Hardly a failure this time! Looks as if any moment now the 'cafe' will pour from the larger container to the cup - steaming and delicious. Amazing to be able to imply that atmosphere through painting -- or am I only inferring it?
Hi Julian , I have to agree with Peter , wow those grey's are spectacular. As the saying goes , "You hit it out of the park" with this one and that's not just the coffee speaking!!
Thanks Craig
This painting (and the previous one) gives a new life to our sight. Like a visual regeneration. A ballet of white and colored gray! Every line is shaking, except for the perfect border between pot and wall, which is the vertical axis of the painting (the horizontal edge of the table being the basis) thus giving the balance to the whole picture. This line is close to the middle of the canvas, but not in the middle, thus, avoiding the unwelcome symmetry. It is interesting to note that this vertical line is clear-cut, but the lower line of the background is blurry, which creates the depth. The big letters by miracle give to the pot its roundness; if not, the pot would be nearly as flat as the "juxtaposed" wall. The handle looks both potent by its thickness and feminine by its curve. The yellow dash and the variety of green on the cup give a touch of joyfulness that magnetize our eyes, inexplicably.
Beautiful rendering of the roundness of the tin with the lettering. Congrats on a challenge conquered (and making it look effortless). And for a great example to try and emulate.
I know what you mean about putting words/letters in your painting. When you are a painterly painter, it is sometimes hard to be so precise in painting words - but you got it done, and it really adds to this painting.
Dear Julian,I hope you don't feel like loosing your nerve about painting anything from now on!
The painting is a success and as Alain points out, the letters shape the coffee tin and suggests it's form. The gleam on the enamel, by the letter C is picking up a "borrowed scene" of space and light for our imagination to dwell on. The colours are beautiful.The longer I look the better I like this palette of pearly lavender greys and soft umber with the darkest of ultramarine. Still very painterly in pure JMS style!
Anna.
I like the expression "painterly painter" created by Evelyn Mahrt. Only that kind of painters are able to knowingly created distortions in their works: for example, El Greco, Cezanne, Morandi, Freud, Soutine, Modigliani, Picasso, botero (or Craig Stephens when he speaks of the glass full or empty). Distortion is the freedom of artists in their technical maturity. Fortunately, the letters here are not perfect, fortunately the cup seems horizontally elongated (the cup seems to belong both to the pot AND the background, so giving to the picture its subtle consistency): the distortions are mysterious but they make the beholders think. Only the experimented artists succeed on doing distortions in their paintings, because at last, their finished works are perfectly coherent related to each of their components. Painting is not always the true reproduction of the real. Perfect copy of the real is just an option. An option without touching feelings.
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