Acrylic on 12 x 12 Canvases
vertical diptych
Slither, sail, and soar
Across a teal blue sky,
Portent of the storm to come
Omniscient roaming eye.
Giver,
Taker,
Promise maker,
Case of do or die.
Journey on, yet stay a while
Earth pleads for your sigh.
I admit, I wrote the poem just to make what I am currently working on fit the IF word of the week. But I was not really in the mood for drawing snakes, snails, lizards, centipedes or anything else that literally slithers. I am also trying to crank out enough art to have a reasonable offering for an upcoming artwalk on June 18th.
The color is very slightly off, I took one image in the morning and the other in the afternoon. They match up better in person. Other than that issue, I would love to hear some constructive criticism. I struggled over whether or not I liked the strong contrasts, (dark neutral grays, stark vibrant teal) but I worked on it almost like an abstraction. I view it more as a formalist abstract work. Let me know what you think.
Wow--lovely cloud paintings--fabulous colors and contrasts...
ReplyDeleteHey great poem! I was thinking how lucky you were to get 'slither' in a poem.
ReplyDeleteThe painting of the clouds is very good. I think the bottom panel works best. The top panel, if you turn it upside down to look at the composition is not as well balanced?
I always look for a focal point in work, It's a place where the eye stops to rest, otherwise the eye goes round and round endlessly.
So maybe a simple focal point?
Hey Andrew, Thanks for the critique! I will give it some more contemplation. On that top painting I was really focused on the negative space and you're right it probably doesn't have a strong focal point. The "fingers" of the large cloud were meant to point to and frame the small cloud near the center. Believe it or not I did work on it upside down for a while, which is when I decided to add the little wisp at the top. Probably because the "fingers" seemed to point off the canvas. If this painting remains part of the diptych, then I think the focal point remains the cloud in the middle distance and by connection the horizon line. Of course both paintings need to work independently. Hmmmm, I'll keep looking at it for a while.
ReplyDeletebeautiful!
ReplyDeleteoh wow nice! I like your interpretation of this weeks topic ♥
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by at my blog :)
ReplyDeleteGreat painting! I love just staring at the sky...
Cheers,
Junko
Beautiful...love the expanse in the bottom image :)
ReplyDeleteSally, it seems like the direction of the sunlight lighting up the edges of the clouds is inconsistent between the two panels. The bottom panel seems to stand alone very well, but if you are looking to keep it a diptych, you might consider the direction of light and which edges of the clouds would appear lighter and darker in the upper panel.
ReplyDeleteThough written as an afterthought, the poem makes it work.
Hello Sally! Now, you got me thinking of clouds and how great it would be to go outside and lay on the grass (Ha! I wish!). But I could look at this and pretend... beautiful. :)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, You are are absolutely right. I originally painted these as completely separate pieces. I just liked it when I happened to set one image above the other. The light source is definitely different. You are very observant. :)
ReplyDeleteI love clouds & I love triptychs & diptychs. Two of my fav things here!
ReplyDelete