Mary Ann and Button

Debra Jones · 01-27-2006, 05:59 PM

This is yet another sample. I asked a friend who is in the middle of the real cowboys to send a photo of her and a pet and this is what I got back.

She has an infectious personality and moves easily among the low and high born, so I figured a piece featuring her would not be unnoticed among her circles.

It is a 20x16 and there was very little detail to work from, so it is attitude, mood and a sense of place.

I am asking for critique, not just unveiling, because she is thrilled. I know the composition is odd, but there is a weird sense of "Just Right" I got when I put it on the canvas.

It is huge, in my tackling a full body, a horse and actually suggesting landscape and with a few corrections, I am going to let it dry and send it home with her next week.

Would like feedback and suggestions, as I feel it has stretched me, but not sure it is in all the right directions.

Alexandra Tyng · 01-27-2006, 08:31 PM

Hi Debra,

To me this composition is not at all odd. It's different, but it works. Two bodies, the horse's and the woman's meet at a point on the canvas. And because the horse's body is bigger and longer and horizontal, they do not meet in the center. I say GOOD for that! The landscape looks great, nice high horizon line, and I love how their heads pop up over and between the mountains, and how the sheen on the horse's back is purple like the mountains but describes something so different..

The only thing that bothers me is the face of the woman. I don't like seeing her looking directly at the viewer and grinning. It has a snapshot-y feeling. For some reason I do like the horse looking at the viewer--he/she has such an appealing, human look of understanding that is unexpected. I know this is done from a photo and maybe you are limited to the one photo for reference, but if there is a possibility that you can take more, I would suggest that you explore other expressions and head positions, including having her looking at the horse. Right now they are both looking at a third party, which diminishes the power of the relationship between them.

Alex

Cindy Procious · 01-28-2006, 10:16 AM

DJ, you are getting very close to what I see as a breakthrough - more fully realised compositions, etc.

What I would really LOVE to see - is you piling on the paint, so much so that you completely obliterate the weave of your canvas.

I think your scrubby look is appealing - for watercolor. For oil, this look is not taking advantage of the medium.

Then, once you pile on the paint, you can really concentrate on your edges. Right now, most of them are treated equally. You have the occasional soft edge here and there, but you could really push that.

And finally, modify your photo to your advantage - for example, you have two tangent lines that form from the mountains in the back across her shoulders. Those are easy fixes.

More paint!

Debra Jones · 01-30-2006, 02:07 PM

Thanks all, and one friend in private, for your input.

I think that tangential hillside is probably what I couldn't put my finger on. IT does require a bit of Sitar music and a quiet meditation for me to analyse a photo and step back to NOT put something in. Cindy that commentary on the quantity of content is the issue I feel stretched about.

Alexandria, the attention of the gaze has been going around in my head. I find it does create impact to have the viewer confronted by a single subject. As a standard in portriature, that nice "howdy" sort of feeling brings the person into the moment, but this relationship between the two subjects is something to be considered. Another friend felt the horse was upstaging the piece. That is good! I want this to have more impact on the potential animal art, my people are pretty strong and this reference is indeed about the horse, with the human secondary. Perhaps my problem is that I have not established that enough. It may be that very balance that is NOT right. Upstaging is about stealing the limelight, not demanding it. I can see ways that I could have done much more to pull the attention to one or the other subject.

But about that paint. It is deceptive, but it has very few thin areas, I just loaded it up - with white, so it feels thin. The permalba addiction and I began on white canvas (.... another sure fire bad move on my part.) The chest of the horse and the skirt are the thinnest areas and this is a novelty for me.

Last summer I was in love with SP wax mediums and that is where I began leaving thin layers transparently for the reflective effect. Before that I was seriously textural in paint use. What I do see here is that the mix is not working. The color and quality of light in the belly is glowing to me but the strokes are not consistant enough to pull off that silky look of fur. The flat light on his rump was trying to emphasize the quality of evening light I was showing on her shirt. It is a matter of shifting all the values in the piece and re-establishing the whole thing down a value or two to get this, but I made the mistake of showing the client and she needs it dry today.

I think I will ask her to hang it as is for a month or two as an attention grabber and return it on the next trip to refine it.

Telling her to tell interested clients that it is a work in progress, maybe even send an easel with her to display it on, could be a really good thing!

Mischa Milosevic · 01-30-2006, 08:02 PM

Debra hi,

I came by a number of times each time I like it more. This is quite an acomplishement. You should be quite pleased. Composition excellent! Form all there. Value good. Color good. I am not really sure why you would like one to dominate over the other for they go well together and they seem quite at ease. Keep up the good work.