Lily Pad Gallery
The first out of two paintings I'm critiquing is "Sleeping Dogs," I was drawn mostly to this piece because it looked very mysterious and was depicting something that felt very strange. As the lady in the portrait looks almost as if she is shushing the viewer, there is a circle around her, signifying her importance. The aura of the painting felt more distracting than others there.
The biggest thing to point out is obviously the creative background that goes along with the two characters, it looks as if the clouds are coming into the background and almost washing out the appearance of the woman, while the dog sits into it. Another thing is the strange appearance of the woman in the picture, her figure is being blocked out, but her outfit certainly isn't normal and follows a strange pattern of circles similar to the one around her upper body. The starlit sky gives the background an Earthlier appearance, but the background contrasts a regular area, while still giving the feeling that it's on this Earth. The woman's shadow towers over the resting dog, showing that her figure is present, and not just some sort of illusion. Cathy used a high amount of layering throughout her work, which may be occurring thanks to the use of acrylic paint, with being able to paint over certain areas, Cathy was able to block out some of the woman's figure with the clouds. There is various number of tiny lines throughout the woman's dress and the stars in the sky which means a smaller brush would have been used throughout the piece. Continuing with layering, you can include detail to the shading of the clouds and the bright to dark exterior of them within using a brighter shade of grey compared to the darker one. There is not a lot of lines throughout the painting other than some details, but most strokes seem to be casted off into random areas than a straight plane. The choice of color also includes with my previous thoughts of what makes the area look different compared to a normal area during the nighttime. Using the title of this work "Sleeping Dogs" it could either refer to a place where dogs drift off of to during their sleep, or the unfortunate ending area of a dog's life. I bring this up because of Cathy's ghostly depicture of the dogs' surroundings, it isn't normal for the world to look like this, not even with dog's limited vision. The mood of the piece isn't too happy, and more mysterious like I brought into from my first impression. Perhaps the author has a connection with their own dog because of the specific dog chosen? As said before, this could be their interpretation of the afterlife, or the drifting dreams a dog has during their resting moments. After thinking of all my interpretations of "Sleeping Dogs," my original feelings have not changed from when I first looked at the portrait. I still believe the painting to be mysterious in the ways of reflecting a certain situation in a dog's life. Perhaps Cathy was thinking of something entirely different, but my impression still stands in my mind. Looking at an actual portrait like this in a real gallery had taught me perhaps of new ideas for me to include into my own themes, and a strategy of working with paint. |
Cathy Hegman - Sleeping Dogs
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Max Dunlop - Embrace
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The next piece of work is by Max Dunlop, "Embrace" I was mostly drawn in by how descriptive this painting is. Something about the name seemed so obvious while the portrait has a less obvious connection. (Though still has one) As shown in the piece the portrait within the portrait reflects upon the embrace title, but we are shown an empty room sitting alone, that made me quite curious.
One thing I would like to point out is the attention to detail throughout the piece. It almost looks like an old photograph took a photo of this part of a fancy palace. Not only that, but the detail on the certain columns around the fireplace look so well done, along with the reflecting darker areas within the room. Also, certain parts of the piece add to the photo interpretation as some parts of the piece look almost faded as in it's been worn out in the world for too long. This also connects towards how there's no people in the room being portrayed, it almost makes the area look empty and forgotten. Max may have used the same resources as Cathy because there is a massive amount of layering through this piece as well. Max also used the style of direction through his portrait as you can see the walls move in a downward direction, and some parts of the portrait within the portrait move to the left or right. Another thing is the attention to detail on the columns of the buildings structure. Everything looks more real contrasted to the last piece by Cathy, and certain details strike out more than others. The people shown off in the portrait truly give it the name "Embrace," as they rae slightly shown, but contrast with the given surroundings making them almost center of attention in a way. For a sense of theme however, I think more about loneliness when looking deeply into the portrait. The empty feeling of what looks like a photograph makes me almost feel as if the setting in the piece is from the past. The chair sits below the portrait of the two, empty without someone's presence, a similar thing with the unlit fireplace. Though the title says "Embrace" the portrait gives a drifting feeling, but still shows how the embrace of others show true within the works of art on the setting's walls. Otherwise perhaps I am taking this too seriously and it truly is about the embrace of the two on the wall being depicted throughout the fancy interior. Though the reason for an empty alone chair makes me question the true meaning of "Embrace." My initial feeling towards this painting was the feeling of embrace being shown, but it has changed within my evaluation. With all the elements shown throughout the piece I believe more of a theme to loneliness or emptiness with the faded look of the background. I want to take in the amount of detailed work and bring that out to my own piece's backgrounds, since I loved the gothic look of expressive columns. |
