2024 – July - Abstract Art
Profiling June 2024 Paintings
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Do you believe it? The year is half over. It sure has gone fast.
Welcome to the July 2024 – Abstract Art newsletter. The paintings in this month’s issue were done in June. As promised, I have 7 to show you. It’s interesting that July is the 7th month of the year and I have 7 paintings to show.
The image behind the “July” text is a painting I just finished. It’s unique in that I used 12 colors. I can’t wait until you see it. You should have seen how excited I was when it was done. Look for that next month.
All paintings are painted on all sides (top, left, right and bottom).
June 2024
Train Trestle, 11 inches x 14 inches (acrylic on canvas board)
Originally, I painted this back in November 2023. It was not an all-over painting. I wanted to make this consistent with all of my other paintings, so I painted the whole canvas.
When I put my outline in, I followed a computer printout that I had made. I don’t do the computer outline anymore. I just hand-sketch in what I want to do. When I drew the outline of where I was going to put everything, I never noticed something that was in there and it is very pertinent. I looked back at my outline and I applied the sketch in the horizontal position. But once it was turned to the proper vertical position, something appeared.
If you look closely, there is a cross in the painting. I did not draw a cross in there. It just came out that way, I guess.
This train trestle was the site of a terrible tragedy 14 years ago. Just a couple of hundred feet to the south of this exact trestle, several teen girls were killed on the tracks. The part that I drew goes over the roadway. The part to the south goes over a river. The kids were on the bridge over the water when the southbound train came along. They tried to outrun the train. There was a fisherman in a boat down below and he told the kids to jump but they did not.
I think there was divine intervention in this painting. I have no explanation of how the cross got in there.
Saving Lives #1, 8 inches by 10 inches (acrylic on canvas board)
This painting was originally started in November 2023. I painted the rest of the canvas to make it an all-over painting like the rest of the paintings. It was originally a fire station in the UK.
Surf’s Up, 16 inches x 20 inches (acrylic on canvas)
Welcome to Cocoa Beach, Florida. Home to surfing and Ron Jon’s Surf Shop. This is home to the famous surf shop. That is what you are looking at in this painting. I took the top-down of the surf shop and the surrounding streets and buildings.
I have to give kudos to my Mom who came up with the title.
Sprouting Magnolia, 4 inches x 6 inches (acrylic on photo paper)
Along my walk one day I came across a tree called a magnolia. I photographed it with my phone. I didn’t know at the time what kind of tree it was, so I looked it up on Google Lens. I used the photo as my guide as I sketched out what I wanted to paint. You can paint on the actual photo side but I found that the paint didn’t stick very well for me. So I paint on the back of the photo paper. It comes out great. I’m considering giving away my 4 x 6 paintings as a way to get people interested in looking at and buying my work. I’ll announce something when it’s time.
Tennis Anyone?, 16 inches x 20 inches (acrylic on canvas)
Do you play tennis? Do you know someone who does? This is the perfect painting for them. This is based off of the tennis courts at the Beachwoods townhomes in Melbourne Beach, Florida. For those of you have read some of my real-life stories, you’ll remember that I once lived here for a couple of years. I used to play tennis on these very courts. In fact, I was there practically every day. I used to play tennis with a lot of the residents. Unfortunately, once I moved to the mainland, I lost touch with tennis. I enjoyed every moment that I had playing tennis.
Golfing on the Space Coast, 16 inches x 20 inches (acrylic on canvas)
This is my old stomping ground when it came to golf. I played golf at Spessard Holland Golf Course all the time. In this painting, you’ll see the blue on the left side of the painting, which is the river. I put some other blue in where there are ponds and water hazards. On the lower right is Brevard County Fire Rescue Station 64. On the far right side you’ll see hole #3. It lines up with State Road A1A. In the upper right, you’ll see the parking lot and the clubhouse. They are not in the exact location but they are in there. In the upper left are the houses that back up to the outer edges of the golf course. I had fun here when I played golf. I usually only played 9 holes. I only had time for 9 holes as I usually played after school. A quick two hours of golf and then it was home for dinner. I did play 18 holes a few times too but I’m more familiar with the Front 9. I don’t need a map to tell you how each hole goes. Recently, I looked at some photos from the course. A whole bunch of it has sure changed since I last played there. The last time I played there was 1992.
Tiny Leaves Living in Dirt, 4 inches x 6 inches (acrylic on photo paper)
I was on another walk when I came across some plant growing out of the dirt in the sidewalk. When I looked it up, it said it was called Sandmat. I used the photo as my guide and created this piece of art.
Conclusion
Wow! That was a lot of paintings. I’m exhausted just writing this all out. Not only do I have to write this but then I have to transfer all the photos from my phone to computer. Then I have to resize everything and put copyrights on them. It’s taken me a couple of hours of work. But it’s all well worth it when I hear from my readers.
Don’t forget to hit that “like” button and comment. Don’t forget to share it with others or re-stack it.
I guess it’s time to get back to painting. :)
If you ever have any questions, feel free to message me.
Until next time, happy reading!
-Matt
Great work as always, Matt!
Such great art, Matt, and I love all the stories behind them. Your colour choices are terrific, and it's so interesting that you reach for those each time, which I love, because - along, of course, with your style - it gives such cohesion to what is a great body of work.
Superb - words, art, both. Bravo!