NOTD: FingerFood's Theme Buffet #7 - Abstract

 Welcome to the seventh installment of Finger Food's Theme Buffet. The challenge theme for this week was "Abstract," which leaves us nail artists with all kinds of avenues to explore.

Some people made their own abstract works of art or abstract designs. Others recreated famous paintings by abstract artists like Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg.

 I was one of those that decided to recreate an abstract painting. In my case, I chose one of the Homage to the Square series of paintings by Josef Albers.

Homage to the Square: Ascending, 1953 (credit: Whiteney Museum)

Josef Albers was a German-born artist who trained and taught at the Bauhaus before immigrating to the US at the advent of World War II. He's most known for his series of nested squares, called Homage to the Square, which uses color, contrast and chromatic interaction to explore perception.

There are hundreds of paintings in this series, all using different combinations of color. The painting to the left, Ascending, is the one that I chose to recreate. You can Google him to see more variations on this pattern.

This was actually a fun and cheery manicure using bright colors that made this rainy day a little more enjoyable. The colors and composition aren't PRECISELY exact to the original work, but I hope that the inspiration comes across.

To create this look, I first painted a base using Julep' s Something Blue. This is a bright sky blue that's a one-coater. There were so many layers of paint on my nails by the time I finished that I was glad that I didn't have an extra layer of paint.

To create the design, I taped off the outline of the outer-most square using striping tape and painted two coats of grey. I then taped off the edges of the next square and painted two coats of white. Finally, I taped off the edges of the inner-most square and - yep, you guessed it - painted two coats of yellow. With the exception of the grey squares, the lines turned out super crisp and clean.

Polishes used in this manicure were:

• Blue: Julep - Something Blue
• Grey: Pure Ice - Kiss Me Here
• White: Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
• Yellow: Butter London - Cheeky Chops 
• Top Coat: NYC - Matte Me Crazy

So, is it obvious that I love art? Sometimes I would spend my weekends wandering around the amazing art museums that Philadelphia has too offer. How about you? Are you an artist? Have you ever done nail art inspired by a work of art?