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Message
Posted
I'm going to put this here in the hope I'm first and we can keep this on one thread.
Fat chance.......
Who would not have put Jimmy as their first choice to leave this time? No one? Ah - and oh, and oh dear.
The one thing that came across. although he wasn't alone; David runs him close, is rigidity. David doesn't listen much; Jimmy didn't learn much - sad, but there it is - movement caught both of them out, Jimmy more than David.
I felt SO sorry for all of them; this was a murderous challenge, and let's be honest - how many of us could have met it? Even Degas had trouble conveying movement, and they were expecting amateur artists to achieve it? Not, really, a hope in Hastings. I really felt for them this time - and some of them did really well.
Posted
Side notes - Jennifer is terrified of Daphne Todd, and yet Daphne saw the quality in her work - Pascal's advice to David was,for once, spot on (perhaps he's grasped that he's lost far more artists than the other one, whose name I've forgotten for the minute); I'm really rooting for Alan (is It?) who has a much more rounded approach than most of them, though I know he won't make it in the final; and finally - I just don't believe for one single minute that this is anything but the most crude, inaccurate, ratings-chasing rubbish that will never reveal a good artist no matter how hard they tweak it - and that's why I despise this programme: it's a fraud, made all the worse by assuming you can reveal good artists by competition. Of course you ******* can't! If far more sophisticated competitions than this can't reveal the best artists (and they can't), what earthly chance does anyone suppose a ratings-chasing TV show can achieve?
Quite like it apart from that.........
Posted
Yes, spotted that Jimmy needed to be worried, liked David's second painting, and although Jennifer's legs were too long in her first painting I really enjoyed her final canvas. Daphne's lost it as far as I'm concerned, but at least the new chap had the cajones to disagree with Lachlan.
What surprised me was that nobody really started with simple basic shapes. Using just triangles of varying lengths and ovals I got the three dancers on paper in 90 seconds - it wasn't great art but it was something I reckon even I could have done something with.
Posted
Assuming the one rogue post was mine as I can't see it, I have no idea of doing anything wrong but if I did, inadvertantly, apologies.
Jennifer and Suman are ahead of the others and must surely be the two to battle for the title? I really liked Jennifer's second attempt; Suman's too, but not quite as good. Jimmy concentraed on figure detail and forgot that movement was the predominant aim. None of the three male attempts was their best work and I'm thinking the two left breathed sighs of relief when going into the final four. Still think the lifeboat vote is a wacky idea, but the show was interesting enough. For me Daphne made the most sense amongst the judges, the others wuffling merrily along about I know not what. Next week should be good although I'll be sorry when it's all over.
Posted
Wanderer, I would have thought this challenge was right up your street as lots of your paintings are about movement and of course, music. I quite enjoyed last night's show but I would have never been able to do those challenges and I agree, Jimmy was the right one to go, I love Suman's work, she is the most talented I think, I'm sorry but I don't like Jennifer's work but at least she didn't use any hair last night. For some reason I can't warm to the judges at all and take all they say with a pinch of salt, but that's just me, I suppose they know what they are talking about unlike me who is self taught with no formal training!! The final programme seems to have come around very quickly and I suppose I will miss it when it's finished.
Posted
Wanderer, I don't know, but I don't think you did anything wrong - the site just threw, to use a technical term, a complete wobbler.. Dawn may be able to explain - perhaps: but I'm sure if it had been anything to do with your post she would have been in touch with a suggestion or two; it seems that removing the post was the only option open to her. Ain't technology wonderful?
Agree with your comments, and most others - I've also taken a look at some of the websites of these artists, the ones who went and the ones who stayed: it would unkind to single out one who I really believe just hasn't got what it takes ever to produce a good painting - their website is noticeable for a complete lack of variety; I know I'm guilty of painting a lot of trees, but I do sometimes include other things... and I think people want to see that from artists, even if they have their own favourite subjects.
