As someone who loves abstract as well as figurative painting I am a little disappointed to see how little coverage it gets in Paint. I have been a member for a couple of years now and have only ever seen one tuition DVD and book covering abstract painting in the catalogue. Surely I can't be the only member interested in abstract art. Can we have some more articles and tuition DVD's please.

Hello Pat I do so agree with you about abstract art and SAA. What makes Paint any different from any of the other art magazines available. Nothing except than it comes with the membership. I also wish that there was more effort in proving interesting and useful books and tuition DVDs relevant to abstract art. I personally find that leisure painting and watercolour and landscape seems to be synonymous terms. I had hoped that an organisation like SAA with its very large membership would have proved me wrong.

We have looked at abstract painting before and there is a category for it in the SAA Artist of the Year painting competition, but very people have asked for. Let us know and if enough ask for it we have to see what we can do. happy painting John

I would also like to see more abstract and semi-abstract articles, books, DVDs etc - I tend to have to get many of my books etc from the USA. Sharon

I've been dabbling in art for some years but still very much amateurish although I enjoy it. However, I also like abstract/semi-abstract art. Anita

Could we have some more mixed media / experimental / semi abstract / abstract articles, books etc. I admire those people who can paint in a realistic manner but I'd like to see some more on more expressive uses of colour, pattern, form as these are the things that grab my attention. Sharon

I would like to add my voice to the abstract art discussion. As someone who paints in a variety of ways including abstract, I wholeheartedly agree that there ought to be more coverage and recognition for abstracted work in the SAA. Let us remember that there are degrees of abstraction, and not everyone wants to stick to a 'certain kind' of traditional way of painting. Many people yearn to experiment more, to learn new ways of mark-making. People are inspired by artists like Ann Blockley, Laura Reiter and Shirley Trevena but are not sure how to go about trying their techniques. Most of the time we are not talking about a complete absence of imagery, or references to the real world in our painting, neither are we talking about a lack of drawing either!