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Underground > Creation >

Painting for Critique

  
 
Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER
13:58 / 19.06.05
Sorry. Bandwidth's probably died again.
[click for big]

This was made with watercolour and acrylic paints, nail varnish, oil pastels, biro, permanent pen, bits of newspaper and prayer book, orange peel, and Ronseal wood varnish, on a bit of cardboard box. And then set fire to a lot. There's a lot of intended symbolism in the use of materials, including the screw used to "fix" the moon to the sky area. The use of cardboard as a base was to exploit the horizontal creases the medium seems to generate - when they're covered by a shiny substance, they look a lot like interference lines, and in fact behave as such by disrupting any pigmentation put over them. The image is intended to address concepts of re-synthesis from discarded concepts and material - the words in the speech bubble, for example, are cut from a prayer book (which I'd found in a bin) and used to form Futhark runes, and the burnt areas are integral to the tonal composition; the "damage" has been made into a vital part of the piece.

I thought a good idea might be to open up discussion on this image and any others that people want to post that fit vaguely within the criterion of "paintings", as there doesn't appear to be such a thing in the Creation.
 
 
TeN
16:21 / 19.06.05
I like the part with the face and the collaged speech bubble the best. It looks like more time was put into it, and has a different feel to it than the rest of the piece, which seems more artsy-craftsy.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
20:14 / 19.06.05
First of all, Withiel, it's great that you've used seemingly any materials you felt like. That's always a good idea, and I like the effect of the screw thru the moon: it makes you think about who might have the power to actually screw the moon into place, or what it could mean.

There's just one thing that detracts from it for me, and that's the cardboard box you've used as a canvas substitute- I like the fine texture you've found in it, but I don't like the heavy creases. I think they've been excentuated by the scanning/photography, and they're only a little problem, but they break up the surface a little too much for my liking.

I like the small, drowned, lonely-looking doll-like face; it's very troubling if you see what I mean, especially as we know it's saying something, but we don't know what: maybe it's calling for help, maybe telling us to stay away.
 
 
Nelson Evergreen
21:07 / 19.06.05
Is anybody else reading the central streak of black and yellow 'plumage' as the doll head's body...? My brain tends to be greedy for figurative information, maybe it's just toying.

Still, having hit on that concept I'm now finding it hard to take my eyes off the painting...
 
 
Tryphena Absent
00:41 / 20.06.05
In contrast I quite like the heavy creases. I often find myself looking for imperfection of material in art. I enjoy the texture that the materials provide and the way that a subject conflicts with them. I find this quite calm and mysterious. The creases provide it with an aggression that isn't to the detriment of the image. The colours are lovely.
 
 
Withiel: DALI'S ROTTWEILER
10:01 / 20.06.05
Is anybody else reading the central streak of black and yellow 'plumage' as the doll head's body...?
Yes. The idea is that it's both. Just as the runes read "S.Y." in the order they come out of the head, and read the same way in Roman letters when viewed upside down...

The creases are made much worse by the scan - in "real life" the varnish on the carboard makes the specular highlights in them come and go, altering the composition of the image as you move - in the same way, the head and balloon are outlined in black biro ink (the sort that looks purple if viewed obliquely).

The idea is that many of the elements can be read in two or more ways depending on the angle or the mood of the viewer, and that these perspectives can be simultaneously present, thereby breaking the laws of contradiction and excluded middle. In the same way, the actual construction process used both "hard" (screws, baking paint on with lamps, setting fire to the varnish layers) and "soft" (gentle washes and varnishing) techniques to get the dichotomy-that-becomes-unity really hammered into the surface. As it were.

/is all excited at the kind and lovely people
 
 
wandering aengus
16:31 / 08.07.05
one of the most important lessons I have learned in making art is that the art must speak for itself. That is also one of the most difficult things to make happen in a piece. In looking at yours before I had read your reasoning, I found myself dissatisfied in some respects: -the cardboard backing speaks not of its versatility as a material but instead suggests that the artist grabbed whatever was at hand and did not consider its effect on the image completed. ribs and creases, the bane of the artist who uses such a readily-available material, can, I believe, be used to the benefit of a piece of art. but this is only if they are fully committed to, if they become the true subject and tool of the artist. yes, you did intend to exploit them, but in the end I don't think they serve to advance the rest of the image, instead roping the viewer into the banality of the material. as a seed for further work, I imagine cardboard coated with a single glossy color, which is the simplicity needed to draw the attention to the texture and effects of the cardboard's ribs and creases. (by the way, sorry for all this artistic blathering. maybe you did accomplish all you intended to... in that case, pay me no mind.)
a part of the painting i am drawn very strongly to is the silver moon- put simply, it is beautiful.
i like how the horizon line of the night landscape corresponds with one of the cardboard creases.
the yellow pastel used in the figure connects it to the yellow ground, this is a good tactic but could be done more gracefully (look at matisse's standing nudes).
-the textural input of the orange rind and the torn newspaper are nice, they help give voice to the paint and mask the cardboard, they should just be used more decisively and extensively if at all.
there is a theme of circularity or near-circularity, circles are used thrice and are the focal points of the composition. the speech bubble is the first focal point, as it is bright white and the largest entity, set off by a precise black outline. from this picture the words inside are impossible to read, rendering them a questionable presence in that space except that they form those runic shapes equally unreadable to the average viewer.
then the moon-- beautiful but unechoed.
then the face, an intriguing addition.
I will say no more, skipping over the use of color because I don't think it was chosen purposefully... but in the future, choose color purposefully!
all in all, good seeds, choices must be made.
remember, this is just a critique and none of that should be taken personally.

if I had a scanner, I would definitely contribute my own images to the board.
 
  
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