My work has been recognized with awards in various exhibits and contests internationally. I attempt to balance the abstract with the representational, colorful, and geometric forms to assist in putting order to the composition and creating an abstract expressionist painting.  

RICHARD HEIENS

This abstract expressionist painting contains flowers which are pleasing to the viewer.  They symbolize comfort, love and affection.  The girl in the center of the scene is sitting and resting after a long day of trying to sell her flowers.  She doesn’t seem too displeased for having sold no flowers.  The artist painted the background in green which indicates that there is harmony an balance in the painting.  It also represents hope for the girl.  

Acrylic

Painting

Abstract expression a girl who sells flowers

Abstract

Birds in art represent the exhilaration and freedom from the shackles of the human earthbound condition. The artist through the use of soft colors, challenges the viewer to find birds in what appears to be a mixture of colors with no discernible lines or shapes. The key to the painting is a bird in the upper center of the canvas, from which one can see the outline many birds.  Continuing below, one can see a all the birds on green plants, 

Acrylic on canvas

Abstract expression of birds flocking together

Birds

This abstract landscape painting portrays Mount Etna, the largest active volcano in Europe and one of the world’s most frequently erupting volcanoes.  The artist through the use of layered textures creates an active flowing lava field.  The viewer can almost feel the sensation of the lava moving as it carries fire down the scene.  The plumes of smoke are visible in the sky and the hills are dark brown after the lava flow has cooled.  

Impressionist painting of vocano eruption

Landscape

When you think of a beach you picture white sand and blue sea.  This landscape painting was created based on visiting a beach in California.  To the artist's surprise the beaches did not have white sand.  The sand was dark and you could also see rocks on them. The sea was blue as shown in the painting.  The sand had a golden hue with dark rocks. The artist made the beach scene aesthetically pleasing with the glow of the setting sun.

Beach

Liberated from detail, this painting taps into the viewer’s mind and reflects the more turbulent moments of life.  The unstructured shapes, lines, and colors of the painting are intense and powerful. The painting depicts a fallen man on the bottom portion, in red.  In the upper left corner is a man looking at the conflict taking place in space.  People appear to be engaged in a life and death struggle. 

Abstract expression of the struggle between life and death

Spirituality

The focal point of this painting  is at the bottom left hand side of the painting.  Here there is what appears to be the visual representation of a kangaroo and beside it a blurred image of a smaller kangaroo. The painter used a bright red orbit to illustrate the sun shining over the scene. The rest of the painting is a very light shade of  pinkish and white hues flowing together to create a harmonious landscape reminiscent of  Van Gogh’s fields.  

Abstract expression of the landscape of the Australian Outback

This abstract painting represents a city in confusion.  The city itself has an organic look to it.  The city has complicated shapes of buildings, distorted yet slightly recognizable.  There are a few buildings that stand out in the painting.  One building in the upper right , with a flat roof has white colored walls with four black windows.  The building to left  is smaller with two doors.  The city reflects human innovation and a civilization that has grown beyond recognition.  


Abstract expression of humanity versus city populations

RICHARD HEIENS

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