This painting would not come together enough to suit me. Finally I realized that I'm a value painter who likes specific edges for most of my paintings, and this one doesn't have that. It's sloppy looking (which I love but don't usually paint) and looked too half hazard to me (which is how I planned, or didn't, plan it.) Done fairly quickly as a class demo a week ago, it didn't quite capture the essence I felt about the scene. The point of the lesson was to be flexible and let the painting lead, rather than have each area preplanned. I had miskited in the clothesline ahead of time and sketched in the upper window and roof line, but the laundry area was very ambiguous to start with.
After living with it for a while, I find that the painting's growing on me. Critiques please.
Painted on 140#HP Arches using fluid acrylics with gesso flowed into the wet acrylics in several areas. Probably not quite completed..... full sheet 30 x 22"
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13 comments:
You asked for critiques, so here goes. I love this painting, especially the laundry and the line and clothes pins. I think the dark spots on the building underneath the white clothes compete a little too much and perhaps would work better lightened and made less important. When I was in Italy, I couldn't stop photographing all the clothes drying out on the line. Thanks for bringing back the memories!
Thanks so much for the critique, Myrna. Glad it brought back memories. It's sure an inspirational place.
Sandy, there's wonderful movement in this one, and the feeling of laundry blowing in the wind, as if it's just about to rain!.
Since you asked for critique, the title of your post made it easy: I think more edge variation can add a lot to it. It's not a secret that critique is a very subjective thing, so - if it was my painting, I'd keep the overall looseness, and sprinkle a few hard edges on the laundry here and there, to help direct the eye where I want it to go.
So easy to say, I know...
Hi Nava,
Good idea, too. It's just knowing how much and when to stop. I'll work on both ideas tomorrow. Thank you so much.
As you might expect, I really like this painting a lot. I saw right away how different it is from your other work (and yet distinctly recognizable as yours). I get what Myrna means in her critique but I disagree. Any lighter and the doorway would not read as the recess it is against the other middle values of the right and left and windows. Plus, I think that the dark recess of the center doorway at bottom ads a mystery. What's insider there? Besides that, the whites on the line seem to balance the value of the darkest dark. And if you started fooling with the dark doorway, you might have to mess with the dark shirt at center of the line and so forth...
I say, leave it alone and do another one with the same method! The end.
What ever you do please don't lose that wonderful sunlight effect. Love it.
Sandy, I think right now you have too many areas our eye wants to stop at - the dark vs white of the bottom window competes as does the white vs dark clothing on the viewer's right side. Other than that, I really like the free-flowing look of this (even though you planned a lot of it :)How about a touch of your ultramarine turquoise on a piece of clothing to draw our eye, too? Just a thought.
Thank you, Suzanne and Vicki, for your encouragement. I will smack some of my favorite cobalt Teal Blue in there like Rhonda suggested and tweak just a smidgeon more. Hopefully a voice inside me will yell "STOP!" really loud so I don't overdo the edges or lightening, etc. Have a wonderful weekend, ladies.
Looking at your lovely laundry demo, I loved the clothes (very brave strong yellows) and the colours in the windows and was eager to open up the comments to say I feel the warm strong dark on the wall below the clothes and possibly the dark greys on the bottom right weren't pleasing to the eye - then I found it had already been said! I'm sure you knew it all along??!! How grand I felt doing a critique on a Sandy Maudlin work!!!
PS: where do I buy this YUPO you mention in your comment on my second gesso piece. ??
Your work is wonderful.
Sandy, I've been through your whole blog (again) which is a marvelous display of diversity, experimentation, and just plain monster talent. And out of all those incredible pictures, I'd have to count this as my fave. I surely wouldn't want to see much, if anything, changed...but that's partly I Saw This First Syndrome. To me, it's the right balance between abstract and real, and I feel there is more than enough convincing "real" to let me revel in the mystery, excitement, and power that only abstraction can deliver.
Hi Sandy. I love the clothes line and the way you rendered the painting. Every time I feel I'm getting somewhere I stumble across work like yours and feel like starting all over again, its truly wonderful.
Hi Sandy, I'm way late in posting a comment about this painting. I love the flow of light and movement set next to those dark recesses. Being a novice, can I share the thought I had when I viewed this painting. I think the white clothing at the very top takes the eye out of the painting and could use a stop to bring the eye back down. Did you add the turquoise? Would like to see the revised version, if you made changes.
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