New Zealand High

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Comment by Jim Delk on November 28, 2011 at 7:07

Thanks, Richard for the constructive critique of my painting.  Landscapes are not my forte but I am making progress, I think, under your guidance.  I is always exciting for a professional to comment and give advice.  I will work on my painting this next week based on your suggestions.  Our Thanksgiving holiday here in the States was fun but now back to work.  Just reviewed your demo video and it, as always, was terrific and very helpful. Jim Delk

Comment by Richard Robinson on November 25, 2011 at 19:36

Hi James, thanks for your painting. Here are some thoughts about it:

 

Design

I really like your design James. The vertical layout accentuates the serpentine course of the river which leads us into the mountains. I'm also enjoying the rhythmic fluidity of your lines - as if the whole landscape is dancing. The only things spoiling the composition for me are the strong dark stripe of a hill and the orange one both coming down from the top left. They are both too dark in value compared to the rest of the painting.

 

Colour

The high key (mid to light values) approach you've taken fills the image with light and atmosphere and the subtle combinations of different grays you've used has added to this airy effect. Unfortunately that's been spoiled by the dark orange in the distant mountainside - it's totally out of place with the landscape (needs to be lightened and grayed). Other than that I think your colour is quite appealing and the warmth you've added to the sky is a nice touch as well.

 

Brushwork

Your brushwork is bold and direct if a little clumsy in places but it gives me the impression you've been painting for some time because most beginner painters tend to be more fiddly with their brushwork. 

 

Realism

Realism is where you've drawn the short straw here, but I don't know if that was one of your goals for this painting anyway. As an abstract arrangement of colored shapes this is a great painting, and that's something I strive for in all my work, but you've created that at the expense of realism. Those fluid lines I admire have lost the intricacies of the real shapes. By stretching out the river vertically you've altered the perspective but haven't followed that same perspective in the background which works to flatten the image and is quite disconcerting. By keeping the values in the background similar to those in the foreground that has conspired to flatten the image as well. The green trees at the base of the mountain on the left are too large which reduces the scale of the mountains around it. Ok so you bombed a bit on the realism, but most everything else about this painting is great, so, well done.

 

Comment by Barbara Stucki on November 24, 2011 at 16:30

Nice job.

Comment by Jim Delk on November 21, 2011 at 11:54

Thanks, Casey and Bob.  Bob my surface was not gessoed but I did paint over and old painting that I didn't like so the underpainting probably acted like a gesso surface.  Jim

Comment by Casey Toussaint on November 20, 2011 at 5:31

I agree - very nice job.

Comment by Bob Mitchener on November 19, 2011 at 8:29

This is a very nice piece of work James. I love the luminosity of your mountains, they just glow, well done. Did you do a textured gesso surface to your board?  I love it.  Congratulations.  Bob