Valley of Fire

Add a Comment

Comment by Richard Robinson on May 22, 2012 at 10:03

personally I'd just soften the edges close behind the main rock on the left. 

Comment by Marina Laliberte on May 22, 2012 at 9:51

Thank you everyone, for all the lovely comments.

Thank you Richard, for the supportive critique.  It confirmed all the steps that I had made decisions on.  I think that the Plein Air Convention gave me a big boost forward, and increased my comprehension of fundamental principles.   And the landscape in Nevada was excellent for simplification and clarity. and from there the brushwork became more confident. 

The adjustments are very helpful - yes, the grey line shows lack of clarity and I was iffy about it, so I need to make a decision there.  Usually I tone the canvas, so I will now pay more attention when painting on a white canvas.  And the background softer lines - is that just in one area or would it be beneficial to soften the whole horizonal line to push it into the distance?

Thank you again Richard, your critique has been very helpful and encouraging.

Comment by susie gregory on May 22, 2012 at 0:08

lovely job, marina!

Comment by Gary Hill on May 21, 2012 at 19:42

Lovely work, love the textures in the background rocks/cliffs!

Comment by Maureen Murray-Wilcox on May 21, 2012 at 16:18

Beautiful. You have inspired me to try and get another one done by wednesday

Comment by Dorian Aronson on May 21, 2012 at 15:36

Lovely painting Marina and you should be so proud of it.........smiles coming your way.......dor:))

Comment by Nancy Sands on May 21, 2012 at 15:09

Beautiful painting, Marina.  You made the scene more inviting than the actual photo. 

Comment by Richard Robinson on May 21, 2012 at 14:35

"Valley of Fire" 10x12" Oil by Marina Laliberte		Resource Photo

Great work Marina. It's paintings like this where I start to think, 'well, should I critique it or not?' because it's so nicely done it's hard to offer any improvements. Looking at your previous work, this one seems to be such a big leap ahead, especially for your landscape work, that I'm going to have to take all the credit as a fantastic teacher and take a bow. There, now that that's done I can start pointing out some of the good points and some of the not so good.

You have simplified! That's the biggest achievement of this piece I believe. There is a lot of complexity there in the photo but you have managed to keep squinting and keep painting what you're seeing when you squint. You've kept a close eye on the shadow and light families and managed to keep each area roughly within one value - changing hue, but not value. That's great!

You have designed! You have cropped the scene nicely and you've moved that bush on the right to make an s-curve of light through the painting, leading us into the background. You weren't a slave to the photo. Awesome!

Because you've simplified and kept your head on straight your brushwork has a bold directness to it which I find very appealing and you've been aware of your hard and soft edges too, although some of those crisp edges in the background just behind the main foreground rock on the left could do with softening a bit to help with creating more space. Watch out for those little white gaps here and there showing white canvas - I often go back over these with a finger or dry brush at the end of the painting.

Your colour recession has worked really well here and I think the star of the painting is really that big wall of interesting muted colour on the right - nicely simplified and with just enough variation in colour and texture to make it very convincing from a few steps away. If there is one thing I would personally change in this painting it would be the bottom left corner. With those few diagonal strokes of gray you've gone halfway between making a dash of light or making an edge of rock with the sky light reflected off it. The value is too dark for light and too light for reflected light, so I'd just decide what it was, scrape it off and do it again, or even put that bush in there softly - if it was mine. Other than that, it's all good. Nice work!

Comment by Casey Toussaint on May 19, 2012 at 21:04

Really nice!

Comment by Bob Mitchener on May 19, 2012 at 11:27

Very nice Marina, you are obviously a very accomplished painter. The simple statement always works best in my opinion.  Congratulations.  Bob

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• Next ›
• Page