Below the Ice Fields just felt so nice and mysterious to look at and that's what drew me the most to it. The contrasting between two dark and light colors was so nice to look at, and the name also interested me because "Below the Ice Fields" almost sounds like a movie. Also, I wondered how both the name and picture connected within each other, and how the use of colors contributed to that. The picture takes place in a rocky climate, according to Tomiko's depiction of his work, his sites represent tragedies or certain moments through history, so this may lead a better depiction of the name. The black and white color obviously add to the feeling of "memory" and within that contribute to the dark exterior of a saddened moment through life. Plus, the placement of the photo adds to the overall description of being below of the ice fields above. I believe like I said before, the placement of Tomiko's position in the image adds entirely to the feeling of below. Also, the inclusion of black and white contribute entirely to the mood and theme of the piece. The colors add to the theme in a way in which it makes the image look historic, like a moment in time and a previous depiction of a certain time. It adds to the theme when thinking about traumatic old moments because the dark colors usually symbolize with darker moments in life. The medium of photography also is very different if this was a painting because it is based within a real position, compared to one depicted by the artist's mind. The theme of this work represents a similar one within the rest of most of his works. They consist with tragedy and traumatic moments within perhaps a culture past relations with an area. Perhaps with that information, the image symbolizes the remains of what was left of an old area and how it had changed from before. Since the title is "Below the Ice Fields," it might mean those ice fields have taken position over this old area. That might be why black and white are the consisted colors, something old is usually depicted into black and white colors. MY feeling of the artwork has changed just a bit from the given interpretation and Tomiko's original message. Though I am unsure of the complete idea with the image, I can imagine it takes place into an old moment in time for the area. Though the colors added high amount of original thought into that. It is nice to see more photography in galleries and perhaps I'll take the use of black and white into my own future pieces. |
Below the Ice Fields - Tomiko Jones
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Matrilinear #5 - Elizabeth M Claffey
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Out of all of Elizabeth's Matrilinear's the fifth one interested me the most because I mostly liked how the outfit looked within the picture. Also, within reading Elizabeths description of their work, I was really into the cultural remembrance and aspects within the simple photo of a piece, and how the Matrilinear encapsules that. I loved how the contrast also worked as well with the outfit's design and color, like the previous piece. The dress is very simple, but also very bright, with the intentions of this being a cultural outfit, perhaps it relates well with children in a certain culture. The was the fabric is crafted and the craftsmanship of the outfit looks very different from one's made by various machinery but has a more human approach to it. The outfit is also laid out on the ground of an entirely black background, making only the dress's entirety be shown to the viewer with nothing else distracting the attention. The outfit is short but descriptive within the woven look of the outfit, something created by some sort of stitching. Elizabeth had definitely wanted the viewer to only take into consideration the outfit itself more than anything else. This is shown through the entirely black background within the photo of the outfit. Also, like said before, the fabric of the outfit is very depicted throughout the picture, it allows a good viewing of how the dress was structured. There is also a symbol of flowers on the dress, leading to the outfit fitting for a certain culture's young female. I bring up culture because like Tomiko, ELizabeth uses old cultural outfits through what they call Matrilinear and it depicts the old things within a culture, so through the picture, it depicts the old tropes of a culture. I believe this picture by ELizabeth depicts an old outfit from a certain culture that's been overshadowed by the modernized world, and how it was put together at the time. The mood of the piece isn't really something sad, but more reflective off of what is being shown. This is obviously depicted by how detailed and descriptive the photo is, it gives the viewer a clearer picture of how that culture put together the outfit. It also basically shows perhaps someone of that culture an old memory from their ancestors when learning about their culture's history. From Elizabeth's own description of their Matrilinear's, it is clear what is being shown. My depiction of this work had originally made me thought of those certain places that place outfits given by others, but this is clearly similar but different into why. Elizabeth's Matrilinear #5 depicts something old from a culture's history, more than for a type of movement in what I was originally thinking. I very much enjoy the simple photo placement, it gives no background to distract and just includes the object, which is something I should take consideration if working with something like this and using photography. |