I’m happy to announce that my abstract art is included in a new art book published by North Light Books, titled Acrylic Innovation: Styles and Techniques Featuring 64 Visionary Artists.

This 144-page book by Nancy Reyner detailed many fascinating ways to use acrylics – and most of these techniques will be ones you’ve never heard of!  Even though I’ve been using acrylics for years, even as I flip through the book I  stumble upon new ideas that I can’t wait to try out.

If you’re seeking inspiration, this book will help you tread new ground in your acrylic paintings, by encouraging experimentation.  The book covers a range of styles, spanning from realism to abstraction and everything in between.

Some techniques include: the use of texture, masking techniques, working with glazes, playing with perspective, and many more.  Artist interviews are included to provide insight into some of the many different working processes.

Acrylic Innovation: Styles and Techniques Featuring 64 Visionary Artists is a treasure trove of new ideas that will be inspiring for artists at any level.  For the total beginner, this book may be overwhelming, but it will also open a newbie’s eyes to the myriad possibilities of working with acrylics.

Plus, it has my work in it.  Can’t go wrong there!

You can also learn about some of the ways in which I use acrylics in my art instructional website, Art is Fun.

Happy Art-Making!

Milly's hat, inspired by the artwork of Thaneeya McArdle

Last month I was contacted by Milly from England.  She is studying for her GCSE in Art and chose me as her artist inspiration for her Hat Project for school.  She handmade this super-funky colorful hat, inspired by my abstract art!

close-up of Milly's hat

I think the hat turned out super-cool, and apparently her teacher thinks so too, because she got an A!

Great job, Milly!

I am always so, so excited when someone tells me how my art has inspired them. So you can imagine how thrilled I am to be told that I can inspire an entire classroom, without even being there in person!

Recently I was contacted by Maria Chio, an art teacher at Jim Barnes Middle School in Seguin, Texas.  She taught a painting lesson to her students based on my abstract art. After studying my bright shapes and colorful designs, they were instructed to create art in this playful, whimsical style. They were quite limited in color – they only had red, yellow, blue and white tempera paints to work with.  Using only the 3 primary colors (plus white) helped them learn how to mix the paint to create secondary and tertiary colors.

I was delighted to see what they came up with!

Here are a few of the middle school students’ artwork, juxtaposed with my own abstract art:

(Keep in mind that the students weren’t “recreating” the artwork I am placing side-by-side; they came up with their own designs.  I am mainly posting them side-by-side so that you can note the similarities, and see how much the students learned about color, pattern and repetition.)

Bravo to Maria’s middle school art students!  You can see more of her students’ artwork here.  The results were quite impressive!

p.s. If you want to learn how to paint your own abstract art in this style, check out my tutorial: How to Paint Abstract Art!