Technique, Composition, Form, & Feeling

Boat-on-an-Ocean - 2000

SeaFogged - 2005

There are lots of ways one can develop as an artist. One of the most obvious is technique. It is incredibly apparent in the two pieces above that the technique in the second piece is much more developed. If you look at the enlarged versions(click title links above), it is even more obvious.

The first piece, though quite dynamic is not particularly subtle. The lines are big as well as the bold overlapping colors. I still think it is a wonderful piece in the way it makes you feel like the ocean is rocking, but there is no attempt at any sort of illusion to reality, nor did I understand the medium well enough at the time to be able to produce something like the second piece.

Now the second piece, Seafogged, is not as interesting a composition or as vivid, though it is much more sophisticated in its technique. I chose this as a comparison piece because it is also a painting of the sea and the difference is so startling.

This piece does capture the feeling of the ocean on that day and that sunset time. I was really happy with it on completion because I did exactly what I set out to do. I painted what I had seen at a particular time for a small amount of time - held it in my mind and rendered the feeling I had into the piece.  It doesn’t always work like that.

So besides technique, I have touched on composition and color in my own artistic critique.  There is also balance, the way one’s eye moves through a piece, how much of the piece one is captivated by, and of course the subjective most important aspect of artistic development, how the newer work makes you feel.

See Also

• Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art
  Images from one of the best painters of the sea
• Art Critiquing Process
  Detailed information on traditional art critiquing
• Art Critique Gallery and Forums
  Place to have work discussed and critiqued - though actual critiques are far and few between
• Eye-Opener Memo: Art Critique
  A good quote about how people find it difficult to really critique
• Winslow Homer in the National Gallery of Art
  Current Exhibit & examples of one of the best painters of the sea