Abstract art

Alex Russell has been creating abstract artwork for most of his life. Some of the first fine art that really moved him was abstract. As a printed textile and surface pattern designer, he has made hundreds of abstract patterns. Even when he does work with figurative imagery, he often combines it with non-representational content.

There are two reasons why Alex likes working with abstract art. Firstly, colour. Alex finds that working with abstract content allows him to really bring colour to the fore.  Although he often plays with colour when he is working with figurative images, he finds abstract work gives more freedom to experiment. Secondly, composition. Alex really enjoys the process of building images.  As with colour, working in an abstract way gives him more scope to test different things.

In Western fine art, the idea of abstract art is only about 120 years old. However, it has been a staple of pattern design from all over the world for thousands of years. With a background in print and pattern, Alex is naturally drawn to working with abstract content. Even when he is working with figurative content, he often puts it together in a very abstract way.

He thinks that this interest is also analogous to his love of instrumental music. When he’s not working, he’s happy to listen to singing. However, when Alex is working away in his studio, he tends to avoid music with vocals. To his ears, instrumental music is abstract music. He likes it a lot.