xcelebgram

Ann asks: “I hear paintings described as “poetic.” What does that mean?” Oscar Droege , woodblock print Answer: I take “poetic” to mean that a picture expresses quiet and dignified emotions by means of understatement and suggestion. A picture is likely to be poetic if it leaves out detail or conceals information or conveys the passage of time or if it achieves a mood that is harmonious, delicate, elegant, majestic, or melancholy.  Henry Ward Ranger , (1858-1916) There’s no pictorial formula to achieve a poetic feeling. You know you’ve got it by the result. The goal is that feeling of mood which Germans call “ stimmung .” A picture is not likely to be poetic if it’s too literal, didactic, or obvious.  John William Tristam Studio Magazine in 1896 said: “To call a thing poetic is to state the feeling it evokes; there can be no praise beyond that, and perhaps no criticism….For the fact remains that the painter who can succeed in conveying to others the feeling that he himself has felt,

Ruji asks: “I was wondering do you have any advice for someone who can’t seem to make their art look finished? Seemingly no matter how much time, effort, or detail I put into an image I can never seem to make my art, from gesture to final, look done. I’m unfortunately self-trained and this is a huge problem that has vexed me for the past 11 years that I can’t seem to find an answer for by myself, no matter how much I study the fundamentals.” Left: Mary Cassatt, detail ( link to full image ) Right: Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, detail ( link to full image ) Ruji, It’s impossible to give you a personal answer, since I don’t know anything about you, your art, or what your goals are. So let me address the broader question of finish. Finish is a very subjective quality in a painting. One artist may want to make the painting appear like an illusion of reality. To that artist, a painting is finished when the illusion betrays no visible brushstrokes. Another artist, wishing to preserve the en