I have chronicled the painting process for versions one and two of "Along the Old Post Road" in a separate page. You will see the link at the top in the right side column.
version one is on the left and
version two is on the right.
Along the Old Post Road 1 @ Sue Favinger Smith
Along the Old Post Road 2 @ Sue Favinger Smith
Invitation to Critique
When I was attending art classes, I dreaded the critique. The experience of trying to master a new concept and then realizing I'd missed the mark completely was definitely depression material. But now I realize an informed critique is vital to artistic growth, and I am inviting you to join in this virtual crit session.
Taking into account that the color will vary according to your monitor, what I am seeing is a fairly accurate representation of the actual painting. My palette consists of violet blue, ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow deep, yellow ocher, Winsor yellow, terra rosa, transparent red oxide, burnt sienna, Quinacridone violet, Naples yellow (French), Naples yellow (Italian), Naples yellow, Naples yellow pale, and zinc white. The greens are mixed. I think the colors in the painting are slightly more saturated than the image I am seeing, but not as saturated as in the earlier versions.
Here are a few questions to start the critique...
Overall structure:
I hope you will participate, if only for the practice of evaluating a painting so that you can develop the skill. I am hoping for some feedback that will help me see things I might have overlooked.
Looking forward to lots of responses in my comments section!
"Appeal"
6" x 8", oil on canvas panel
still a little wet...
I've been flirting with the daily painting idea, so last night I decided to try it out.
SOLD
Appeal @ Sue Smith 2008
Update on the Tah-Dah List:
City of Gresham Visual Arts Gallery 11th Annual Juried Art Exhibit -- 2 paintings accepted.
I stole the title for this post from Steven Pressfield's book The War of Art. I love this little book. I can pick it up, open a random page, and find something to get me back on track laughing at myself.
Right now I could be fairly miserable if I wanted to be. Here's why.
It started about a month ago when I was visiting with a gallery director. She wanted to put up a new abstract show for March and needed several new paintings. This gave me the opportunity to go back into the studio and develop my Ancient Walls series, from which I had been sidetracked for several months -- actually maybe a year, now. I felt energized. Jazzed. Back in the studio again....can't you just hear those words being sung by the cowboy troubadour, to the tune of back in the saddle again? Yeah, I know, now that's going to stick in all of your brains for the next few days and I'll get tons of emails...sorry.
The only place I have to store these rather large paintings is..yep, that's right, the guest bathroom.
It gets worse. Now I have two 40 x 30 canvases, and my daughter and son-in-law have just phoned to say they'll be down for a visit this upcoming weekend. Plus, I've purchased a 40 x 60 inch canvas because the gallery director had specifically requested LARGE.
It's so large it doesn't quite fit on my easel horizontally. The perils of having an inadequate studio, I suppose. But...I'm still jazzed.
And then I get the phone call. The gallery is closing. End of the month. No March venue.
So right now I could be pretty miserable. I just used up two perfectly good canvases, spent $100 on another gigantor canvas that already has the first layers of texture on it so I can't take it back, I have to go pick up all those landscapes and fit them in my car, and I just lost another gallery representation.
But I'm not miserable.
Because there's nothing I would rather do than paint.
So what if these paintings won't hang in March? They're great paintings, the best I've done in this genre so far. The process excites me again, I want to do more, see how far I can take this and then see where that goes.
Mesa Series: Seeds in the Sky as Stars @sue Favinger Smith 2008
Mesa Series: Greeting the Sun @ Sue Favinger Smith 2008
But most importantly, I'm not miserable because I discovered what my work is really about.
It's about taking chances. I like living on the edge between chaos and cultivation, where passion and excitement exist in life. I like trusting my own voice and following a curious heart.
And I like -- I really, really like -- taking chances.
I love doing my abstract art...don't get me wrong. There's something really magical about the poured paintings. The images set my imagination spinning. What am I looking at? How deep is that space? They are movement. Forming and unforming. Fascinating mysteries of color.
But then I've gotta come back down to earth, I mean real terra firma. I have to paint landscapes.
Canyon Light, oil on linen, 22 x 28 @ Sue Smith 2007
I miss several things about my open studio, but one primary loss was the ability to talk to people about a work that was either in progress or possibly finished ( I use the word "possibly" because even though a piece is signed, it's never really finished as long as it's within reach of my paint brushes...a really bad habit , I know).
I am open to all comments. Please give me a critique.
One issue I've been having lately is with the photography...the water isn't really that blue, but it doesn't seem to matter whether I shoot indoors with a variety of light conditions, or outdoors in shade or overcast skies...my water (in several of the river paintings, actually) always reads a different blue. I'm using a Sony cyber-shot, with 7.2 mega pixels, and I usually shoot using auto, programed and ISO settings to see which one comes the closest to the correct color. Any suggestions short of taking it to a professional?
