Working Title: Petri Tales

[MountainSong]

30" by 40"
76cm by 102cm

Acrylic on Canvas
Profile and detail shot included'

The pigments on this painting have good depth, 12-18 layers of glazing, wasn't able to capture the sense of depth in it.
The light blue tonally agrees with the other tones in RL.

All comments and constructive critiques welcomed.
(Feel free to let me have it It'sAll – I can take it )

Enjoy

[it'sALLart]

well... calling me out like that! hmm.... OK, i'll bite.

Palette is what strikes me first. I love hot reds, but when forced to look at this much lava, I almost want to hide in one of those nice light blue havens that are sprinkled about. IMO, hot red is best when it glows on it's own with lots of darks. But this piece on a black wall? It would sing there. (maybe a dark bar somewhere needs this! I would stand there and gawk with a vodka-seven in my hand.)

Design is a nice, but maybe a tad full, (in some ways, the detail shot works better for me) I would have liked some negative space to rest my eye a bit before moving on. Something about the shapes all having more or less the same mass tends to flatten the work out. If some were larger and/or smaller, there would be more depth. Since red wants to project and blue wants to recede, I see the ground as a surface instead of colored air, for what that's worth. The elongated purple shapes are resting on and nesting in it, which may have been your want, but their "right angle" placement with each other detracts from any movement they might have had otherwise.

Modeling could be better, the light source for the shapes seems to be front and center which, again, flattens out the piece a bit for me as well as the lack of shadowing behind them. (yeah, i know I harped on that feature on another piece but here it might have worked....)

I like the brushy pattern and especially the fadey purple squiggles... they add motion and fluidity to what could have been a static work otherwise.

It's a hot piece, wondering what black sides would have done instead of the wrap? I dunno, i want to add black for some reason...

just one guy's lengthy but honest opinion here...

[FriendCarol]

I looked at it, thought about it, didn't want to say what I thought, went away, saw the title again and came back in! Duh! It reminded me of protozoa and I liked the sense of movement, was the sort of thing I was going to say. So, yeah, Petri dish.

The strange discovery I made is that as I scroll it (on my LCD monitor), the light blue 'wriggles' as I look at it! The other shapes/colors don't do that, but every light blue shape, from stars to lips to worms (whatever -- how does one use words for things like this, anyway?), wriggles. I wonder what weird physics is responsible for this effect, or if it's my eyes. (I do really have to see an eye doctor soon.)

Fwiw, I liked the static blue rods giving it some stability against the movement of the wriggly lines. And the flatness of the light blue versus the highlights on the other colors. I kept trying to understand what it might really look like (a sense of depth, and tonality of the light blue), but that's hard. I would love to see it with its apparent depth, because I think that might be really cool.

[wiscojaydub]

For the life of me...i cannot give out such in depth analysis of anyones painting whether it is acrylics or oils or digital..All i can say is i love your works and this one included.. jaydub

[chandlerjr]

Originally Posted by it'sALLart

well... calling me out like that! hmm.... OK, i'll bite.......
.............It's a hot piece, wondering what black sides would have done instead of the wrap? I dunno, i want to add black for some reason...

just one guy's lengthy but honest opinion here...

Keith,
Most people in the forum are only okay at giving objective and mentoring crits, a few forum participants are good at giving crits, but you are the best at disecting a painting in a productive and mentoring manner so the artist receiving the crit can grow from it.

I really like the painting over all, but was, for a while, puzzled by your comment about "I dunno, i want to add black for some reason." However, I played with it is photoshop a little, and I think I know the answer. It is the same reason you said it would look good against a black wall. It is so hot that a little black would bring it under control.

Good piece of art MountainSong and a good crit!
Larry C.

[bbbilly1326]

hmmm....the composition works for me; like Keith I really like the detail, that would make a great painting by itself.

i'm bothered by the organic looking blue forms inconsistently placed at right angles so they look more mechanical, but maybe that's what you wanted.

I wish i could see the depth, i'd like to see more subtlety in the colors.

BTW, if you actually copied this from a petri dish, you could call it representational

thanks too song for your kind comments about my b&w stuff...very nice of you to take time even when they don't appeal to you...but if you look at enough...who knows?

[MountainSong]

ItsAllArt I can not thank you enough – you time and energies will not go unused. You were able to see and articulate what I could not mentally get beyond the niggle stage with. Indoors it’s not as glowingly bright.
I learned a very important thing – red can’t be used for rest spots. I did leave three negative places in this painting but they’re in red. Red = active. Got it. Thanks.
Part of the problem in the design I think was I wanted a static, flat quasi-geometric kind of piece but could never fully visualize it and ended up landing somewhere in between styles. Also I was trying as an experiment to force red and purple alone to support a painting – too much experimenting in one piece?
For the first time I’m able to fully grasp what you said about the right angled elements and looking back I see this has happened before. Now that I can visualize what it is and why it doesn’t work you won’t be seeing that problem again!
Will try and work on what you call modeling (lighting?) You’ve mentioned it before but I can’t visualize another approach yet. Part of the hang up may be mixing an element of realism into it. I’ll focus on trying to leap this hurdle ItsAll.
A million thanks to you for using enough words and descriptions to help me see what went wrong and why.

