www.LillianKennedy.com
Lillian@Rockfire.com
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Chicken critiquing painting
A red hen house, lacy white chairs with chickens on them, a serene and mysterious creek edged by cottonwoods, and the not to be ignored sunflowers; so many potential stars all vying to be a focal point.
It all seemed to fit into one long composition of flowing curves, so I gobbled up the whole thing and served it on a 10 x 20″ canvas board.
"Chicken Chairs" 5"x10" Lillian Kennedy acrylic plein air
"The Red Hen House" Lillian Kennedy acrylic plein air
As you can see, even the chickens couldn’t wait to critique it.
Back in the studio, the curves that I had loved became lassos that I was heaving over the two sides in an attempt to tie them together. There is always “composition by scissors”, so I simply cut the sections apart and tossed the creek part that had been on the left. Can you see how these two pieces were once on the same canvas?
I have used this composing technique all my career and consider it valid. Cutting fits perfectly with my “Go With Your Flow” style of working and teaching. The smaller, often vertical, pieces pieces become members in my “Slice of Life” series. It is a bit like cutting / editing out chunks of a story or blog post.
What do you think? Would you be comfortable discovering a diamond in the rough and cutting it out? To join the conversation, click on comments below.
This Sunday, Sept 12, you are invited to the Lyons Farmette to enjoy the gardens and beautiful paintings by over 40 Boulder county artists.
These plein air artists have been painting rural scenes of Boulder county all summer and the paintings will be for sale to benefit the Boulder County Arts Alliance.
For more information, click on this link to see an article from the Daily Camera:
http://www.dailycamera.com/features/ci_15973571
Lillian Kennedy acrylic plein air 10"x20" - These three pieces will be at the show.
September 11, 2010 at 2:32 pm |
I learned the “composition by scissors” (or knife) technique from you! …and Yes, I have done that a couple of times. Once, I even cut off part of the panel BEFORE I started painting on it. I knew I wanted a different dimension than the one I had. Hey…it works!
September 12, 2010 at 6:56 am |
Lily, I love your chickens and am glad you have not all been “fried” in the recent fire! Not your chickens, right?