the Abstract Style
Work by Andrea Wedell, from the “Weeds” Collection, 2020
Abstract art is celebrated for its freedom, emphasizing raw emotions over realistic depictions. To achieve this effect, abstract artists focus on shapes, colors, forms, and gestural marks. The use of texture and color invites viewers to engage on a sensory level, making the experience both personal and subjective.
Abstract art continues to push boundaries in contemporary settings, often incorporating mixed media and technology. It famously invites conversation, encourages viewers to explore their own interpretations, and can be both a personal reflection and a social commentary.
We look forward to two incredible abstract artists coming to Willow Pond this summer for 4 and 5-day workshops. Both exemplify a fascinating contrast between masculine and feminine styles.
Gordon Studer is an artist based Sausalito. His earthy, confident abstracts are rooted in his discipline as an award-winning commercial illustrator, lending his work a strong, graphic cadence. His captivating work explores the perception of liminal experience, interstitial time, and dreamscapes in deliberate forms in black atop a palette of ochre, sky blue, and crushed clays.
Studer's 4-day workshop, "Unveiling Composition; Discover the Masterpiece within your Art," takes place next month on June 21-24th. Studer emphasizes how to craft dynamic compositions using multiple pieces, explore mixed media techniques, and master the use of color and value.
Andrea Wedell is a bicultural Northern California native who straddles the aesthetics and values of her French and American heritages. "I aim to encapsulate the essence of two worlds colliding, intertwining, and coexisting."
Wedell's workshop, "Exploring Abstraction," will be held this August 4th-8th. It emphasizes a sense of aliveness in the work, building rich surfaces on the canvas and finding a personal visual language. Color played a crucial role throughout her process, and she had extensive experience studying color theory in Paris for the first 10 years of her 30-year professional practice. Wedell illustrates how color can evoke moments, feelings, and a connection with place and teaches that painting is a form of visual poetry. The parts and pieces create a harmonious whole among contrasting elements, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the complexities of any bi-cultural identity. We can't wait! Willow Pond has received so many requests for more workshops like these that we plan to bring more abstract artists to instruct next year.
