Paint Your Abstract Art Collection Green!

Mar 13, 2020

As spring timidly arrived, green imposingly enters the spotlight with its elemental association with nature and blossoming vegetation. However, its copious metaphorical resonances are hardly exhausted here - calming and dangerous, pleasing and toxic - green is ambivalent if not an ambiguous color. Unstable both in painting as in dying it has been associated with all things changeable from love to fortune and this intriguing uncertainty has been encapsulated in some of the most enthralling pieces of green abstract art. Ambivalence and uncertainty followed green throughout history. After its pompous (re)appearance at the beginning of modernity, when painters from impressionists onwards applied it with greater eagerness than any of their precedents, it was loved and hated - simultaneously! From Kandinsky despiteful denigration of the color (along with yellow) to unconditional fascination by Brice Marden in his green monochromatic paintings, green continues to embody this capricious vacillation in abstract art too. If you, as we, were enticed by the mesmerizing effect of the green, please scroll below to learn about our latest collection of green abstract art.

Martín Reyna - Untitled (Ref 19013)

This latest from Reyna embodies his distinct technique of diluting ink and adding some water on the paper so that the colors - prevailingly various hues of green - disperse and interact in the most unusual ways. Colors dispel and scatter, graciously vibrating and transgressing its initial boundaries. Untitled (Ref 19013) elegantly balances Reyna’s commitment to carefully plan the linear and spatial properties of his compositions and to allow the forces of nature to seize the process and lead it most erratically. Reyna is an Argentinian-born abstract painter living in Paris, France celebrated for his gestural abstract paintings.

Martin Reyna - Untitled (Ref 19013), 2019. Ink on paper. 150 x 150 cm.

Seb Janiak - Photon 04 (Medium)

Photon series visually examines the dual nature of light - both as a wave as well as a particle. Janiak’s fundamental (meta)physical assumption and a departing point for his aesthetic explorations is that when the observer perceives light, its nature is changed. To verify his claims, Janiak uses a camera lens as it resembles most closely the eye. A prism, used as an intermediary between the eye and the visible, decomposes the invisible white light into seven primary colors and Photon 04 isolates the green part of the spectrum. Janiak is a photographic artist whose work explores conditions in which opposites can co-exist, revealing the visual characteristics of the hidden forces that shape the physical universe. He lives and works in Paris, France.

Seb Janiak - Photon 04 (Medium), 2012. Chromogenic print. 100 x 133 cm. 

Jessica Snow - Terra Incognita 5

Green dominates this vivid acrylic on hot press paper as Snow masterly blends playful shapes with persuasive color, organic gestural lines, geometric and linear forms. Terra Incognita 5 fuses the affective and rational, the order and chaos as Snow explores how cultural codes are polarized and how are associated with certain colors and forms. She starts with a voluminous number of sketches followed by an intuitive and effortless process of painting through which the brushstrokes disappear and the layers become indescribable. Snow is an American abstract artist whose paintings and drawings are distinguished by colorful and playful geometrics. She is based in San Francisco.

Jessica Snow - Terra Incognita 5, 2018. Acrylic on 300lb. Arches hotpress paper. 57.2 x 54.6 cm. 

Macha Poynder - Tales of Japan

Tales of Japan reveals the astonishing complexity and depth that multiple layers and colors are creating. Green, that historically slid deep into the blue and yellow part of the spectrum, prevails as Poynder’s textured and painterly surfaces blend randomness of the splashed/dipped paint with a deliberate, controlled movement. She merges automatic drawing, performative gestures, and intuitive color choices to unearth her unconscious self. Poynder is a Russian-born, Paris-based artist whose multi-disciplinary oeuvre is inspired by the philosophies and aesthetic principles of Abstract Expressionism.

Macha Poynder - Tales of Japan, 2011. Oil on un-stretched canvas. 161 x 304.5 cm. 

