Raking the Hay

[walt curlee]

MY IMAGE(S):



GENERAL INFORMATION:
Title: Raking the Hay
Year Created: 2007
Medium: Oil
Surface: Canvas
Dimension: 16 x 20
Allow digital alterations?: Yes!

MY COMMENTS:
I love working this way. I like the pastoral mood and the feel. I worked very realisticly previous to my last few paintings, and I have deviated from that.


MY QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP:
I would like to know your likes and dislikes. Your thoughts, and is the background too dark or moody.

Thanks
Walt

[nodakcoyote]

Needs to be in a gallery somewhere ... Truly excellent.
Kelly

[toraman]

I love the style and colors, but the subject is a classical one, I would love to see a surrealistic one.

[TinaC]

Very special - magical even. Beautifully painted.

[Ronni]

Oh my goodness, how I enjoy it! going to browse your threads now and find who you are.

[Corby]

Beautifully done!!! In the style of Thomas Hart Benton. Lovely upbeat work.

[walt curlee]

Yes, like Thomas Hart Benton. His work had a magical quality to it that I am trying to capture.

[Kathrynlovespets]

fun picture..the roots sticking out of the ground make me think of legs kicking out....well, especially the top right one

[creodont]

Nice I'm back in time. The clouds are fantastic . Great use of color. You have a great style. Corby mentioned earlier in one of my paintings Thomas hart Benton. I need to see his art. But yours look a bit like a few murals done in the thirties just prior to the war . My grandfather painted in a program back then and as a kid I saw his work and others.Great job.....John

[ejtupi]

Walt, you are an absolute breath of fresh air. Someone gave me a book on Benton a couple months ago, and I loved every page of it. The day before he died he finished his last work, "The Sources of Country Music". Do you think this is a person who died knowing he had lived a life in full? He was a huge person in all the ways that really count, and an artist who loved his subjects.

You have chosen wisely, if Benton's spirit is guiding you. This painting is even more remarkable than I at first thought, for I believed that surely it had to be on a huge scale. You are very right about his work being "magical". I have a feeling many people might say the same of yours.

No critiques on this one, just unashamed, unqualified admiration. Beautiful.

[Jim Updegraff]

More the love child of Thomas Heart Benton and Grant Wood. Good color, good defined form, good negative space. Go look at Wood’s Stone City and Benton’s murals in the Mo State Capitol Building and maybe his Judith and the Elders, I think you will see what I’m talking about. If we could some how get John Stuart Curry in there we’d cover the big three of Pre WWII Midwestern Regional Realism.

[allanom]

"I worked very realisticly previous to my last few paintings, and I have deviated from that."

Love it that you've deviated. And love the big-headed horse-y.

[walt curlee]

Thanks for all compliments. I expect Mr. Benton was pretty satisfied with himself. I have seen some of Grant Woods work, too. Great work.

[Dana Design]

Incredibly beautiful! Great style, excellent color, composition is wonderful. My eye goes round and round the painting, enjoying every bit of it.

The background is not too dark, not too moody. It sets up the farmer and the gold of the fields perfectly. Well done!