5/26/09

UPSIDE DOWN

One of Chris Beck's recent blog posts wisely proclaimed 'CROP TIL YOU DROP' as a great solution for some paintings. She and Pablo Villicana Lara were more or less challenging each other to 'find' a better painting within a bigger one. Their solutions are eye candy.

My azalea painting shown here on the right is one of those that really needs to be cropped to work better. The center of the painting is boring, but the left hand edge I really like. Turning that section upside down makes for a better painting. My experimental crop is below, shown flipped upside down from the original.

This bouquet of azaleas is an old, old painting from the archives which was framed as is. After reading Pablo and Chris's fabulous quote, I'm sure it must be unframed, rematted, and reframed. Maybe the top needs to be cropped off a little more.

Thanks Chris, and Pablo, for your wisdom and inspiration. I always enjoy visiting your blogs, learning much from what you so freely share.

This could be called Cherry Blossoms?????





10 comments:

Cindi said...

sandy...what a fun crop!! thanks for sharing the ideas.. will check out the other blogs as well.. i certainly have many paintings that could use some trimming...

Dawn said...

how cool is that? well I like em both!

Chris Beck said...

What a creative way to approach this, Sandy!! I am the queen of cropping, but I think you might give me a run for my money!! Thanks for the kind words about my blog.

S*Ja Znaju, Scrappar Liv said...

A wery good idea ;-) Thank you for showing it ;-)
Liv

cathyswatercolors said...

I like the painting both ways. But an upside down crop? Just great.

Sandy Maudlin said...

As far as I'm concerned, cropping is a God given gift to any watermedia painter. So glad you all liked the cropping. Thanks for commenting.

Nava said...

Sandy - we call it "design by cropping", which can sometimes turn an ordinary painting into a masterpiece.

Loved what you did with yours!

Sandy Maudlin said...

Nava, I heard about a workshop instructor who would NEVER allow cropping. Sure glad the cropping police don't live here.

Reba said...

The colors of this painting are fantastic. Its amazing how much the color scheme changes when the painting is upside down.

Margaret Ann said...

A fascinating concept very well done! :)