How an art critique helped me as an artist?
Have you ever been stuck as an artist? It’s a helpless feeling when you know something is wrong with a painting, but you don’t know what direction to go next. This is what I experienced about half way through my recent “Singing Lavender” piece.
There are a lot of problems with this painting. First I had not finished adding the lavender blooms yet, but I couldn’t even get there because of the pale green mountain and house that seemed so flat.
I study palette knife oil painting at “A Touch of Paris Studio” in Grapevine, Texas. When I got stuck on the painting, I reached out to my instructor, Dominique Galleron for direction and she asked if she could invite the rest of our class to participate in an art critique.
What is an Art Critique?
An art critique in this context is basically a conversation aimed at analyzing, describing, and interpreting the work so far. It provides valuable information and direction and leaves room for the artist to ask for clarification and make their own decisions on the application. It sounds vulnerable, right? But, everyone’s hope and goal is to contribute to each other’s success, so I knew I was in safe hands. Also, painting anything is vulnerable. It’s a part of yourself stuck to canvas for everyone to see. However vulnerable it sounds, I knew it would help and jumped at the chance for feedback. It was amazing to recieve the feedback from other artists and it was just what I needed to move forward from this place of being stuck.
If you are an artist, you need to find your people. People who will help you grow and encourage you in your art journey. One way to do that is to search online to find art groups in your city or enroll in a group class at a studio. If you like the way an artist paints, find out if they have tutorials or classes. These are some great ways to connect with other artists and learn and grow together. If that is not possible, I’ve also found a wonderful free art group online at www.artkula.com. There are options for you to only join the spaces for the type of art you are interested in and the artists there are extremely supportive and positive.
Singing Lavender, Before and After
Here’s the difference after the critique session
The main problem I had with the piece beforehand, was the large pale green mountains between the farther range and the house. Adding some tone nearer to the far mountain range helped. Then adding some highlights already on my palette and tied it together with the foreground. Once I had this done, adding the blooms on the lavender plants just flowed. I softened the hard purple shadows on the left to blue, soft shadows on the right, and added a few more cypress trees and a grape arbor to balance out the mid-ground. I added more blue shadow under the house and more of the warm ground color as well to help it stand out. I added white highlights on the roof and chimney as well and highlights on the left tree.
What I Learned
I learned so much about the value of having input from others through this process. I think this is also true in life, not just in creating art. It was such a picture to me of how we are created to love one another. One way we do this is what I call “gentle truth telling”. The word critique does not necessarily mean something negative. It’s important to let go of fear in order to grow and to find safe people who care enough about your growth as an artist and a person to speak what is true. Many of the artists shared what they liked about the painting, but even the constructive comments were all toward or in the direction of good. What a difference!
I didn’t apply everyone’s suggestions, but some of them were priceless. I am so thankful for this group of artists that I paint with and for Dominique’s excellent instruction. This was such a helpful process for me and I’m grateful to have had it and to have a finished painting as the result.
