Thursday, June 17, 2010

The Mating Game 11

A work of art is a corner of creation seen through a temperament.

Emile Zola

My computer was in the care of Best Buy for over two weeks and I cannot begin to describe how happy I was to get it back. At any rate, I am happy to post another rendition of the swans. I took them to class today and my teacher feels they are finished. My favorite critic does not. I will try to add a few more touches to them but actually will be quite happy to see them swim off into the sunset. While I feel I learned a lot about painting water, feathers are a whole other story! The quote above seemed to fit perfectly with this painting. Every time I approached it I had a different idea of the feeling I wanted to give to it. I'd try to give it one type of atmosphere at home only to have my teacher suggest something to give it a completely different feel. That little bit of still water in the lower right hand corner is me clinging to my original idea of still, placid water counterbalancing the tension between the swans. My teacher kept at me to swirl that water up but I hung tough. Today he didn't mention it all ~ maybe (probably) he was right, but it's my painting.