Thank you for the PM Chris.
I do not agree with copying and posting PM's but as this is a very constructive critique of this work I am going to put it up for the benefit of all.
Thank you for taking the trouble to do a very positive critique.
I hope you don't mind me sharing it.
Regards George
I’m not sure I can point to any specific point and say I don’t like it. It’s more about the piece as a whole, especially when compared with the quality of your usual work as seen on here and on your website.
I’m coming at this from the point of view of the quality of your usual bowls which I find very aesthetically pleasing and ‘complete’, in the sense that every aspect of them is clearly thought out and excellently executed. As such I find your bowls very satisfying to look at. In contrast, this bowl (Beech bowl 1), for me, ends up as being neither sufficiently graceful nor sufficiently bold to justify the adaptation that you’ve made.
Put simply I don’t find this bowl as satisfying as your usual creations (nor as satisfying as the ‘leaf’ bowl). I therefore find myself wondering whether I wouldn’t prefer the original bowl as it was before you cut it up. I don’t feel that way with the ‘leaf’ bowl.
In the comments on the leaf bowl you’ve made clear your desire to be true to the integrity of the purity of the concept (of making the support solely from pieces cut from the bowl without adaptation or alteration) , which I utterly respect. This does of course make the execution of any such concept much more difficult (and so it should or everyone would be doing it!) as it needs both the ‘constructional’ concept and a clear ‘artistic’ concept for each bowl from the very outset. The leaf bowl has both and ends up as a very pleasing form, albeit that I would prefer a lighter base, but that is just my taste.
For me, bowl 1 does not have a strong enough artistic concept…….I would prefer it to be much bolder, (for example the top of the arches of the ‘legs’ could be more clearly delineated from the ‘bowl’, being either much higher (almost suspension bridge fashion) or much lower (barely connecting with the underside of the bowl). I’m certainly not trying to teach you to suck eggs here as you are clearly more than capable of coming up with your own ideas, just trying to illustrate my point.
Your usual work, especially your coloured bowls, demonstrate that you can be very confidently bold in your work and your ideas, both in the form and in the colouring/texturing. I think this new concept could benefit greatly from that same approach.
Of course these are just my thoughts (well you did ask!) and are necessarily formed in no small part by my own tastes and experiences. As part of a large artists’ group,
www.peakdistrictartisans.co.uk, I am involved in the assessment of a variety of artistic disciplines, both 2d and 3d where objective feedback is the ultimate aim but is often very hard to achieve.
I hope that’s helpful……it’s certainly helped me clarify my thoughts!
