May’s critique welcomed two new members and of course they contributed wonderfully with the group. Much of what we presented and talked about was our community with the world around us, and in particular the ‘natural’ world.
Thom brought a dynamic painting focused on how two worlds can influence on each other. This paintings graphically describe the dramatic phenomenon of plate tectonics. The patterns and texture of the surface are beautifully rendered and add an interesting approach to the idea. The texture was greatly enhance by the cutting of the surface and glued on backing structure, which gave one the direct effect of a fractured surface. The upper right globe is a bit subdued and bringing up the saturation and mark making would help the object work with the larger more dominate globe. The white between the two planets was skillfully done and adds to the understanding of space within the work.
Jim just started with the group and brought a few well-conceived pleinair paintings. The color composition of the painting shown in the blog works very well with the type of back lighting affect one sees in the piece. The value structure of the work could be settled by darkening up the shadow edges and bringing more of the background light into the foreground objects. But all together, there are some very hard fought colors in the rock shadow and background sky that make the painting an enjoyable experience to view and ponder over.
Jared is back from his residency in the Netherlands and brought some thought provoking photos. These are photo from a museum out to the street, which brings up the idea of art discovery (and too me ‘irony’). The irony being that he is in a museum to see the unbelievable artwork from the Dutch Masters and instead takes pictures of a rough surface glass of the outside. Beside the irony though, these are interest works of art on their own merit. There is a Diebenkorn feel to these photos and on a pure color/composition they work wonderfully. The problem will be context though, and how these photos are sized and shown on the wall will require a lot of thought and care.
Pat is another new member and she brought a very personal painting. It is sometime difficult to do a critique on artwork of a very personal nature, but done properly can be very cathartic and insightful for the Artist. We all just loved the little girl, there is something very intimate in the pose and the eating of the apple that gives the viewer a feeling of comfort and joy. The trees in the background is also very well done, though the tree on the left stop the viewer and over powers the left-side composition; removal would be potentially good. The paint does lack richness but only because of a lack of paint on the surface. In order to help saturate the surface and allow the painted surface to be richer with mark making and texture we suggested adding more paint, but to be careful not to change the color or value.
Having two new members was a great joy for everyone. The more the merrier I say. In any case, we look forward to share our time with them and anyone else that would like to join our critique.
Au revoir