The Duet

[Marina Dieul]

Originally Posted by Alexandra Tyng

After all, when a violin and harp play together, the harp is the accompanist. So it makes sense that your eye goes towards the violininst. It was pretty intuitive while I was designing the composition, but it's clear to me now

Alex,
what a beautiful compositon!
My eyes jumped immediately on the violonist and I was surprised by the intensity of his concentration ( I even imagined the music...so maybe no need to attach sound). The contrast with the quiet athmosphere around, even the harpist is really great.
Wonderful exemple of a successful composition supporting a subject!

[Alexandra Tyng]

Hi Marina--I was just kidding about attaching sound. Imagining the music is really so much better.

Thank you--I'm so glad you like the composition!

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Alex, what a beautiful work! Your kids will probably end up fighting over who get to keep this nice painting when they are adults.

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

Dear Alex

This is such a lovely piece! Regardless of whether it is symbolic or not, to my mind it is a leader in figurative painting today. It is a painting that looks so confident and masterful and says that the artist knows exactly what she is doing! I love the richness in the muted colours. It gives a warmth to the room and the mood. And, as everyone else has said, your composition is wonderful - daring but balanced at the same time. A really impressive piece and another example of how splendidly talented you and your whole family is. What a rich life you must all have, and have had.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thomasin,

Thank you--your appreciation of this painting means a lot. The color scheme is very different from yours, but that's what makes looking at other artists' work so interesting. I'm convinced people actually see colors differently or at least react to them differently. I couldn't for the life of me paint with the colors you choose, but that's why your paintings are so fascinating to me. All those chromatic changes within a very small value range! When I try to paint without light and shadow (on a cloudy day, for instance) I am not very successful. I do love dramatic lighting like the light in this painting. I used to exaggerate the contrast because I loved it so. It took me years to tone it down to a believable value range.

[Christy Talbott]

Alexandra, what a fabulous painting! You must be very happy with this one. So exciting to look at! The action, intensity and interaction are all wonderful. The color and composition- dynamic!

...wow.

christy

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thanks so much, Christy! People who come in my studio have noticed it and liked it, so I thought I would post it here. I can't tell you (and everyone else) how much I appreciate your comments. As I said at first, I haven't done much figurative work, and it varies from figures in a landscape to more dominant figures in a setting. I'm still just experimenting.

One frustrating thing is that many galleries are not interested in showing figurative art--it is not consistent with their image. Yet figurative art is becoming very popular in certain segments of the art world. In New York, it sells extremely well in galleries that lean more towards "traditional realism," but I'm hoping that more "contemporary realist" galleries will start showing it, too. Really, it seems silly to distinguish between "traditional" and "contemporary" realism because there are so many varieties in-between, and several movements in realist art are coming together in an exciting way.