1

ABSTRACT
APPROACH
Using an abstract approach to painting - even if you are a representa-
tive artist - is a great way to make your work look cleaner, stronger and
more expressive. When you forget what your subject represents and
instead try to see it as a set of definite shapes of color you become able
to work faster and produce paintings that are simple, yet eloquent. I
approach any subject as an abstract pattern of patches of color,
always trying to think in terms of shape, form, color and line. I try not to
think about the objects I am depicting. With this approach every shape
in your painting becomes only a light suggestion of something, not a
detailed copy of the object.
1 The largest and most obvious shapes 2 Medium and small shapes

2
FROM LARGE
TO SMALL
When you perceive your subject as a puzzle made of pieces of different
sizes and colors you should be able to divide the scene in front of you
into three different sets of large, medium and small shapes. This will
make it much easier for you to decide what to include into the painting
and what to leave aside. I always work from large to small, trying to sim-
plify the composition into a few recognizable shapes and values. The
structure of a painting can be achieved very quickly when you use a
3 Tiny details
large brush and start with your larger shapes and masses.
 3
LOCAL COLOR
This one is my favorite! Local color is the natural color of an object without the effect of
light and shadow i.e. the color we usually name things with - a red dress, a yellow umbrella,
a green leaf… Strong light often distorts local colors of objects, making them look washed
out in the light and almost black in the shadow. But an artist can ignore the destructive
effects of light and make the color rich in the light as well as in the shadow. In the paint-
ing at the right, the light blue color of the girl’s blouse stays strong in the light and is recog-
nizable in the shadow (I only made it slightly grayer in the shadow). In reality, because of
all the reflected light and highlights, the color of the blouse seemed pale in the light and
darker in the shadow, but I didn’t let the sunlight wash this gorgeous color out and painted
the blouse as I wanted it to be. That is the same way I treated all the other colors in this
painting.

With this quick sketch I wanted to show you that it

isn’t always necessary to make colors lighter in order
to convey the illusion of light in a painting.
 4
HARD AND SOFT
EDGES
Painting demands a constant effort to make some things stand out and
Painting demands a constant effort to make some things stand out and other
other things to merge. Hard edges reinforced with a strong value con-
things to merge. Hard edges reinforced with a strong value contrast (light
trast (light against dark or vise versa), immediately attract the viewer’s
against dark or vice versa), immediately attract the viewer’s attention so you
attention so you can use them to lead the his eyes through the painting.
can use them to lead the viewer’s eyes throughout the painting. Soft edges
Soft edges create connections between adjacent shapes and are great
create connections between adjacent shapes, make boundaries disappear
and to
areadd a depth
great to addtodepth
the painting. They also can
and an atmosphere be painting.
to the used in the areas you
By varying your
don’t want the viewer to look at. By varying your edges,
edges, you can achieve a dimensional quality in your painting. Soft edges can you can
also achieve
be used ain dimensional
the areas youquality in your
don’t want painting.
the viewer I love
to look at.to worklove
I really withto
workedges and this
with edges is the main
in painting reason
and this is thewhy I prefer
main reason traditional gouache
why I prefer to
traditional
acrylic gouache
gouache - I cangouache
to acrylic soften any- I edge any time!
can soften any Iedge
am sure youtime!
at any will easily
spot the soft and hard edges in this painting.
I am sure you will easily spot some soft and hard edges in this painting.
 Warm Green

Cool Green

5
WARM AND COOL
SIDE BY SIDE
Cool Red

Warm Gray
If you, like me, often paint from life, you might have noticed that cool and
warm colors can be found everywhere in the real world: a warm reflected
light can often be observed inside a cool shadow; on a white sand lit by
Warm Red a warm sunlight you can easily find a hint of coolness coming from the
sky. When you place warm and cool colors next to each other in a paint-
ing it creates a nice color vibration, makes the objects in your painting
look more real and fills the painting with air. These warm and cool colors
shouldn’t necessarily be complete opposites however. They can belong
to the same family of colors, but one of them should be cooler or warmer
Cool Gray than the other. For example, in this painting I placed a cool green next to
a warm green on the leaves of the plant; a cool red next to a warm red
on the pot, and a cool gray next to a warm gray in the large shadow. The
difference in temperature between these colors can be very small but
the viewer will still feel that subtle vibration and get unconsciously
attracted to the painting.
 6
DIAGONALS AND
ZIGZAGS
Painters do not always have time and opportunity to
arrange objects in the scene into a perfect composition.
Often times we only have to decide on the point of view
and the scale, and we don't want to spend a lot of time
composing. We want to paint! I am usually so excited about
the subject and eager to start painting that I can give only
a few minutes to myself to think about the composition.
After years of painting, my basic rule when it comes to
composing a picture has become looking for diagonals,
zigzags and their intersections in the subject. These can
make any composition look more dynamic. The coolest
thing about this rule is that your diagonals and zigzags
should not necessarily be features observed in your sub-
ject; they can be just imaginary lines drawn along the sides
of the objects in the scene. Diagonals and zigzags help
achieve a sense of space, perspective and movement in
the painting, while their intersections create a tension that
fills your work with energy.
 7
CAREFULLY
CHOSEN DETAIL
Details are "your last word" in a painting. They can make I use a small brush for details and usually add them on
your painting sing. They can reveal the beauty of your sub- top of an almost finished painting at the very last stage
ject in its full strength. Too much detail can destroy a paint- of work. I put them only in the areas of interest - the
ing. Details should be chosen carefully and put only in the places that are supposed to attract the viewer’s atten-
places you want the viewer's eye to move through. If you tion. You have to be mindful of the details, both in terms
paint small dots and fine lines all over your canvas or paper of quantity and quality.
you will lose the sense of atmosphere and perspective in
the painting.
 8
PAINTING
FROM LIFE
The world we live in is amazingly beautiful. The
colors and tones observed in nature cannot be
captured by any digital device, so if you really
want to see an ultimate beauty in your paint-
ings you need to learn how things look in reali-
ty. To do so, you have to paint from life from time
to time. Flowers in a vase on a windowsill, your
own reflection in a mirror, your room…anything
around you can become a decent subject to
paint. When the weather is fine you can go to a
park and make a couple of small sketches. By
painting from life you explore the true colors and
value relationships of nature so when you decide
to paint from a photo your “plein air” painting
experience should allow you to spot the areas in
the photo that aren't corresponding to reality and
you will be able to correct them.

In this set of images you can see my paintings done on

location and the photographs I took at the same time from
the same spot. You can clearly see how different the
photographs are from what I actually saw with my eyes at
the moment. I would have never been able to make these
same paintings if I had had to use these photographs for
reference.
Lena Rivo
I am a professional painter with over a decade of experience. Anything
observed in this amazing world can become my subject. I always try to
convey the illusion of light and atmosphere in my paintings and get the most
from the colors on my pallet. I paint with oils, acrylics and gouache, using the
same painting approach with any of these mediums. Having used gouache
for several years now, it has gradually become my favorite painting medium.
Its vibrant, deep and solid colors give me full freedom in expressing my
excitement for the beauty of nature.
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well. colored paper and Arches watercolor
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