Jimmy, to judge by his comments afterwards, seemed to have derived a great deal from the series - I must say I wonder quite how, but then of course we see only a fraction of what actually took place. He has a pretty good website, too.
Unless Suman really makes a pig's breakfast of the final show, I would have my money on her as the overall winner. But I still carry a candle - as it were - for Alan: he's so slow to commit himself, he so often makes mistakes, but he recognizes when he's produced a horror; trouble is, it saps his confidence. I think, looking back on the whole series, that most of them - perhaps bar one - are far better artists than the show has really allowed them to reveal: that's certainly true of David who, by the way, has written his own blog on the experience: I've not read it yet, but there's a link on the Making a Mark website, if you're interested. Presumably he's had to stagger posts to avoid revealing the winner.
Edited
by RobertJones
Posted
It was a hard challenge to complete the paintings of the dancers, even a professional might have had difficulty because of all the distractions.
I wonder if the contestants had been asked not to use photos. It would have been a lot easier to remember the poses, but using photos often ends up with stiff, overdetailed paintings - but the organisers were looking for paintings which emphasised movement.
Has anyone noticed that many of the contestants in the Portrait Artist of the Year (Sky Arts) use photography and then scale up the portrait on to the canvas?
Posted
I agree, it was a toughie and in all honesty a bridge too far for pretty well all of them. I put my neck on the line many weeks ago when I said that Suman would win it and there is still no one to challenge her.
The reason that she will go on to win the final hinges on the fact that she is the only one out of the whole bunch of contestants including the ones that have gone home that can draw, and if you can't draw you don't have a hope in hell of winning anything in a painting competition.. She made a damn good attempt at the ballerina's, quite superb in fact and her nearest rival Blondie could only produce splashes of colour carefully avoiding any structural figure drawing whatsoever and her limp and lifeless shapes would have made an amoeba proud.
It was perhaps one of those weeks where at least a couple of them should have departed, pretty poor stuff in spite of the difficult challenge but there was 6 hours to work it out and get it right.
Posted
It is so hard to paint moving dancers. My heart went out to the contestants, as I'm sure I would be befuddled by the prospect.
When in Buenos Aires, I tried to take photos of the tango dancers in order to paint them later, but even though I used the burst feature to get lots of photos, with fractions of a second between them, I could not get a photo that clearly said "Tango"! As in ballet, there are clear positions, but the transition points in between don't say very much at all and can just look awkward and ugly. I think it is best to observe one of these positions, like a pirouette, and forget the rest, so that mostly you would be painting from memory.
But best of luck to anyone that tries it.
Posted
I'm going to risk boiling tar and brimstone, but might as well do it here as anywhere else. These are only personal views, so here goes....:hehe:
Firstly, I can't understand tuition during a competition. It makes no sense. Presumably the competitors were chosen based on their skills, were they not? The mentors are worthy of respect in their own rights, but not here. Secondly, the whole concept of art is surely personal expression and representation of a subject/topic rather than just detailed photographic copying. Put a person, group, vase of flowers or stick the contestants on the banks of a river or wherever and say, go for it guys. Give us your version. Daphne is a portrait painter, a quite magnificent one at that, but she seems to be looking for Constable or Rembrandt detail in everything rather than Van Gogh or Monet impressionism, and certainly no Picasso is expected. Not sure what the other two are looking for as even they don't seem to know. I can't agree Alan that Jennifer's work is formless or unskilled; she's putting her interpretation on canvas/paper etc, and surely that's what it's about? Her ballet attempt I thought very good. Personally I like to draw and paint in a hotch-potch of styles wherever fancy takes. I can draw but don't always want detail, sometimes using pure impressionism. What I don't want is to be tied to one style only; it suits some people, but not me. My last mini-rant is about voting through contestants and sending two home in one week, but they are minor points. Is it a alent competition or is it not, or just a sponsored art class? Last year's format was far better, but there's always somebody around with better bright ideas to "improve" things. Okay, that's it. Rant over.....Pax Tecum..;)
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