It's all in the eyes

So after posting the "final" painting, and re-looking at it on line and in person, I made minute changes to the eye of the bird. The look wasn't quite right. The real canary was watching me the entire time, her eyes getting sleepier and sleepier. There was a certain trust and acceptance, a certain wisdom that I wanted to catch versus the fierce determination of the "final" version.

That is kind of the immediacy I like about painting, photographing, and posting. In reflecting back what the brush has rendered, I see it with new eyes of my own, a new perspective. It is almost as if I'm applying a digital process to a very old medium. An edit-copy-paste way of creating art.

Additionally there is an exchange that is occurring by blogging and presenting the work online. It is a 2010 method of critique.

In the studio, as a young painter or artist, feedback comes in the form of a critique in which master and students review the individual's work and provide their thoughts about the success or failure of the piece—all with the intent of strengthening the artist's work.

After school, critique for a professional artist, most often comes directly from a client, a gallery owner, in a review, or by the simple act of a work being purchased.

But in using social media to post my work, some of the reactions to my work come through Facebook responses, some from in-person responses about the posted work, and some critique is my own reflection on the work and discovery of meaning and method through the act of posting. Now so many more eyes can "participate" in the art even as it is being created!

This morning I retook photos of the painting. I wasn't pleased with how the color in the photos taken in the evening reflected the actual work. This morning I took two sets of photos both with daylight versus lamps. One was with the canvas turned away from the window shown in this shot directly below. The other set, which I prefer (all the other shots in this posting), is with the light shining on the painting. In these the blues and violets seem to translate better, though some of the color and detail in the yellows and golds get lost.

Of course all three images, those shot at night under lamps and those in the daylight, are correct. Again it is all in the eyes, and how they translate reality.

So let me know what you think about the work itself, the color difference due to how and when it was photographed, and what you think about how we see and perceive. Likewise do you prefer the "new" black background for this blog or the former white background? For me it is a mixed bag. I like how the black frames and isolates the images—the main point of this blog after all. However for reading I prefer the white background.