Judge It

"Most of us forget that ART comes from ARTIFICIAL."  And so it does, I looked it up in the dictionary.  These were the introductory remarks of Eric Atkinson (painter and educator) as he began to explain his jurying process.  He had just named my small  11x14" oil on linen the winner.  Eric being an abstract painter, I expected him to pick an abstract as winner.  Go figure.

He went on to say that as such, a copy of the motif was really not art.  He might have said it was not too interesting.  He pointed out the use of colour and the design of the space in the image.  He was big on these two elements.  He meant the judicial use of colour, not the raving, loud, colour everywhere use.  When everyone is yelling no one is heard.  His emphasis on space I had not heard before (even though I work on this continually).  He proceeded to show the group how depth was achieved in this painting even though it was relatively flat or compressed.  He compared it to another painting which by comparison had no depth but came forward out of the picture plane into the viewer's space (21st century he said - A flat image with a collaged item would do that).  Then he showed another comparison of a painting with drawn perspective (indicating depth) on top of a come- forward flat image.  Interesting.  On the surface he did not seem to dwell on fundamentals such as drawing or value.  "Painting is problem solving, you have to figure out how to achieve what you want" (concept).

Here is the judged winner.

Ivy Tea Time, 11x14, Oil on Linen

In summary Eric judged as favourable;

• The arrangement in space
• The building shape to the left
• The shape activation and treatment
• Bold colour with the green balancing the orange
• The return to the picture plane from the sky

When this was painted on site it was mostly overcast.  Thus no shadows.  So I decided to make a local tone painting.  Everything else proceeded from there.

You judge.