La Ciotat

Tried another harbour painting, this time a scene in Provence, where the fishing boats were tied up at the dock.

35cm x 45 cm
WSO on canvas

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Comment by Jessica Futerman on March 10, 2015 at 0:07: Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments & critique, Ningning - I really appreciate you taking so much time to give me your ideas on how to improve the composition! I do like your idea of adding a small boat to the middle ground, but wonder if that would make the scene a bit too "busy". I wonder if the reflections of the masts & tower are enough to provide a path of movement for the eye & add interest to that boring section of water! (can be seen in the 2nd version which is posted below). I'd be interested to hear what others think, if anyone has time :)

Comment by Ningning Li on March 9, 2015 at 9:29: Jessica, Your work is spectacular and is beautiful. To me , to make it more united, a small lonely boat with bigger size and a bit saturated color than the ones at the edge of the background is enough to connect the background and foreground.

But, please , ask other artists' opinion about this issue before you do anything, because I am not professional , very possible mislead you.

Comment by Ningning Li on March 9, 2015 at 9:26: Dear Jessica, You did very good job on the La Ciotat. The colours , the details are all well calculated and rendered well.

Only one thing for your concideration. It is the composation. As a viewer, I feel the painting get the strong support from the front ground and the back ground to the middle ground. But the middle ground has almost no activities. So I take the front ground objects as the center of interest. But, the size of the middle ground is not small and the boats lead my eyes to go forward to there. Then, there is no interest thing for me to enjoy.

Tradicionally, painters tried to make sure that no matter wherever the viewers eyes go, they will see sth interesting. Morden idea is only one center of interest and or with the second center of interest to support it. That is what I got the impression. Maybe wrong.

One word, To me , your middle ground can add some activies. And in this way it also bridge the background. A lonely boat with the bigger size than the ones in background may do the job. and moody. Just an idea,

Comment by Jessica Futerman on March 8, 2015 at 7:44: Thanks very much, Ningning!

Comment by Ningning Li on March 8, 2015 at 7:38: Very complecated scene. But you did it very well. Beautiful !!!

Comment by Jessica Futerman on February 27, 2015 at 21:09: Thank you Elizabeth!

Comment by Elizabeth D. Smith on February 27, 2015 at 8:15: I really like this one.

Comment by Jessica Futerman on February 27, 2015 at 4:40: Thanks Michael - those changes added a lot! Appreciate your help!

Comment by Michael J. Severin on February 27, 2015 at 0:27: Wow,Jessica, very nice!! The buildings look real now, you have a nice rhythm of verticals with the masts. Very beautiful work.

Comment by Jessica Futerman on February 26, 2015 at 21:21: That's the new version below. Not sure if the whole painting fits into the comment box! Anyway, I think the buildings look less "pasted on" now - thanks for the excellent suggestions, Michael. Adding reflections of the masts made a big difference to that large area of water, which was rather boring before!