# Art Critique January 2012

- Link: https://www.reekersart.com/art-critique-january-2012/
- Published: 2012-01-26T18:14:25+00:00
- Author: billy bates

We had another very successful evening of good art, conversation and critiques.

[[We started with my Still-Life tribute the Renoir’s nude.  This painting is now
finished and I was looking forward to some input from the group.  The discussion
was very encouraging; there were no suggestion of necessary chances or dislikes.
The group was particularly impressed with the detail in the flowers and the feeling
of depth in the background objects.  I spent a lot of time rendering a color relationship
between the Renoir photograph figure and the left side leaves;  I’m interested in
sustaining a dialog between the two objects, and that did not go without notice.

This painting is finished, so two more to go to finish off the series.

[[Donna brought a large drawing of Devil’s Postpile which is still in progress. 
We collectively agreed that this drawing, like the previous one, has tremendous 
potential.  The under-drawing is complete and the overdrawing is beginning to define
the objects better.  The drawing has a very strong rhythmic quality due the vertical
rock formations; thinner more delicate rocks have a very high visual key where the
broader more robust vertical rocks have a slower lower key feeling.  I thought one
should be cautious about the tree line cutting the drawing in half between the vertical
rocks above and the broken rocks below, so I suggested some techniques regarding
passage such as placing some rocks within the trees.  There was also some discussion
about keeping the colors in balance and paying particularly close attention to values
that could enhance the motif.

It will be interesting to see the development and progress in the piece at future
critiques.

Thom has been very prolific lately and brought in a bunch of work.  For brevity 
I placed two of them in the blog.

[[The first was another painting of Linda’s that Thom is finishing.  This is a very
sweat painting and has a lot of merit to the development of the subject.  The color
scheme is very attractive and adds a sense of calm and focus to the motif. We felt
that some of the drawing of the hands needs to be better defined and the structure
in the back (an opened book) doesn’t necessarily read as a book.  There seems to
be a lack of definition on the left hand and the fingers seemed large in respect
to the face.  We suggested reducing the emphasis on the background book; this would
help the figure stand out, but changes to the face should not be made; it was quite
wonderful.

[[The second piece, I thought, was more identifiably Thom.  It is an interesting
hieroglyph of a domineering female figure, a subordinate male figure and two groups
of figures on a concave and convex arc.   Thom agreed that there is a lot of work
that still needs to be done on this painting.  The dominate female is the most resolved
object and has some very interesting cubist features.  The groups of figures are
the least resolved and need work to either push it further into the background or
flatten it into the forward space as a hieroglyph would do; currently it is a bit
indecisive and ambiguous.  Suggestions circled around the drawing and rendering 
nature of the people and not on any color or tonal qualities.  This would have been
too premature in its development to add any comments.

This painting is the perfect vehicle for what we are trying to do here, help each
other grow in our work as a community of Artist with the goal of enhancing the experience
and results of art making.

Hope you enjoyed reading this overview and look forward to any comments you might
have.

Ron

## Comments

### By: Donna Champagne

- Link: https://www.reekersart.com/art-critique-january-2012/#comment-8
- Published: 2012-01-27T16:42:18+00:00

That was a great synopsis of our meeting Ron! You seem to be very thoughtful and
accurate regarding what was said and talked about in the meeting. Perhaps you have
a future career as an art critic! Just kidding! I would never suggest to an artist
that they pursue anything but their art!

### By: Thom Wright

- Link: https://www.reekersart.com/art-critique-january-2012/#comment-9
- Published: 2012-02-06T18:46:49+00:00

Both of the images I sent for your blog are a bit darker than actual, but your analysis
and comments are right on. Painting hands (and figures) realistically is not my 
bailiwick, but for this collaboration I am trying to get it right. The surreal setting
for “Linda Reading”was a solution to a difficult horizontal format.