FriendCarol - *L* Thank you. I often wonder if everyone’s work is as different in RL as mine. I’ve been really trying to push the pigment depths so the paint doesn’t look flat – but it absolutely will not photograph. This painting has a feel of looking into a shallow reflecting pool – at really large protozoa, bacterium and rotifers! *L*

Wisco! Not a problem! I can easily live with ‘loving my works’! Thanks Dude.

Chandlejr – I do believe you thanked ItsAll much more eloquently than I did. Thank you for that! I’ve not a clue how to solve the black dilemma. *L* I would like to see what you did with it in photoshop. Thanks for really looking at it.

Bbbbilly – Between you and ItsAll saying the same thing in two different ways – I fully now understand the problem with the right angle elements and it will be a problem no more! *L* Man - it just feels good when something ‘clicks’ into place. *Big Grins* Thank you Bbbilly. Oh P.S. I do love B&W work – I’m a scratchboard artist originally. B&W is just so pure you know?

[scorpio32]

I want to sit in a candle-lit room with all your pieces surrounding me & just be.....

know what I mean?

dave

[wiscojaydub]

Yeah me too in oahu! jaydub

[it'sALLart]

Originally Posted by MountainSong

Part of the problem in the design I think was I wanted a static, flat quasi-geometric kind of piece....

Will try and work on what you call modeling (lighting?) You’ve mentioned it before but I can’t visualize another approach yet. Part of the hang up may be mixing an element of realism into it.

Mixing in realism is OK... it's what makes this surreal and rich, IMO.

what i meant by lighting is light source and it's effect on objects and shadows, Modeling is the look and texture of the object itself and it's shape realized thru shadows and highlights.

Below is a visualization of what i meant: As far as modeling, it really depends on what you're after... if this is "petri" land, then your flat shapes are actually just fine. If you want it to look more like "air" with floating objects instead of liquid, then this example might help. I've seen you try to do each and the shadows and modeling of the objects in each case was very close to being what I see as correct. (others may not agree here, but that's ok, i'm just plowing ahead.) Since you are in a "surreal" scene, some of the reality of lighting and modeling may still apply to help add a sense of reality's principles in an unreal scene (thus making it surreal). On this example, the hi-lites are moved from the front to the left a bit (and made a bit "hotter") and the shadow to the right, which gives more of an appearance of "floating" and fully rounded shapes. If you wanted flattened shapes that are resting on the surface with the lighting front and center? Then you have hit the nail.

These are all slick and shiny because of photoshop, but even in a painterly style this would still work.

My two cents!

[themanda]

this is an absolutely viral piece.

i'm bothered a bit by the flatness of the lighter blue sections. they just don't seem to have the depth that the rest of the painting possesses.

good to see you painting BIG, sister!

[sciartist]

Microscopically organic, luv it. Of course that may just be the research biologist in me coming out.

[Theresa1021]

You're paintings all have wonderful dimension & depth within them that grabs my hand and pulls me inside, great work!...I hope I'm making sense! I'm so sleepy..lol

[MountainSong]

Scorpio – Ya, I know exactly what you mean…that is soooo cool. You have a smooth mind.

Wisco – Dude, I think you just want to get to the Islands – whatever the excuse! *LOL*

ItsAll – Thank you so much for the illustrations – they are most helpful. I wanted a very liquid-y feel on this one, and the objects to be just below the surface sitting on the bottom. Essentially life squeezed between two glass slides. So the second shape you did would be what I was going for – only I wanted them to glow internally – or light to be coming through them from below (microscope) but I can’t seem to capture how something would look lit from the inside. I tried it on Vus Alchemy also – close but not quite - you know? Vus came close because the back ground was darker than the shapes, but on this one I’ve reversed it and it makes it much harder. I’m still working on this piece – I’ve taken out the right angles and removed some of the outside shapes in the darker red areas. But I’m still dissatisfied with the shapes in general and the lighting. The light blue shapes may get darkened also.

Themanda - *L* Viral?! Must be all that red that gives it a viral feel as opposed to a bacterial feel. Those big canvases are a work out! Yikes! Bend and stretch. Bend and stretch! Thanks Gal.

Sciartist - *L* Yep being a research biologist will do it! Life is fascinating on every level. I often think about what all existed in the proverbial primordial soup from which so much evolved. Thanks for weighing in on this. Grins.

Theresa – You make a lot of sense. And your words are beautiful and lyrical – thank you very much. Sleep well dear Lady.

[minimonkey]

Now *this* is a critique thread worth noting! It'sallart -- your critical eloquence blows me away. Do that to my next posting, will ya?

I, too, am a bit bothered by the apparent "flatness" of this piece. It may be somewhat a product of the photography, but I think the addition of darker tones would make it more lively. Overall, I think it is a great start.

Yes, working big is a workout! It requires a different headspace, too, I think.