Please critique

[Abdi R Malik]

Hello,

This is my figure painting and being sale right now, The girl dressed up in ethnic style. I took impressionism on cloth and head stuff with little impasto.

Your critique would be appreciated. Thank you.

Abdi

[Abdi R Malik]

In detail.

[Andrea Evans]

Dear Abdi Malik,
This is not a critique but an observation. This is a portrait of a beautiful woman painted by an artist sensitive to her beauty. As beautiful as her headdress is, she is more beautiful. This is what I see.

[Andrea Evans]

Hi Abdi,

Thank you very much for the opportunity to see your work. I looked on the member roster and read the other critiques about the painting of your grandfather to find out a little bit more about your background, education and interests.

Is your work painted for just Indonesia or for a worldwide audience? You stated your aim was to paint a portrait as realistically as possible. "Realistic" has many interpretations. The critiques I read were based on painting a representation of a three-dimensional subject placed in a three-dimensional world.

We members of the forum are for the most part educated in the United States and our art is influenced by our Western European tradition. Like Cynthia, I want to learn about the history of other countries and cultures such as Indonesia and its art tradition, i.e., the indigenous population, influences of outside cultures, religious beliefs, history of portrait painting, current art market, etc. Perhaps you could inform us about Indonesia so that we could critique your work better. What are the best websites to visit regarding Indonesia?

Cross-pollination of ideas has produced wonderful works of art. On the portrait of the young woman, you said there was "impressionism" on the headdress. I think about Edgar Degas' work. He was a Western European impressionist who was influenced by Japanese art. Many of the late 19th century European artists, including Whistler, were influenced by the Oriental approach to picture making with two-dimensional arrangements of shapes on the picture plane. Your work also reminds me of Gustav Klimt's and the decorative qualities of Art Nouveau. I see symbolism in your work as well.
Another observation about the portrait of the woman is that she reminds me of the young women in New Orleans who are presented at Mardi Gras balls with their beautiful elaborate costumes. Please share more of your work and thoughts with us.

[David Dowbyhuz]

Hi, Abdi.

Very nice work, although I find the curve-echo of the head-dress and her shoulders too parallel in width. Presuming the head-dress to be ethnically accurate I suppose you had no choice.

It may be a simple question of the scan you used, but your lady's eyes seem to lack dimension; too flat. They don't come across as spherical.

The contrast in the features from lightest tone to darkest also seems rather limited. I would also have left out the cast-shadow that follows her jaw line, or blended it into the lighter background tones. It seems to projects flash-photography?

You've created a number of "bands" within your work; i.e. the curve of her fan being virtually parallel to the curve of her shoulder. Was this intentional in your composition?

I find your palette of colors very appealing, and your model's focus is very natural.

Best Regards,
Dave

[Abdi R Malik]

Thank you Andrea & David for your evaluations. The incorrect curves were intended to be like that. I used palette knive and spontaneously applied thick paints on the headdress. I am a self taught painter & I admire old masters much such as Rembrandt, Titian, Raphael, Rubens, Van Dyck, Lacroix & Ingres.

Realistic for me means capable of understanding Ingres technique.The skin tones, dress, drapery, compositions etc. I have always amazed by Rembrandt's Jewish Bride. He had a kind of mystical stroke.

I intended my works for worldwide audiences. Sometimes people like to buy from different cultures. For figure painting I like to combine realism and impressionism. I am a painter with little experience so I need a lot of input and practice.

Indonesia is a rich natural resources country. Anything from oil, mining, fishery, agriculture, wood industry, LNG etc. US Company such as Caltex, Exxon, Umount have their concessions here. One of the biggest US Gold Company McMorant gains the profit from Indonesia.

But those profit from all natural resources were taken for almost 35 year by tyrant dictator & his family, colleagues, corrupted beaureaucrats etc. Since his reign fell in 1998 by the student movements that caused many deaths, Indonesia faces $140 billion debt.

Ironically there are many Indonesians who invest their money more than $100 billion outside. Only few were put behind bars. Now Indonesia is in deep economical crisis more than 40 million unemployments. The currency devalues 500% to US dollars. People are now taking profit from that. They buy dollars when there is surplus they sell. But how about millions of poor that cannot do anything. Thank god I still can help few of them from my little business.

Religious belief 95% are Moslems and the rest are Catholic, Protestant, Hinduism, Budhism, paganism etc. Consist of more than 20 languages and ethnic cultures. It was Dutch as Colonial that introduced oil painting, but drawing and coloring are known before that such Islamic calligraphy.

There was one Indo-portrait painting master whose works were typically Dutch School. 3 years ago one of his painting sold for $2 million at Christie's Singapore. He lived in 19th Century. Currently most of the painting demands are figure painting and Lanscape in Realism/Naturalism, Impressionism, Abstract. I think ethnic dress will be my issue in figure painting.

I dont know which website represents Indonesia comprehensively.Please try

http://travel.yahoo.com/t/Asia/Indonesia
http://www.indonesia-tourism.com/

Thats Indonesia in Brief.

Best Regards,
Abdi