Desperate for Some Feed Back

[Chantelle Grenke]

Greetings friends,
so shy I've been and yet I know that without sharing I shall never benefit from the helpful words and comments of people who have gone through the same gamut that I run.    I have a public showing coming up and online critique should be slightly easier to take.    I  create in different waves, input output, experiencing then expressing.   Mostly taught through experience.  While I've always been a player of colour, digitally I've grown up and this past year has had me honing my foundation drawing skills, so as to expand my depth in chosen methods of creating

 

 

[Eric Beavers]

Chantelle,

Getting some more drawing foundations should help you get a bit more confidence in what you are doing.  From what I can see, you need to put a bit more focus on your subject matter.  From your works posted, I think FISHMAKEUP has the strongest aesthetic qualities.  What I mean by that is that it makes me want to stop and take a closer look. 

This is because of the overall contrast and balanced composition, the eye is automatically drawn to it.  The subject matter conveys a strong sense of symbolism, or possible self interpretation or reflection, set in an environment that is interpreted with shapes that resemble a makeup tray.  It is clever and symbolic.  These are some of the things that draw the viewers interests, you are trying to make the viewer feel something so they will take the time to closely inspect and interpret your artwork.  Hope that helps.

[Tony Reynolds]

Chantelle,

I would agree with Eric in that you would strengthen your presentation with some tighter focus on subject matter. It will also assist in working out techniques that you wish to develop. The piece "Fishmakeup" appeals to me but then I'm a sucker for narrative. It's also edgeier and more developed. The third piece on the screen didn't click through with the same image, but the smaller image seemed to show something interesting. I would like to be able to see it bigger.

 As to your public showing, just go with it. I have found that all the self doubts and angst are usually misplaced and the expectations way less important than the actual event. Listen discriminently and in the third person. Let your work do most of the talking. ...and take a breath now and again. Good luck and best wishes.

[Laurel Sternberg]

Hi Chantelle, Congrats on braving your fears and sharing.I am only able to enlarge two of the pieces here, so will limit my comments to these. Please bear in mind, I'm only a fellow artist, self taught, not an academic, so my comments may be very basic.

The first thing that appeals to me in your work are your compositions. I'd call it balanced assymetry. You bring enough of a variety of shapes and textures to make it interesting but not jumbled.

The fish? composition (sorry, I don't see names on the pieces) is fun because of the play on perspective or relative size of recognizable objects, wherein the fish is larger than something that looks like a building. I also like your combining of somewhat representational objects with purely abstract shapes.

Next, the yellow/white/purple composition: a lot of movement, harmony, line variety.

What I'd like to see more of is some continuity between the pieces, if they're going to be shown together.

all the best,

Laurel

[Chantelle Grenke]

Wow So great and if you'd like to see more it's coming.   for Laurel  many thanks for the term balanced assymetry.  Yours as well as the other comments have already helped me understand my own work so much.  To Mr. Reynolds, a special thanks as your calming words were perfect and specifically to listen in the third person.  great advice

 

here's hoping the pictures are all relatively the same size.  Collective Conscious Away!