[Lashdown91]

A detail from a WIP

I have been struggling with this painting for months. I keep leaving it for days and adding/changing small bits.

I'm not sure about the bird skull?
The area of black rock on the right will be given colour. The area of land next to it is a bit empty, and I'm not sure whether to put plants there, or detail the terrain.

Let me know what you think!

 

[M Winther]

The barrenness of the land is attractive, rhymes with the skull, and contrast with the living bird. The black stone forms a contrast to the white fog on the other side. That's interesting. So perhaps you should let it be. (Black basalt is common in certain parts of the world. It's quite black, especially when it's wet. A Japanese sculptor moved to Sweden only because he loves black basalt so much.) That piece of "technology" in the foreground also forms a contrast with nature, which is interesting.

I think the painting looks ready. I am for keeping it simple, even semi-abstract, because we don't want to regress to Renaissance painting. Georges Braque found that epoch appalling. He and Picasso painted semi-abstract. Accordingly, I made this simple painting of the "Golden Blackbird" (from a fairytale) a few years ago. /Mats

 

[just]

We can't regress to the Renaissance since it was more advanced. Why would we give Georges Braque or Picasso more credence than the giants of the Renaissance?

 

[Lashdown91]

Yeah, I think we should be chasing a setting sun rather than seeking a new one. It's true, for about a hundred years painters following the 'grand manner' were producing dull, uninspired, monotonous pieces, and only a few were able to resist that. But that lead to what we see today...a hideous reaction.

I'm not one to say that one style is the only style; people can do what they want. But proper drawing and painting skills are so blatantly dismissed nowadays.

Although we should't completely regress, we should at least build upon, or draw from what the old masters achieved...instead of completely disregarding them.

But anyway, that's just my lowly opinion. Thanks for the replies! M Winther, I really like your 'Golden Blackbird' painting. The use of colour is wonderful.

 

[0rbt0]

The longer I look at it the more I like it. It creates some good internal dialogue and I'm not stuck analyzing technique or composition etc..