Ron Reekers Fine Art

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.

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.

It was revealing to revisit and display the collaborative between Tsubasa Berg, Ryan Melchor and myself completed a few years back.  These three collaborations documented relationships of new and old forces contributed to by “bouncing” off the other’s contributions.  Some obstacles were presented and interesting solution was found during this time.  Equally interesting was remembering how we came to those solutions through a process of integration.  As a result, we came together to build up each painting with layers of different ideas that work within a cohesive motif.  We all banded together to create three major themes: the rite of passage, the forces of nature and the power of the painted surface.  We grew through this experience and the work stands on its own as a testament to collaborations. 

Though the collaborative were the main focus of the show additional work was shown.  Some of these paintings were painting by Ryan or me as a direct compliment to the collaborative, while other sexplored science as art.  The complimentary nature of this worked add to the interest in the show. 

These paintings were shown one night only, but are available for showing on request.  Please sue the contact information and feel free to ask questions or request a personal showing.

SYNERGIZING IMAGES a collaboration of three Artists

J. Lewis gallery

906 E Santa Ana Blvd

Santa Ana, California 92701