Missing something? Add line.

I remember a sense of dread when I realized that I wanted to be a painter, but I knew I could not “draw.” My mother is an excellent artist. She can easily draw anything. Really good.. Since I didn’t develop that gift, I started by drawing small doodles and pattern into my art to fill that void.

A painting by Julie Prichard; 2013 Mixed media on canvas.

The easiest symbol to draw, I started to incorporate the “X” into my work. The X quickly because a favorite symbol of mine. It does not have one specific feeling when I make it, but I allow it to tell the story of the day as needed in each painting.

When I realized the pressure I put on myself for “mark making” made me tighten up and then the subsequent marks appeared “forced”, I began practicing mark making any chance I had. While watching TV, on receipts in the car, on my mouse pad, everywhere. I was making marks several times during the paining process, covering some of them and allowing others to remain visible throughout each layer of paint.

My first Juror’s Choice Award, “The Score”; Now held in private collection, Newport Beach CA.

When I started to tire of the letter ‘X’, I noticed that if I merely placed color in a line on the painting, the composition improved. Allowing the viewers eye a predetermined place to travel, the line held the attention of people who were looking at the art. I use line to ground compositions a lot. You’ll see a lot of my artwork that contains line and marks.

"Untitled" 24x24. Click the image for more details.

Using color as line was soon followed by adding collage for line. The collage adds a little “body” to the painting that I like. It can be as thin or as heavy as you want it to be and always, the viewer’s eye will travel across that line.

I spend a lot of time making lines that mean nothing. I work on them to make sure that they are irregular, sometimes I work on them to make them as straight as possible. Either way, I always have line in my art.

“On Vacation”, 2022. Now held in private collection.

Using color for line doesn’t have to be perfectly defined in order to be impactful. In the painting above, the blues direct the eye vertically even though they are not what I would consider “hard lines”.

The next time you feel like your painting is over processed, or if you feel like you are stuck and don’t know what to add to your abstract composition, assess for line. You can experiment with adding line in any of the ways I mention in this article and see if that helps you towards completion.