A new member joined the group and brought in a wonderful painting of a figure transposed onto a black doorway. It appeared to be a transcendental figure that seemed to float out of the picture frame; (I thought of Munch’s work when I first saw it.) The light in the painting is ethereal and wonderful, accented by a strange candle like light to the right. (My apologize to the Artist(s) for the lack in quality of the photo) There wasn’t much to add to the piece, we agreed that it was a fine work of art and a highlight image for the evening.
The next painting was a fairly large square painting of handball courts at Goldenwest College. The color structure within the work was very interesting and worked very well as complementary colors. The mark making held the painting plain together as a cohesive image. There was some polarity in the objects that drew the eye back and forth from court to court which suggest a need to add passages in the negative space that might lead one away from this visual trap. It was really good to see how much work the artist is doing now and we all look forward to future work.
The next pieces were two prints that had bits of other print glued onto the surfaces. These were organic and earthy in nature, with a whimsical approach to the space making for a interesting set of monotypes. Some comments were made regarding the undefined background space which could perhaps be brought into focus by some additions or value shifts. There also was talk of more overlapping of the foreground images, but nothing was conclusive.
I showed my latest still life which is still in progress. I felt good about the background, but the critique mentioned that I needed to relook at the magazine edges on the top right. There were also comments regarding the edge of the black cloth near the vertical center of the composition. A softening up of these edges was help avoid the pittfall of taking interest away from the centeral subject. I was encouraged by the comments regarding the details of the painting and the impasto use of paint. A few more hours and I can wrap this painting up.
It was a fun night again of sharing our art and opinions. We are always encouraged and inspired by eachother and look forward to what 2012 will bring. Please feel free to comment and/or contact me for any additional information.
Nice write-up Ron.
Thanks again, Ron, for the good critique summaries. However, all the photos need a lot of adjustment of lighting and temperature correction. In the square painting, the top is overexposed and the bottom underexposed. To expose a little more about it, I can see the importance of too much sameness and as you say, not enough transition. One of the big lessons in not working from nature is oversimplification and maybe too much brush work as a crux to filling in the space. Looking at the Paul Klee mosaics shows that a coordinated variation in many colors and values establishes the poetry of the landscapes.