Barbara's Flowers

Here are the first of Barbara's four flower paintings.

first I'd like to say that I'm really impressed with the bold strokes, color and experimentation with the composition. I can't help but think that Barbara learned a ton in this process and that it will be a good thing to do going forward. I'm not sure which is my favorite but I'll start with this one.

I just really like this one. I think that the color and scale of the flowers work so well. The flower shapes relative to the edges is just about perfect. The ratio of the ground plane to background feels just right.

A few notes:

1. I like all this.

2. Here Barbara might firm up some of the edges of the flowers in this area to delineate them.

This is the worked version of the painting Barbara submitted a few weeks ago. I think that she's succeeded in pushing the background back by lightening and softening it.

3. To further separate the foreground and background, sharpening the edges of the flowers and leaves in the arrangement will help as indicated in the marked up version above.

1. and 2. This is just a note to point out that in my opinion, the colors of both the curtains and the table top could use some work. The work Barbara has done on the background and the color in the flowers, which look really good, make it worth playing with color in these other areas to have a nice piece.

(I'm sorry for the order of these paintings relative to the copy. Google has succeed in making this program, which used to work really well, about as stubborn and stupid as possible.)

I like the dynamic color and interesting array of flowers in the painting below. My only suggestions are

1. Watch out for the tangencies with the edges of the painting-that is, try not to end shapes close or right at the edge.

2. My eye is pullingto this are more than even the flowers. I think that it's primarily due to the hard edges and relatively high contrast of the largish geometric shapes. The perspective of the table top is nicely done but also leads us to this area. Maybe consider softening the edges and making the background color (as nice as it is) lighter, graduating the value from the top to this area.

It would be nice to get feedback from the other Silala painters on this to see if they agree with me or if they don't think this is an issue.

Overall, I think this piece is very nice. As I said, I really like the flower arrangement and I especially like the painting of the vase.

I think that this painting works great. The bottom half is really interesting. The flattened circular shape and the color and pattern of the tablecloth work super well. The painting of the vase is nicely done as well.

I think that the flowers are nicely composed and the shape and size relationships a very good.

My only notes are that 

2. I might make the color on some of the flowers cleaner and also the edges of the flowers could be more defined.

1. Here, like in the previous painting, the geometric shapes may be undermining the impact of the flowers a little. I feel that the isolated light shape along the left edge may be pulling too much attention. I've taken ithe edge out for Barbara to compare. It could be just be a personal preference and the edge of the window is nicely painted so it could be left in if preferred.

3. Here I would soften the edges of the table top, wall and window. I might also give just a little more subtle color to bottom of the window as well as the wall.

There are so many things to like about this series of paintings. This feels like a big step for Barbara and I'm looking forward to seeing what she paints next.