Should I cut my ear off? - Page 3

Final?🤔 Lol. Look forward to it. 😉

Chaz, I am far away from being "cute" - my family owned an art gallery for 3 generatons ( I was the last, not very successful, because too honest owner ) ...

Besides that you should be able to find Absinth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe

Keep going!

 

@Chaz... I only meant "final" as the last painting (3 of 3) of this triptych, going by what you said. You wanted to spend quality time playing the guitar, I believe? I think you should continue with this painting pastime and invest in some good brushes and decent paints. In my other life, I managed an art supply store, so I am an expert in helping you spend your money, no problem! The clear paint you bought, btw, is probably a gel medium which you can use to make glazes. I assume you are painting in acrylics? You can tint the clear gel medium with a pigmented paint and create a transparent glaze. If you do an underpainting of white or any lighter color, then apply the second coat with the glaze after the first has dried, it creates a different effect, especially useful in rendering shadows, for instance. Also, with color theory in mind, the glaze will create a third color from the overlap of any two. Try it!

And now for the composition critique and my story of our now familiar, guitar player.

We find ourselves transported to a beautiful and lush place. Our guitar player dangles his legs on the edge and corner of a simple wooden dock. The marsh plants of the lake are like fingers of past pains in his life, reaching out to touch him. He is again engrossed in his music playing but this time he has an audience. There is a single (mute) swan on the lake among the idyllic reflection of the trees and greening woodland growth surrounding the lake. The calm blue of the sky is flat, its color perfectly reflected on the surface of the lake because there are no ripples or disturbances in this setting. Again the painter uses a pattern, this time: a simple repeating of two, the mirroring is the beauty of two lovers' future.

This must be a familiar place, real or imagined to them from their secrets but still, it is something shared and longed for again as a lover's rendezvous. He didn't come here to heal a broken heart, he came here to describe a future. He sits on the edge, because his mind is forced there, but it can't stay balanced like that forever. The sight of (his) swan is bringing him hope that his music is being heard. The swan is about half way in the lake and while he keeps playing we aren't sure if the swan will head toward him, nearing the dock or will continue past him, staying safely at a distance.

Since his back is now turned to us, we the viewer can't help but hope, too, that she who he serenades with all his heart and soul, is already there! Just a step outside our view approaching him on the dock, silent steps that are determined to surprise him with the conviction of undying love and a desire to share the future as something full of beauty and growth within the measure of time.

:)))

Very good, Bee! It is imagined, but familiar. Otherwise, when have you ever seen such a perfectly calm day that there isn't a ripple on the lake.

I do have a question. What do you mean by, "(his) swan"? I ask because we talked about intentional faults. There is an intentional fault related to the swan, so I want to know what you meant.

Well, since the mirrored lake with the gorgeous growth has been imagined before by both lovers, then the swan afloat, is no mistake. The guitar player knows this swan, it isn't by chance that this lovely bird happens to be on their idyllic lake of their future. His contemplation with his music doesn't seek any chance mate for life, he already knows who that is.

I am not sure what the "intentional" mistake is, that you are referring to, because I really can't see too much detail concerning the swan. I can only think that you might mean the painted swan sits atop the lake and within the reflection of the solid, yet still, fantasy landscape. It still needs to be made into perfection only if, and when it is inhabited by "his" choosen and beloved swan. He has already imagined her there, but she has yet to do the same.

There aren't any details of ripples, that gives a sense of movement or whether the swan has landed or prepares to take flight. Such inertia is not expected within all that is living, so perhaps that is the mistake in execution, but has become truth in his life.

It is also telling that the swan is at the center of the image, and this is the symbol of his centering for their ideal future, but the stilled swan does not show any indication that she even notices the musician on the dock. It is only the viewer who see's clearly where that path to him, lies.

We all know swans are monogamous. This one stands alone. Everything in this painting has a reflection except the swan. That is the intentional fault.

We don't know why this swan is without its mate, but it is true that we know they mate for life.  I missed the detail of the missing reflection. Does that then make the swan... unreal? Less real? Never true? A false promise? 

I am not sure. 

 

Well, I asked what you meant about, "(his) swan". You can take that a few ways. 1. His possession, 2. Her, or 3. Him. I think you believe it is #2, but it isn't.

True! You got me there! I saw the swan as 2. ! I was thinking of the poem.........from another thread. 😐

Then, it must be 3. The guitar player's song is his story, he is the swan.

He needs his mate to join him if we are to see them both reflected in the future they had planned. Perhaps that is closer to it?

😉👍. Closer