Acrylic Abstract Painting – Step by Step
![Acrylic abstract painting with
swirling shapes in red , orange and purple with touches of black and white](https://i0.wp.com/margarethallfineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20200204_155720.jpg?fit=525%2C521)
This is my latest acrylic abstract painting. So I thought that I would explain a little bit about how I created this. In effect , how to paint an acrylic abstract ! Firstly, I followed a suggestion online to play with these three colours plus black and white and , literally , just see what happened. I did find this brief quite inspiring – choosing the colours had already been done for me . So if I could ‘ let go ‘ , I thought it might be relaxing. As opposed to the hard thinking and research that goes into , for example , one of my Story Pictures.
![A tribute to Hokusai's Great Wave set on a local reservoir in a traditional landscape painting](https://i0.wp.com/margarethallfineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/20190530_142652-1024x792.jpg?resize=525%2C406)
Anyway, I usually work in this ‘ portrait ‘ format and I didn’t realise how used I was to creating a rectangular composition until a friend of mine gave me some lovely square canvases. So , that was a challenge I set myself and this was the first version.
Step by Step
![First version of Red , Orange and Purple, with lots of white , showing the artistic process](https://i2.wp.com/margarethallfineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20200127_160734.jpg?fit=525%2C539)
I was pleased with the movement but I realised that the ‘white ‘ shapes were not working so – on to the next version.
![A very busy, complicated development of this restricted palette acrylic abstract
I](https://i1.wp.com/margarethallfineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20200204_155828.jpg?fit=525%2C541)
So next day, I worked on the painting some more and took away a lot of the white. But meanwhile , I had been far too busy and I had added so many ‘ interesting ‘ little sections . Really, they were cute in their own way , but all together , it was too much and just confused the eye. So, they had to go – it was quite a painful experience to paint them out . In fact, I think this is why some artists find it difficult to judge when an abstract is finished . I certainly do . What do you think ? Is it finished ?
![A red, blue and purple painting hung on the garden wall - how to paint an acrylic abstract.](https://i1.wp.com/margarethallfineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/20200404_102532.jpg?fit=525%2C516)
Well , that way of creating an intuitive abstract seems to me completely different to the way I put this next one together
![Shocking Pink spiral shape on a royal blue background with accents of bright green](https://i0.wp.com/margarethallfineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/78698422_1512727315551718_7208731675780448256_o-819x1024.jpg?resize=410%2C512)
Believe it or not , this composition came to me as a finished design in my imagination. Actually, this hardly ever happens for me . So it was just a question of trying to put it down on paper ( or canvas in this case )
Well, that’s enough waffling from me. I hope that I have shed a bit of light on how to paint an acrylic abstract . If you want to see more of my abstract paintings , have a look in my gallery here . And , don’t forget , all of my work is for sale at reasonable prices.
How do you paint your abstracts ?