Art Exhibition Review

A student takes time to reflect upon the exhibits.

 

 I believe this piece to be very effective and the strongest of the three by the artist, he is seemingly poor at capturing accurate proportions, perhaps intentionally or due to the nature of the process of his other pieces; however this works to his advantage with this particular piece as, combined with the use of oversaturated colours and the development of the form through the addition of oval shapes of varying tones to fill what would be areas of block colour gives an aged look reminiscent of popular art of the early 1970s. Although in some areas the clarity of colour is lost through overlaying of different paints that I believe makes the image look dirty and lessens the impactful effect, the piece is definitely a novel idea but I do not believe it has yet been executed to its full potential.

The largest of the three pieces is effective in the use of colour but fails to have the desired impact due to the rather bulbous and inaccurate proportions of the subject, from a distance the image is strong and refinement of these elements would produce a strong painting. The contrast between the background and the face of the subject in colour with the use of opposites draws the attention into the centre and the black of the edge of the face and surrounding hair helps frame the face as a separate image.

The use of colour and form is very effective within this piece, with the use of cold and warm tones contrasting within the piece, and the eyes drawn into the centre of the piece by the use of a light area below centre. I believe the piece is well balanced by the placement of detail on the right side and vast block colours on the left side and the light warm colours dominating the upper area of the image and the darker blues and colder tones weighting the image in the lower proportion. The style is reminiscent of French impressionism. There is also contrast of forms with the sharp angular yet simplistic shapes of the buildings against the softer forms of the blotches that make up the colours. The style is somewhat inconsistent within the piece, with the lower proportion seeming less delicate with stronger brush marks and less well blended colours.

 

 

The three pieces above are those I created for the exhibition, sadly two of which are unfinished due to me not having yet fully planned the direction I wanted to take with the images and the background that would best suit them. I have attempted to create the images in a style of realism with influences drawn from the styles of Art Deco, seen in the more angulated shapes and block tones, most noticeably in the smallest portrait, but with elements in all pieces. The images have since been framed more appropriately, singularly with a thin bordered background. Oil painting is a skill I wish to continue and refine as I progress as I think it would make a suitable medium for a final piece, I wish to also complete the above pieces to a higher and finished standard.