Janise Yntema - Saltaire

Saltaire is a part of formal trifold compositions in a way of the Venitian colore which produces a depiction of atmosphere as both the subject and object. Chartreuse green creates a solid density that captures the imbued light and mysterious elements of nature. Her accumulated, semi-translucent layers of color create an ephemeral lightness as light is allowed to pass through the top layer and illuminate layers beneath. Yntema is an American abstract painter currently living and working in Brussels, Belgium, known for her work with the ancient technique of encaustic wax, a combination of beeswax, resin, and pigments.

Janise Yntema - Saltaire, 2015. Beeswax, resin and pigment on canvas mounted on panel. 60 x 60 cm.

Tom McGlynn - Survey 4

The Survey series epitomizes McGlynn’s ostensibly formalist and post-minimalist approach that accentuates the immediacy and phenomenal presence of his work. He calmly applies layers of acrylic to Fabriano paper contrasting green and brown layers through a novel, paired down re-interpretation of forms from his most immediate surroundings. Survey indirectly refers to a play on behavioral testing but in a broader connotative sense. McGlynn is an American abstract artist whose oeuvre explores interactive color and proportion in tension with their potential semiotic meaning. He lives and works in the NYC area.

Tom McGlynn - Survey 4, 2013. Acrylic on Fabriano paper. 55.8 x 83.8 cm.

Fieroza Doorsen - Untitled (Id. 1281)

Untitled (Id. 1281) captures the tensions and harmonies of Doorsen’s distinct visual language that marries structure and intuition. This oil on paper piece embodies her efforts to bring together the organic and geometric as the green and red interplay in both methodical and random way. Acting as a medium between her materials and the patterns and shapes, she inscribes an intrinsic aesthetic meaning in her work. Doorsen is an English abstract artist who has developed her own personal language with an emphasis on pattern and colored forms. She lives and works in London.

Fieroza Doorsen - Untitled (Id. 1281), 2017. Oil on paper. 27 x 19 cm. 

Yari Ostovany - Conference of the Birds No 28

The Conference of the Birds series was named after a Sufi fable by a 12th-century Persian mystic Farideddin Attar. The mystical ambiance emanating from this work resonates with the allegorical fable of the birds’ quest for their king Simorgh in the time of chaos and darkness. The layers of pigments washed out and covered over, scrapped away and dissolved add to the depth and luminousness of the composition thus producing a spiritual fusion of Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting. Ostovany is an Iranian-born American abstract artist who creates richly textured, layered color field paintings. He currently lives and works in San Francisco.

Yari Ostovany - Conference of the Birds No 28, 1999. Oil on panel. 51 x 51 cm.

Debra Ramsay - Color of Place.Thailand

Applied on translucent Plexiglass that allows light to move through the atmospheric green paint, Color of Place.Thailand encapsulates the metamorphosis of time and space, both physical and metaphysical. Inspired by her visit to Thailand in 2018, Ramsay collected colors by photographing objects at her sight and upon arrival home, mixed these colors using computer software and abstaining from any subjective interference mediated by her memory. Ramsay is an American abstract artist who creates acrylic paintings, drawings, and installations that explore the conceptual interplay between color, line, and surface. She lives and works in New York City.

Debra Ramsay - Color of Place.Thailand, 2018. Acrylic on acrylic panel (plexi). 48.3 x 30.5 cm. 

Matthew Langley - Sombre Reptiles

Langley’s astounding exploration of the perplexing and questioning nature of painting by building and extending as well as reducing and minimizing the painted surface is exemplified in this piece. His non-specific exactness is visualized in semi-transparent layers of green combined under the surface allowing his intent (and inspiration) to reveal itself through reflection and stillness. Langley is an abstract American artist interested in a balance of color and process, mark-making and field, scale and relationship, planning and improvisation. He lives and works in New York City.

Matthew Langley - Sombre Reptiles, 2018. Acrylic on canvas. 58.4 x 58.4 cm. 

Discover More Green Abstract Artworks!

Featured image: Matthew Langley - Sombre Reptiles, 2018, installation view.
By Jovana Vuković