Untitled

[CarlyHardy]

MY IMAGE(S):
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Critiques/upload_spool/02-04-2002/250_nouveau2.jpg


GENERAL INFORMATION:
Title: Untitled
Year Created: 2002
Medium: Mixed-Media
Surface: Paper
Dimension: 16x20
Allow digital alterations?: No, please :)

MY COMMENTS:
I've always been interested in the simplicity of nouveau style and began this piece as an experiment in using acrylics and watercolor with gesso. It's not meant to have a lot of hidden meaning...just a simple sketch with color added.

MY QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP:
Would like comments on what's good...what's not working...should I approach this style with a different medium? Should I forget it and go back to flowers!!

[MarshaSavage]

Hi Carly!

Don't know much about the nouveau style of painting, but my two-cents worth anyway. The first thing that jumps out at me is the four corners are all too close to the same color. For interest they should be treated differently. Your lady's posture looks awkward also. If she is leaning forward, make her back straighter instead of curving. Also, what is the round object just right of her face - a mirror? If so, how is it being held up?

I think acrylic and watercolor are the right medium for this type of work.

I know you want to keep it simple, and I think it is a piece that you should try to finish. And I think with a very few changes you would be quite satisfied - and yes, keep it up - if flowers are the subject you do most, it is always a good thing to try something different!

I'll miss your program at the AAC - will be in Florida for the Daytona races - sure wish I could be there as I know you will have loads of good information!

Marsha --
Marsha Hamby Savage Art (http://marshasavage.artistnation.com)

[walden]

I like the colors and style, but the lady seems too busty for that style-- I always think of that as the long, slender flapper type girls.

[CarlyHardy]

I did a rework of this and came up with a few solutions. Don't consider this a work I'm happy with however...but it was a learning experience...Isn't that true of all painting!
carly

[henrik]

Carly,
I am in love with Art Noveau myself... Our house is decorated in this style!
Anyway - as you are experimenting with style, and (I think) don't really want a full critique on this piece) I will just comment on the "Art Noveau" and "simplicity" thing.

As I have tried this myself - the simplicity is a trap - it is really quite complex and I think the secret is that you have to work to create a focus point, tension and release just working with very simple curves. The style of the curvelineature is also very distinct in Art Noveu - (unless you want the scottish, or US Arts and Craft Style which is more linear). The trick is to make those curves be parabolic. Master Art Noveau architect and sculptor Anotni Gaudi hanged chains from the ceiling and watched them in a mirror he placed on the floor to get the right shapes for La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. You can take any "natural material" and bend it to get the same effect - like a long thin wooden ruler, etc. Art Noveau was all about nature and natural forms but abstracted into those lovely swirls.

Dover Books has a lovely series of (inexpensive) Art Noveau books I can recommend. When looking at some of them I thought "How hard can *that* be" - and I tried to do my own designs - yeeeach - that was not easy.

(end of rambling)
So,,, back to your piece. What strikes me is that your shapes are much more circular than the caracterstic parabolic swirls of "high" or "driven" Art Noveau. You have the face and rose abstractions that are also very characterstic, but they are sort of a bit off.

Attached is an image I found of part of a larger design.

[henrik]

Here is another...
(this one I used as an invitation to a birthday party)

[henrik]

Look up Eugene Grasset for some lovely floral designs - I know I have a book somewhere with great prints.

[iyoung]

Maybe this isn't the right place, but I just had to come in here to say Henrik, these nouveau designs are great. I love most of your stuff but I know how hard these are to do - to get the balance in the repetition. I've been making these type of borders for a series on constellations and it is soooooooooo hard. Harder than portraits.


Ilene