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  #11  
Unread 02-11-2015, 03:23 PM
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Rick Mullin Rick Mullin is offline
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smaller below:

Last edited by Rick Mullin; 02-11-2015 at 03:27 PM.
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  #12  
Unread 02-11-2015, 03:26 PM
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Rick Mullin Rick Mullin is offline
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How about here?:


Last edited by Rick Mullin; 02-11-2015 at 03:31 PM.
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  #13  
Unread 02-11-2015, 04:44 PM
ross hamilton hill ross hamilton hill is offline
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It belongs to the phantom, ghost who walks.
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  #14  
Unread 02-11-2015, 04:46 PM
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Václav Pinkava Václav Pinkava is offline
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That's very good.
Not sure why my mind keeps coming back to wondering where the lower jaw got to; as though it were the most significant part of the painting, notable by its absence. The skull seems to be quite miffed about it.
Maybe it's that word Remnant in the title.
Maybe the title should be just that.
Remnant.
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  #15  
Unread 02-11-2015, 08:03 PM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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I like the suggestion that the skull's brow is furrowed in annoyance, or puzzlement. (Perhaps like mine, because the background does not look green, as advertised in the title--I see it as blue-dominated turquoises and teals. The only green I see is part of the skull itself. But no matter.)

I enjoy the concatenation of curves--especially the skull's zygomatic arch, its top frontal outline, and the big swirl in the background fabric. I find these echoing shapes vaguely reminiscent of concentric ripples in a pond, or of Van Gogh's use of swirls in "Starry Night". The solidity of the more linear surface on which the skull rests makes a restful contrast with the motion of my eyes' meandering journey along the curves above.

Last edited by Julie Steiner; 02-11-2015 at 08:06 PM.
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  #16  
Unread 02-12-2015, 03:18 AM
Sharon Passmore Sharon Passmore is offline
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The URL is coming from Wordpress, maybe they were down or having problems? Maybe it's a ghost skull?

This background looks blue to me as well. I also enjoy the relationship between the background patterns and the skull forms. There's a pleasing rhythm between these swirls and that purple eye hole. At first, I felt that the depression near the skull's temple was a bit flat and lacking detail, but now I like it because it doesn't compete with that eye as a focal point and it works so well with the main background swirl. That accent of green is perfectly lovely-creepy, as if this skull is not entirely dry yet, or has just been dug up.

I get a strong feeling of legs from the way this sits on the table with these two remaining teeth.

I am not sure how I feel about the table top not being level. It's not so far off level as to be purposely on a diagonal. It's close enough to level to give me the urge to straighten that painting. But I wonder, if it were perfectly level would it make the painting less interesting? I don't know. If it were skewed even more would that introduce one-too-many new ideas and wreck it?

Is this uneven because it's not the edge of the table but the fabric remnant is draping onto the table? If so maybe it could use a slight highlight on that drape in front of the nose? maybe a bit of blurring where the table meets fabric behind the skull? If there is draping happening here, I am not getting that at all, just flat background meets table.
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  #17  
Unread 02-16-2015, 09:59 AM
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Ann Drysdale Ann Drysdale is offline
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Ah, I can see it now. I can see both blue and green in the background. But I can't see teeth.

I am probably holding back the potential of the picture by trying to "understand" it. I can "get" the shape of the once-upon-a-time fontanelle in the green tracery on the round top of the skull, but my eye is drawn every time to the plurge of green below the jaw. I can't make it belong to either the inside at the back or the outside at the front. I can't decide on "where" it is and this freezes my attention.

In a weird way it reminds me of Holbein's "Ambassadors" I know it's a skull I'm looking at but it's a sort of Star-Trekky "skull, Jim, but not as we know it".

Tell me what I need to know.
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  #18  
Unread 02-16-2015, 07:12 PM
ross hamilton hill ross hamilton hill is offline
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Ann, step back about 4 feet from your computer screen and it will all come together. There is probably a technical term for this but generally a painting is meant to be 'seen' from a few feet away. You could do the same with Sharon's pointillist painting.
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  #19  
Unread 02-17-2015, 02:21 AM
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Ann Drysdale Ann Drysdale is offline
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Of course - thanks, Ross. A practical suggestion and one that I should have thought of for myself. Will do. (sound of Norwegian rocking-stool being scraped backwards, punctuated by knee-creaks...)
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  #20  
Unread 02-17-2015, 03:05 AM
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Ann Drysdale Ann Drysdale is offline
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I've done that. The "green flash" still assumes a disproportionate(?) importance. From a practical point of view (!), a lot of the upper jaw seems to be missing, too, but I just assumed that that is how this object "is". I have begun to trust Rick as a painter, especially on matters of personal perspective and relative "size" in real terms. I give him "permission". (See, Sharon, this is what happens when the whiff of Yak is allowed into your artspace...)

From that Rossdistance, the swirl on the side of the head, the un-ear, suggests a concave surface, which confuses my eyes.

But this, in chronological order, is what distance did. The skull became more skull, I questioned its veracity, then let it be. The background suddenly took on texture which asked me "how can that sort of disturbance be a vertical surface?" and then immediately answered me by remaining, defiantly, as it is.

Then the green flash, dammit, and the swirly absence of ear and then - the eyesocket that, from a distance, took on a depth that sucked my breath into it. Almost a visual definition of a black hole. I peered in, exploring its hinted-at innards; it should have stared back. But it didn't; it closed an invisible fist on my looking and wouldn't give it back.

It still hasn't.
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