It’s quite deceptive, on first seeing it I thought ‘okay, nice picture of a wave, and??’ But when you zoom in and see all the work involved, and also they’re pieces of maps, painstakingly put together, that’s some real talent right there
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with art being ‘just a pretty picture’, there is plenty of artwork that has powerful meaning attached to it, for example ‘Guernica’ by Picasso- it’s striking, very large, has a strong anti war message and is loaded with symbolism…I wouldn’t want it on my wall though (even if I could get it to fit)
I like abstracts mainly because I love colour (I think it may be an autistic thing, as I don’t like portraits or images where humans appear, but I can still appreciate the technical skill involved)
For me, an image like this is visually bathing in colour, it’s very stimulating or it can be soothing depending on the colour used. I like the patterns and how they repeat, also how they appear to tumble down the canvas/paper, there’s an energy in the composition and also in the marks made by the brush/pastel/pen.
The community you link has in the sidebar-
‘It is not required, but if you know, please talk a bit about the scene in the image. What’s going on? Who is in it? Why is it happening? Do you like it? Why?’
possibly to encourage engagement and discussion, which is a nice touch, I think it also helps that all the images are illustrating scenes from Tolkien literature, who was rather good (an understatement) at writing and world building. I think that Tolkein produced enough detailed content to be discussed and analysed for some time
I think ultimately, even if this piece of art is not to your taste or you don’t understand the meaning (if there is any meaning to it), has got us both talking about it, which I think is a good thing, and possibly the whole point of art in the first place?