Two by Alyssa Monks

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imported_artmar
Posts: 327
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 4:33 pm

Postby imported_artmar » Sat Nov 22, 2014 10:54 pm

Until recently I really didn't see the point of "photo-realistic" painting. (If you want photo realism buy a camera and take a picture.) Then I came upon Ms. Monk's paintings.  Her minute brushes give her control over color and texture in every millimeter of the image in a way that would be very difficult to achieve in Photoshop or any other editing program I think. She combines realism and abstraction in the same image in a way that's fascinates me, and challenges notions of the "unity" of an image.  In both of these images she's presented attractive females in a realistic way -- and in a way that any portrait photographer would have criticized (the dark shadow under the girl's left eye; the snail-shaped splotch on the lip of the woman in the shower).  There's a lot to say about both of these paintings, I'll just mention for now that I particularly like the way she's presented the girl's left arm under her head, with three fingers rising above the surface on her right, entangling with her hair, and I notice that although her face is quite realistically portrayed, the rest of the painting is actually quite abstract (cover just her face and it becomes obvious). The women in the shower (which may be a self-portrait) has her nose pressed against the glass door of the steamy shower, but her eye looks out (as we look in) with exceptional clarity and repose, as though this were a normal stance to take, a strange, engaging and wonderfully complex presentation.  And what the girl in the water is communicating might take Marcel Proust to express. Much to see here, at the technical and compositional levels. What I can see I can't yet begin to formulate -- that's when I know I'm onto something really interesting!

http://alyssamonks.com/#333_AlyssaMonks_Bait.jpg#portthumbs

http://alyssamonks.com/#333_AlyssaMonks_Steamed.jpg#portthumbs

Art



imported_artmar
Posts: 327
Joined: Fri Mar 15, 2013 4:33 pm

Postby imported_artmar » Sat Nov 22, 2014 11:41 pm

OK, so "Steamed" is her sister-in-law.

Brief interview here discussing her work and her compositional process:

http://flavorwire.com/17668/exclusive-alyssa-monks-talks-about-her-bathing-beauties

So, what can photographers find useful here? Stretching the boundaries of our work?

Art

imported_Tanja
Posts: 294
Joined: Mon Feb 04, 2013 2:15 pm

Postby imported_Tanja » Sun Nov 23, 2014 12:08 am

Hey Art,

wow! This is awesome!
Remembers me to the first photorealistic painting I ever see. Sprengel Museum in Hannover. Think I was there with my mother.
Couldn't believe, that this was a painting. It was an elephant. Little Tanja goes really near to catch it and it still looks like a photograph.
Same procedure now, when I see such a painting. Go really close and try to catch, how the painter did that. Always amazing.

Really great work! I love it!
Not that much, than your pictures, but really in the near.

Hugs from Tanja


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