Awful Online Critique

I joined an online art forum recently, and last week I met the Grand Jerkface of the site.  This is the awful critique he gave a beginning painter such as himself.

"I say...what are you trying to prove? Sloppy painting doesn't a fine piece of art make. The oranges look like oranges only because they are painted orange and surrounding them with their compliment only makes them stand out as carelessly done."

Needless to say, this made my blood boil.  How dare he, especially since the painting he was referring to was not half as bad as what his harsh negatives implied.  In fact, I would say that the painting was similar to works we saw in a contemporary gallery last summer that were selling for nothing less than $1,200...(I remember because the 6x6" painting was this price).

Today my curiosity got the best of me again and I browsed the forum.  One artist was criticizing another for unclear light source of a beautifully illuminated still-life, meanwhile the criticizing artist posted a work of their own, and it had no indication of light upon the surfaces of things.  Go figure.

Of course we all have different goals, and different personal aesthetics.  It's easy to see just how different with a quick browse upon Pinterest.com.  So when it comes to answering questions and critiquing works of others, perhaps sometimes it's best to be open to what they are trying to accomplish first.  It seems that many of the posts only serve as a slaughterhouse where people with their own narrow view of what art should look like use their own goals as cutlery for others' works.

Perhaps an online forum is not the best place for critiques. 

If you want some entertainment and are thick-skinned or want suggestions on how to turn your donkey into a blue spaceship, then go for it.  However, if you want a serious constructive critique, ask people who are familiar with your work and whose opinion you respect artistically.

The Plunge of Icarus

I would have forgotten about the Greek legend had it not been for Pieter Bruegel's green water.  I was given a book with his painting "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" in it, and the yellow light reflecting upon the blue water creates this beautiful mysterious green that attracts my eye everytime I flip through the pages.

Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, 1558

Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Oil on Wood, 29x44"

This image of the painting above is a bit different in color from the image found in the book.  I wonder what the truth of the colors really are and if perhaps the image found in my book is prior to be cleaned.  I guess I'll find out if I ever get the opportunity to go to the Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Belgium.

Besides enjoying the green water, I also adore the story of Icarus.  Upon first hearing the story, we all like to laugh at Icarus's foolish ways and tragic end.  The lesson is clear.  Think before you act and listen to your elders...at least that's what I got from it in my youth.  However, now I see it differently.  I think many of us have been like Icarus.  Rebellious, and learning our lessons the hard way.  I know I have been this way many times and I think my parents would vouch for that, as maybe many of your parents and teachers would for you.

Stubborn or determined is only differentiated by perspective and sometimes it pays off and other times it doesn't.  Think of the explorers in the days when people thought the world was flat.  Imagine what would remain yet to be discovered if people had just followed without questioning.  There are of course countless other examples in every facet of our human history, but the flat world came to mind.  In their minds and others, they were sacrificing their lives to find the answers.  They were fools flying towards the sun with wings of feathers and wax.

Alice in Wonderland - if she had never followed the white rabbit out of curiousity and gone down the rabbit hole, her tale would have ended as soon as it began.  Who would want to read that?  Yes, she did get herself in quite a mess, but it was all worth it.  The stories she could tell up at a tavern in old age that would put local fishermen to shame. hahaha

The painting I have in the works is based upon the fall of Icarus, and is almost finished now.  It is an underwater landscape with the residual bubbles flying up from Icarus's plunge to further depths. 

The Plunge of Icarus, 2012

Oil on canvas, 24x18"

Krystal Booth

Cheers to your weekend and I hope all your risks will bless you with richness of tales to tell, lessons learned, and blissful endings.



Ready To Go!

I finished the landscape painting and now looking forward to placing the two canvases in their new home at the Sherwin Williams at Orenco Station tomorrow. 

Out West, 2012

Oil on Canvas, 20x32" (Two 20x16")

Krystal Booth

 

(Left-hand side Canvas)

(Right-hand side Canvas)



Perhaps we will need sunglasses for this one.

hahahahaha!

Hope you have a great week, and thank you so much for reading!

Secret Obsession

I have a confession to make.  I have a secret obsession with looking at artist studios and how they are organized.  I am fascinated. 

I know this may sound especially lame.  It's not sexual or romantic or exotic.  It's not super weird like an obsession of sleeping with a hairdryer or drinking gasoline.  However, I think an artist studio is highly personal and an intimate way of seeing how different brains work.

Here are some artist studios that caught my eye online (the last one is of Francis Bacon's studio in London):

Some of the studios are tidy with clean surfaces all around.  Others are messy and cluttered.  When I look at these images, I think about the way the artists work and think.  It's easy to spot those who work in a soothing, calm manner and others who prefer a more rapid speed teetering on the brink of chaos. 

Looking at artist studios is going beyond looking at interior design.  Interior design can tell a lot about what people enjoy and what moods they favor, but any space that one creates in tells more about how their mind actually works.  It can tell a great deal about how they organize information and what comforts and inspires them.

It doesn't have to be an artist studio either.  Any space that one creates in can tell a story of how their mind works - my Dad's garage (organized logically, with a bit of clutter on the workbench, but he always knows EXACTLY where to find everything!), my Aunt's Connie's Kitchen (designed with an amazing organizational system with everything having it's own space - it's absolutely amazing and I've never seen any other space better organized anywhere!) and my Great Grandfather's pole building (perhaps could have been seen on hoarders, and yet, the man was able to find everything with amazing efficiency).

What does your creative space say about how you organize information or the way you work?  Is there an enviroment where you have trouble creating?

