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A Voice In The Wilderness
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Message
Posted
Have not uploaded since April, felt I had to give it a rest. Problems with making comments as I like to contribute in an informative way. Say no more on that issue. However I do wish there was a box we could tick to say if we would like critique on a piece of work. This has been voiced by others also, I feel it would make thinks so much more interesting, well it would for myself and I am sure for others. Another issue is the number of pieces of work going up each day. Surely one is enough, this also has been voiced by others, two pieces at the most surely.
Apart from my issues with the website, as a whole it is very good, some very good art and a group of really good arty folk who I appreciate very much. Of which I would like to point out without them the site would very largely be used just to show off work. So over all I and others say come on P O L lets have some development on the site please.
Thanks for your views John Inkson
Posted
Hi John, I have missed seeing your work so I do hope that a return from you is imminent.
Yes on both of those issues; both points have been raised on this forum many times and it does seem to go unheeded by the powers that be. Perhaps one of us could make representation to Dawn to see what she thinks, I am quite happy to do this but I am also happy to pass that on to Robert if he would prefer to put the feelers out in his highly professional manner. There may be those amongst us that don't agree and like things as they are, so we can discuss the pro's and cons in this thread if anyone has anything to add.
A critique box would liven things up a bit as long as it's constructive of course, it's a very difficult thing to make any criticism without being asked, I've fell foul of this a couple of times early on but learnt very quickly.
Posted
Hi John, been wondering where you had gone. I agree with your points. I have seen some, shall we say, not nice comments on work in the Gallery and I don't know why people do it, especially if their own work is not so good, if you know what I mean. The thing is, if I don't like paintings I just don't comment and could never recommend changes or criticise anyone's work, I just don't comment on the particular piece. It would be a great idea if there was a box to tick if you wanted constructive criticism.
You can upload four pieces of work daily - I could never manage two let alone four - it's too much! I look at the gallery every day and have to trawl though sometimes four pages and that's over just a twenty four hour period and it sometimes takes ages when you look and comment. I do hope POL will take note of this thread.
Posted
Dawn reads the threads - not sure if she manages all of them, all the time - so she'll see there's a feeling about all this. On critiques - I think if you show your work anywhere, you're really asking for critique/criticism; it may not always be welcome, but quite honestly I think it's good for us. I don't often offer it, but sometimes something shouts out at you, and it's doing the artist no favours if you don't just point out, eg, that one nostril is distinctly lower than the other, as I did on a recent drawing. I hope that didn't go amiss, but if it did - well; sorry; but you put it up there. I've even criticized the wonderful Pratim Das, though only felt I needed to once in all his body of work - and he understood; well if it's good enough for him.... Of course, actually BEING criticized can be a little irritating, if only because someone has seen a problem you hadn't noticed - so you're annoyed with yourself. But I've benefited from precisely that - and I'd MUCH rather have had the crit than be left wondering what on earth was wrong with my picture that I couldn't identify.
On the number of paintings on the Gallery - do I agree with you all or don't I ...? At times, I know full well I do; when paintings get shoved out of the gallery door almost as quickly as they arrived. Whether it would be easy to actually change the Gallery so that numbers posted were limited, I don't know ... it will depend on how the website is configured, and I'm no expert there. I do think though that the problem (usually) isn't multiple posters any more, it's the sheer number of people making individual posts .... and that's something to which I see no solution, because we want people to contribute there. Not easy to resolve other than by increasing the number of paintings shown per page, and there will doubtless be problems with that. Who'd be in Dawn's shoes.....?
Posted
There does appear to be many more posters on the gallery than when I joined a year or two back, this is great of course, that's what we are about, I do still feel however that the four a day postings don't help matters. If they are spread throughout the day that's not so bad as you don't get kicked off the front page quite as quickly.
Posted
I find new posters every week who upload their paintings and then disappear. I suppose that is what POL is supposed to be about and so could be termed as "successful".
I like John's suggestion and would find it helpful, however unless I know a particular subject well, I would find it a bit awkward to "critique" it. I think, though it is time for a few changes to be made and perhaps Dawn will consider some of the comments made.
Posted
In case it is useful for gauging the level of support, I'll add that I fully support both suggestions here. I would be very happy to have constructive criticism (I did put two of my paintings in the section for critique and found the advice very helpful but haven't wanted to abuse this facility by putting too many). I also agree about posting multiple paintings on the same day, in fact don't then try to look/comment on all of them. Perhaps the more creative/hard-working artists could space their paintings out a bit more? And if there are many more people posting now than in the past that could be a good case for limiting multiple posts on the gallery? Just my own personal opinion.