Still Life w/ Wooden Boy and Apple
 

Oil on canvas, 22" x 28"

Ooh Rick, I love this one.

I love the nostalgic feel of it. The grey machinery makes a nice counterpoint to the mellow golden elements.

I love the variations in the textures of the brush (knife) strokes. The wood looks shiny, the wallpaper looks flat, the details look crisp. Nothing looks heavy from being at the mercy of the palette knife and it all flows together seamlessly.

Lovely!

Let me just say that I love it too. I love the symbolism, my interpretation. It all alludes to lies and truth, Pinocchio with the nose that grew, has only one foot, and therefore halts, limps, like truth.

The patched apple, patched truth/knowledge. A wooden apple/nickel/fake, don't take any wooden apples. The three graces or cancan dancers, and where lies the difference?

The projector and the typewriter, nuff said. A can pertaining to be original—original truth, canned truths? That's what it says to me.

Rick is an artist to reckon with.

Thanks folks,

Two critiques coming from different directions!

Sharon, I'm glad you like how the colors are harmonizing. This was done entirely with brushes, other than the three dancers in the picture on the keyboard.

Janice, I really appreciate your reading of the picture. When I paint still life, I grab things from my cabinet in the basement and put them on the table and move them around, adding and removing items. I don't think at all about a narrative interpretation at this point. But the nature of still life painting is that the subjective/objective emerges into something open to interpretation. This is especially the case if there are humanoid elements and language. A character such as Pinocchio brings his own story to bear. I have to say things totally unintended were occurring to me as I painted this and I found myself laughing several times as I worked--a first! My interpretation was a bit more Freudian, and maybe I should have been crying. The question of "telling the truth" is likely going bear on any interpretation here. My thoughts also ran to the idea of being tricked into adulthood and its effect on nascent sexuality in the male of the species. All that said, I have no preferred interpretation. I am most interested in what others come up with, as far as reading the picture is concerned. I never have a narrative read of a painting that I think is any good, and this one passes that test. I think it has had the effect of amusing me with a darkness that brings me up short once I actually start laughing. I therefore would rather keep it all as nebulous as possible!

Thanks folks. I am trying to get to the studio more often. Still working on Darwin (sonnets from The Voyage of the Beagle--my commute from the city, which started in July, gives me time to write and the project gives me a lot to work with!)

Rick

I think the picture is amazing. I hope you'll have a show in Boston so I can it in all its glory.

Marcia

Rick, essentially, people find in a work of art what they bring there. The thoughts that rise are not necessarily those the artist/poet intended.

That said, I have sometimes found my own poems to be about things that I didn't know was there when I was writing and polishing and moving things on my mental table. (Not that I am trying to tell you what you think, god forbid).

But one thing I have learned is that the artwork and poems that give rise to the reader's/viewer's surge of thoughts are those that we remember long, long after the encounter.

For me, this is that kind of painting.

Very fine work, Rick. The scene is indeed nostalgic and I love the thick palette-knife applied (I imagine) strokes. Full of energy with lovely hues particularly in the lower portion of the painting and great movement with the dancing girls and the nicely visualized marionette. Less sure of the apple quite frankly which I know IS an apple from the title of the painting but seems a bit less satisfactorily handled and less excellently executed than the rest of this fine painting. Sorry for the nit, Rick.

Best regards

Chris

Silly me, I didn't even think about the title when I looked at first. I thought that was a ball or something. I see now that it is an apple. It is certainly not a focal point of the piece. It could become a focal point, if you wanted, by cleaning up the left edge or by popping the color a bit.

Bringing the apple up to being a focal point would change the whole balance of the picture though. I think it might look good if you jazzed up the red a little. Luckily, you have a digital copy to play with if you wanted to try things out.

The question for me is... Does the apple being in the title make it necessary that the apple be prominent? You could always change the title too - how about "Still Life Without a Foot"?

Thanks folks,

You know, I looked at this at one point thinking certain people who showed me how to hold a brush would say, "well, you got the apple right!" ~,:^)

It's true that I don't want the apple to be a focal point. I actually want it to border on a suggestive shape... My model was a red apple with greenish gold patches. The French have a word for it... Granny Jones apples? I dunno. It has the stem as detail and the straight line contour on the lower left. I guess the part I like best about it is its shadow.

Well, thanks for the feedback folks. I am trying to get back down to the studio, but the holidays are an obstacle. While I am on puppets/dolls, I may paint Santa!

Rick