Perfect Quote for the Day, the Month, the Year

I woke up with this posted on my fb wall from my artist friend - Benedicte Cathrine, and it was perfect.  It had to be shared, and I thank you, Cathrine!

"Lend your ears to music,

open your eyes to painting, and...

stop thinking!

Just ask yourself whether

the work has enabled you

to "walk about" into a hitherto

unknown world.

If the answer is yes,

what more do you want?"

-Wassily Kandinsky

The Changing Landscape of Things

This is the current landscape as it sits upon the easel today.  It is still in progress and patiently waiting for me as I write this.  My first intention was to get it done a couple of days ago - instead, my progress has been slow while imposing shapes upon the surfaces of the forms and messing with the color relationships.

To my absolute surprise, I've been painting landscapes lately and really enjoying it.  They have captured my imagination.This is another one that has been in the works -   

I've always had a bit of a yawn when it came to landscapes in the past.  I don't know what it is, but they can bore me to no end....however, my opinion is changing.


I would like to blame or thank the Pacific Northwest for this unexpected change of attitude.  There is not a day when I am not in awe of the natural phenomena here taking the form of moss covered branches, mountain peaks that seem suspended from the sky, and the smell of pine needles blanketing the walking paths.  Even if garter snakes are sunning themselves in the said paths and I have to find a way to stomp louder while suffocating Matthew's arm in my grip, I am thankful that I can finally see why nature is the master of art.

The Saint of Seizing the Day and Guilt-free Mess

As I drink my last cup of coffee for the morning and plan out my day of painting, I look about the apartment and realize that it needs some attention too.  Curses.


Now a certain artist comes to mind that is making me feel much better about my sweatpant attire, two loads of laundry stacked up and the mild disarray of the apartment.  He makes the guilt melt away.  His name was Chaim Soutine.

Chaim Soutine

He lived at the beginning of the Twentieth Century and died in 1943 at the age of 49, but before that was known as a man of filth.  Don't get me wrong, his work as an artist is truly revered and he was passionate about his work.  In this way, he was wildly successful in how he spent his energy.  He did a lot of paintings of slaughtered animals and figures and for this, he had to have visual references, right?  Well, he did. 


He had an ox carcass in his studio that he kept for so long that the strong stench worked it's way out of his studio causing complaints.  The police were eventually called and they removed it.  I'm sure that his neighbors were cheering.


His personal hygiene also left much to be desired.  He didn't bath often, wore the same outfit for weeks on end and actually ended up having bed bugs in his ear.  IN HIS EAR!!  I think it's fair to say that he took Bohemian living to an unknown level.


So, if you look about your living room and it does not look like a interior design photograph, do not feel bad.  If you would rather spend the day following your passions, by all means do it!  Chiam is the example to help us not feel guilty.  I'm willing to bet that what we feel is messy is Chiam's vision of cleanliness.  So seize the day!  Don't do all of the things on your "Must Do" list that suck all of the energy out of the fun of your life.  The cleaning will still be there after you have your fun.  Seize the day!


Unless you have an ox carcass going on, or haven't bathed for a couple of days...perhaps there are some necessary priorities.


Enjoy your weekend guilt-free, my friends!  INDULGE!  :)




CAUTION:  This post may actually have the opposite effect and may motivate you to clean.  Afterall, bedbugs in the ear is a pretty powerful image.  So if you find yourself in this boat of thought, make your cleaning fun and blare that music! 

Work and Balance - Finding Satisfaction

Tomorrow.


Tomorrow I will be painting without having to go to my part-time job, and I've been looking forward to it all week!  Don't get me wrong, I actually really enjoy and am thankful for my part-time job.  The people have been great, I've been learning a lot so my brain has been happy, and I have yet another reason to change out of my yoga/sweatpants.  That's all very good and well.


However...


I love the days when I can paint as long as I want without having to look at the clock, and absolutely surrendering to the now.  What a gift!


When I was unemployed, I couldn't quite enjoy creating as much as one would imagine.  Instead, I was constantly stressed, somewhat depressed, and existing with a touch of anxiety at all times no matter what I was doing.  Today, I'm grateful for what I have gained due to finding work again.  Yes, I am losing time to create, but it's making the time that I am able to create so much better and more productive.  Someday, I hope that I can make art my full time occupation that pays the bills, but the meantime isn't so bad.  I am happy to say that for now, I am satisfied in a stable, balanced manner, and I haven't been able to say that for a long time.


The last few years have been a stuggle for so many of us.  I hope that you are finding out what you need and recieving the change to recieve it.  Love to all of you!

Landscape in Progress

This is what I'm working on today - a landscape inspired by a photograph that Matthew and I took when we were traveling from Indiana to Oregon. 

The image spreads across two canvases.

The photograph was of an old abandoned mining facility in either Wyoming or Utah.  All of our traveling photos quickly got out of order, and now everytime we look at them, we get in a debate over what state goes with each photo.  We have learned our lesson for next time!



I loved the lines and land contours in this photograph.  The mining facility is a beautiful ruin, but I decided to omit it from my painting and focus upon the landscape instead.  I may paint this again with a focus more upon the mining facility in the future, because I really do like the structures.  What a story it tells!

I like to use my own photographs as a starting point for several of my works.  I use them as visual references but like to add more drama and exagerate them as much as possible.  I'll keep you posted on the results - I have a lot of work ahead today!  I love the exagerated color, but I need to subdue some areas a bit.  Also, the sky is a bit too smooth and lacking personality at the moment, but maybe my opinion will change...it's too early to tell. 

Cheers to giving your world some personality and I hope you are enjoying your weekend!  Love to all!