"Mother and Child"

[Karin Wells]

"Mother and Child"
24" x 30" Oil on Canvas

[ceEllicott]

You are obviously way more skilled than I!
This is incredible work --- very reminiscent of the old masters.

That all said, can I be honest? Two things bug me about this painting (although it's wonderfully done!). One is the combination of an absolutely CHARMING pose (ooh those smiles!) with gloomy, depressing colors. I realize you may have been going for those colors to get the old world look, but it doesn't work for me.
Second, I think there is too much background. I think a close cropping would help the adorable couple not to be drowned in the draping of a dark background.
Obviously I'm being extremely picky because your work is amazing.


keep up the wonderful work


cheryl

[ceEllicott]

Hope you don't mind -- here's your painting after I cropped and warmed it up in photoshop to explain what I meant.


cheryl

[Karin Wells]

I disagree. If this were a photograph, I would definitely close crop it....as a painting, the figures "get real" and need the same "breathing space" that real people do...

You cropped the lettering of their names off the top of the painting.....why did you object to that?

In painting, I overlay warm and cool tones as this helps create the illusion of solid form. Warming up the whole thing negates that technique and doesn't work for me. However, the altered color looks good in your post....go figure. It is really interesting to see what someone else's version would be - we're all so different (and thank heavens for that).

For some reason, this particular painting has a history of being controversial.....I once entered it into a competition and it was rejected as "pornographic." Frankly, I thought that opinion was really off-the-wall and it might be saying something about the judge that I don't really want to comtemplate....

[ceEllicott]

[i]it was rejected as "pornographic." [/b]

lol. HOW ridiculous!
Can't imagine what they were thinking there -- although, with the present colors the mom's smile does come across as "sly" -- rather like the mona lisa. Except that Lisa was a homely sort, so the grim colors and sly smile worked well.
Your mother is very pretty, smiling slyly ..... hmmmm.

Anyway, I am sorry I cropped your words off? I didn't see them! Still cannot . . . I'm sure in person they show much better.

As always, it's your artistic vision that should be expressed.

Thanks for the opportunity to see your painting


cheryl

[kiwicockatoo]

Originally posted by Karin Wells
For some reason, this particular painting has a history of being controversial.....I once entered it into a competition and it was rejected as "pornographic." Frankly, I thought that opinion was really off-the-wall and it might be saying something about the judge that I don't really want to comtemplate....

Pornographic? Yup, it's obvious the judge has problems......

Beautiful painting. I like your use of text in your portraits. Something I've thought about doing before but felt I didn't have the skill to pull off. This is a good example for me.
Brenda