Glass and Steele

11x14 Oil on Linen

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Albums: Workshop8

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Comment by Nancy Sands on April 28, 2012 at 18:37: A really lovely painting, Dania. Very worthy of Richard's attention.

Comment by Justine Wardle on April 27, 2012 at 23:39: Congrats on the critique a very worthy paiting.

Comment by Delores Rhodes on April 27, 2012 at 15:08: Gorgeous!!!

Comment by Dania Bree on April 27, 2012 at 11:48: Justine and Li,

I really appreciate your thoughts. This painting had a lot of new daring elements to work with. Flowers are almost another area of study - but I hope to explore more of them to. Thanks !

Comment by Richard Robinson on April 27, 2012 at 11:48: :-) Thanks Dania - I'm learning a lot too.

Comment by Dania Bree on April 27, 2012 at 11:37: Richard,

OH MY GOSH ! Thank you very much for your helpful critique. I tried to followed your demo when I laid this out and found out real quick what trouble you can get yourself into (regarding starting with loser masses as opposed to sketching elements). Then the next "oh boy" came with the purple background (regarding how to make it more subtle by painting a softer and bluish green into the lighter areas a mauve/bluish in the darker areas.) I prefer to mix my grays so I have more variation in warmer or cooler tones. I am trying with each new painting to focus on brushwork to get that fluid juicy look, I just need to allow myself to have a few seconds of possibly embarrassing courage. I really want to progress with my painting skills and your words entice me to take more chances. These workshops have already opened my eyes to so many things. Thanks again ! Oh, and Yes, The Challenge definitely makes it intriguing.

Comment by Richard Robinson on April 27, 2012 at 9:11

Design
I love this design Dania - there is so much well orchestrated variety here it's a joy to take in. The purple background was a bold choice but you've quite wisely subdued that so it doesn't overpower the subject. Your objects are well placed with solid overlaps so none are 'kissing' edges and the colour placements keeps the eye moving around the painting from reds to reds, oranges to oranges, greens to greens. It's a rich concerto full of life and movement.

Colour
There's a subtle grey quality to your colour which makes me wonder if you are using black in your grays. To me it's neither good nor bad to use black in your grays - it's all a means to an end and if the final colours are good and harmonious then who is to question the means. I particularly like the colour you have in the capsicum and the metal bowl - both have been subtly seen. It's good to see you noting the subtler differences in the shadows of the tablecloth too which introduces the background colour into the foreground.

Brushwork
Your brushwork is one of the main elements that drew me to look at this painting. From a distance it looks quite carefree and lyrical but on closer inspection I can see that it is in fact quite tightly drawn and the brushwork is well considered. It seems, like me, that you are trying to loosen up your brush strokes and it is working well. If you want to go further the next step is to use bigger, juicy globs of paint, and don't mix the paint completely on the palette - allow some of that to happen on the canvas. Then of course there's always the palette knife. Depends where you want to go next of course. Where you are is great, but where to next? Some of your edges could do with softening off like the far left edge of the table cloth - it's sharp and high contrast - not a good combo for the edge of the canvas, but you have certainly done well elsewhere. It's up to the artist to decide what to accent and what to obscure. Yes this helps with giving depth to an object and a scene, but we might also consider 'what is this painting about?' Am I more interested in the jungle or the tiger?

Realism
Realism most often relies on drawing and value and on both scales you have done very well. Your drawing did lapse a little in the bottle and the bowl, although that's probably just more readily evident because these are precise man-made objects which we know to be more straight and regular than organic material. I find it a real battle to balance expressive brushwork with careful drawing, but hey if it wasn't a challenge who would do it right? Congratulations on a beautiful painting Dania.

Comment by Justine Wardle on April 25, 2012 at 20:48: Love this painting. I like the lighter background and the general higher key. Particulary like the way the bottle is painted and the fact that the capsicum is painted in a smilar way but not transparent and the onion lovely form with nich reflected orange underneath, and steel reflections really nice. I think the daffodil got a bit muddied. But thats nit picking. Lovely work