The highlight of the evening was Donnas’ large dessert scene, 48″ X 72″ that she had worked on for a few months. It was agreed that there was nothing more to say other than ‘congratulation’. It is a beautiful drawing with transitions of color and marks that give you the sense of the scene along with the appreciation of the piece as a work of Fine Art.
She shared her new drawing, roughly same size as the other, which is at its foundational drawing stage, so composition is critical. It was a view of a mountain side with vertical slates of rock that created a pile of rubble at the base of the mountain. Given the drawing layout and the past drawing’s success we are all looking forward to discussing this new drawing’s growth.
Thom had been very busy creating a variety of artwork. Posted here are these small mixed media works, approx. 14″ X 16″, which are whimsical and brilliant in color. We discussed the difficulty of painting on such a small format and the necessity of keeping the composition balanced. Some of these paintings were painted over a previous painting, but with the idea of keeping the under-painting as the general motif. This adds complexity to the attempt to resolve the two styles; the original painted fruit and the over-painted table. This is particularly apparent with the painting of persimmons. We discussed how the three dimensional representation of the fruit somehow clashed with the cubist nature of the table. All in all, we thought the transitions of light, the mark making and color composition made for a nice painting.
I showed both the October and November Shipley Nature Center pleinaire paintings, 14″ X 18″. I had some good comments regarding the need to balance the color over the whole motif. They were encouraging from the stand point of developing the series (see series Description ‘A Year at Shipley Center’) further (One more to go).
I also presented a painting in-work that continued with the compositional still life series (will add a series description soon) The painting is at stage two (basic values and color structure) of development, and the group liked what they saw, is 36″ X 48″. Some attention will need to be made to the object’s edges. This provided me with enough input help develop the painting further.
These critiques are not meant to give each other a ‘pat on the back’, but to give honest criticism, avoid ‘niceties’ and help to develop us all as Artist; I believe this was achieved.
If you are an Artist, and live within the Orange County area, please feel free to contact me and discuss attending the critique. We enjoy growing our circle of friends.