In the world of art there is a very strong movement back to what is called 'realism'. This includes traditional 'Ateliers', or art schools which teach tried and true painting systems that have stood the test of time. For painters these are usually oil painting or egg tempera methods. There several of such schools in  the USA and Europe, example of these schools can be found at the Art Renewal Centers website: https://www.artrenewal.org/Atelier/Search. ARC is one such school in FL. The education is thorough and students are required to be focused and dedicated. Quite an impressive resource. I occasionally play around with this degree of realism. Pure Gold and March quiet are examples.

March Quiet by Carolyn Bloom         Pure Gold by Carolyn Bloom                             Tree of Life by Carolyn Bloom

But at this time as much as I love the beautiful results and I have fun painting in this style, I am finding I am more drawn to painting in a looser more 'expressive' style. My work is still quite representational, that is it looks like a recognizable person, place or thing. I suppose I feel this way because I love exploring and finding new ways and new tools to use when I paint. I love the 'ah ha' moments that occur when I'm painting. For the most part this kind of work may be called Impressionism, although it is not strictly such. That is, it does not adhere strictly to the precepts of this style as it evolved in France , but many 'isms' followed Impressionism, post-impressionism, dadaism, sur-realism, modernism, to name a few. They all still have an influence on how we see and make art today.

It is said that all painting is fundamentally abstract! When you look at the fact that paint on a 2'd surface is not reality but a representation of reality this is true.  My 3rd example from my Visionscape series is a good example, it is highly stylized yet representational. If you look closely at any element you will see it is simplified. Choose a tiny section to examine and you will something that 'works' but by itself may not make total sense.

I have always loved abstraction in paintings and in my earlier years I used to paint Abstracts more regularly. To me these paintings were pure art, like music is made up of notes, these paintings were made up of only color, texture, and value etc. In other words the pure language of painting! Some people seem to feel this viscerally, I am such a person. I feel the look of a painting it's movement, its darks and lights all speak to me. However I love to 'tie' these feelings to something recognizable. Its a kind of grounding I suppose!

Below is an example of pure abstraction, 'Force of Nature', it is not posted on my website but is still available just email me for details.
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