This is another figurative piece I've been working on on and off for a while. You could also say that it's a landscape with figures in it. I'm not really sure whether it's one or the other, and whether it's necessary to draw the line somewhere. For me, the essential thing is whether the people and their action in the composition are saying something or giving a certain meaning to the painting. I'm still working this out, as you can see.
Alex, this is awesome. Your brushwork is so fresh, natural, without pretense and at the same time, so descriptive. This is where many artists stumble, I feel: getting the spontaneous, interesting brushwork going, but failing to make it all mean something, describe something...so that all that "bravura" paint handling exists for its own sake, resulting in a painting that appears...self indulgent. Your paint handling, on the other hand, is exquisite, joyous and it is describing something tangible, real, vivid...what an awesome gift you possess!
As to how to categorize the painting - I don't think it matters. I think it would only matter to you during the painting process, how your characterization of it informs your process....
Alex,
I see that you do business in thatching reeds. I did one small one, 30 x 40 cm, last year at the same time of the year. I notice that the reeds have not reached the full height yet, so it must be early summer.
Mine was also intended to be a figurative, but the canoe was so fast , or I was slow, and it went away before I managed to squeeze out the orange for it, might as well be my luck.
I love your variations of the dark in the water, from bluish to olive. It's those, normally unnoticed nuances, that makes the painting live.
David--whenever someone says they like my brushwork, I get such a thrill. It may look like it just flows, but I do a lot of rubbing out whole sections and re-painting them. If you only knew how many times I re-worked this! I think you are right about it not being significant whether it is figurative or landscape. It is what it is.
Allan--so those are the reeds you use for thatching? I like how you could tell it was early summer. And I love your landscape! The reeds are done so loosely and delicately, with just the right touches of hard edges, the water is lovely (I especially admire how it interacts with the stems of the reeds), and I love the way you indicated the trees in the background. The few strokes at the pointed tips are just right! Is this near where you live? I am struck by the similarity to Maine, which is the setting of my painting. Have you seen these works (below) by Aapo Pukk, an Estonian artist? He was a finalist this year at the PSoA.
Marina--I am so happy you like the atmosphere. It did have a sparkling, airy quality that I struggled to reproduce.
Very nice, Alex! I like the way the canoe is in the most appropriate spot on the composition. Everything else leads to it. You have this way of making the spectators
Thank you Ilaria for setting a distant goal! May we all fetch $10 million! I wonder if it was the white canoe that did it? Maybe it was the water or trees. Hmmm...
Carlos, thanks for your vote of confidence in my ventures into figurative painting. For me it is the most difficult. Portraits and landscapes are each challenging in their own ways, and I find that they say something if the artist is true to his/her concept and has the skill to carry it out. But I have to think and evaluate more when it comes to a figurative piece. Am I saying too much, am I hitting the viewer over the head with the message? Or is it not clear enough? Maybe this type of work has a more clearly defined message, or maybe I'm just new to it. You do this so well, Carlos, in a different way, of course.
Plus, there doesn't seem to be a definite point at which portraiture becomes figurative, or landscape becomes figurative. It's more than the size of the figures in the composition. There really are no answers---I just like to ponder these things.
Alex, if i am not mistaken there is a story behind this painting, that there was a poll and the result was that people' s favourite subject for a painting to hang in their home was a stream with a canoe, so he just painted a few. And that is contemporary art!
I'd much rather have yours and Allan's hanging in my home !
Linear Mode
