Into Great Brook

Alexandra Tyng · 05-24-2007, 09:12 AM

Thank you Ilaria for setting a distant goal! May we all fetch $10 million! I wonder if it was the white canoe that did it? Maybe it was the water or trees. Hmmm...

Carlos, thanks for your vote of confidence in my ventures into figurative painting. For me it is the most difficult. Portraits and landscapes are each challenging in their own ways, and I find that they say something if the artist is true to his/her concept and has the skill to carry it out. But I have to think and evaluate more when it comes to a figurative piece. Am I saying too much, am I hitting the viewer over the head with the message? Or is it not clear enough? Maybe this type of work has a more clearly defined message, or maybe I'm just new to it. You do this so well, Carlos, in a different way, of course.

Plus, there doesn't seem to be a definite point at which portraiture becomes figurative, or landscape becomes figurative. It's more than the size of the figures in the composition. There really are no answers---I just like to ponder these things.

Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco · 05-24-2007, 11:38 AM

Alex, if i am not mistaken there is a story behind this painting, that there was a poll and the result was that people' s favourite subject for a painting to hang in their home was a stream with a canoe, so he just painted a few. And that is contemporary art!
I'd much rather have yours and Allan's hanging in my home !

Alexandra Tyng · 05-24-2007, 09:37 PM

What a story! The sad thing is, it's probably not unusual. I can think of better ways to spend the money, if I had it.

Marcus Lim · 05-25-2007, 12:01 AM

Hi Alex, it's been a while since i last posted here, and the first image i'm absolutely captivated by is the serenity of this riverscape you have painted! The brushstrokes lead me into the paintings, and the blue ripples on the lower left creates that mild tension to the almost Zen feel of the painting!

If i were Hilton-filthy rich, your painting will definitely be worth 10 Mil to me!

I'd like to share a childhood scene i've recreated for myself, since we're on the roll with riverscape scenes. Hope you guys like my painting!

24" x 30"

Alexandra Tyng · 05-25-2007, 07:47 AM

Beautiful painting, Marcus! I like the vantage point. It's as though the viewer is happening upon this secret place where the two children play.

I'm interested in what the figures say. For instance, you painted a child with arms outstretched, while the other is deeply absorbed in the task of fishing. This says something to me, but I don't have to articulate it. Every time I look at the painting, I might imagine something different.

I wanted my three figures to each be doing different things, or reacting differently to the experience. They are going from a sunlit lake into the mouth of a stream, and up ahead is the woods in shadow. Even if you just take it as a scene, it evokes something. And the posture and position of the figures evokes something. But to make this "something" too clear would not leave any room for the viewer.

Anyway, I'm glad you like my painting--thanks so much for your comments.

Marcus Lim · 05-25-2007, 11:40 PM

Thanks Alex! I'm glad you liked it...in fact, the painting has 4 kids instead of two - one head popping up in between the fork of the log, and the other at the extreme right corner with a red shirt.

Perhaps all of you might remember a time when you were kids yourselves, and how you liked to hang out at a "secret base" where you can be totally free with your closest friends.

So what i'm trying to create here along with the two subtle characters, is that secret place just like what you've said.

A secret place that once belonged to you, and one which is beautifully hidden in your heart for the rest of your lives.

Julie Deane · 05-27-2007, 12:33 PM

Hi Alex -

I really like the feeling you give to this painting. The brushwork is exquisite.

I''ve been in a canoe in the wilds a good bit: this painting evokes those memories beautifully.

Thomasin Dewhurst · 05-28-2007, 12:35 PM

Very lovely, Alex. The individual aspects of the piece have a harmony of light which brings everything together almost as if it were sculptural i.e. as if everything were joined together physically creating a oneness with nature on the part of the figures and a welcoming of the figures on the part of nature. A very spiritual piece.

Alexandra Tyng · 05-30-2007, 10:16 AM

Marcus,

The "secret place" theme that comes out so strongly in your painting was definitely in my mind when I was figuring out how to paint mine. My friend and I canoed up the mouth of this same brook when we were teenagers and hiked the whole way up the stream to its source in the mountains. The painting shows our daughters making the same journey. There's also the feeling of going from the sunlit, familiar lake into the dark woods, the unexplored territory.

Alexandra Tyng · 05-30-2007, 10:30 AM

Julie, Thomasin--thank you both!

I agree that, once you've been in a canoe in the wilderness (or national park or wherever you can get away from civilization), there is this experience you never forget. There's a feeling of being part of nature and being awed by it, of being in control of where you are going and yet not knowing what you will encounter around the next bend. I wanted the three girls' posture and actions to show all these feelings.

Thanks for your comments about brushwork, unity of parts, etc. I've been really conscious of these things in landscapes as I become more conscious of them in portraits. It seems the puzzle of all the different brushstrokes has to be just right. Thick, thin, wide or narrow, hard- or soft-edged, certain colors next to other colors--all this has to be just right for everything to be part of the same puzzle. The illusion is a result of this abstract problem, but there is a stage of working out the problem in the abstract that happens independently from the illusion. In other words, you have to be able to enlarge a little section of the painting and look at it and be satisfied that it "works."