I never know what causes me to see a piece of art and be highly attracted to it immediately, but this piece of art was one of those that did. I saw it first on a site called DPW (Daily Paint Works) and it was from an artist I was not familiar with. Something about the shape of the lower bare tree branches and the light of the very bright full moon falling across the wildflowers on the hill and branches.
It immediately had two big faults in my mind though. It is small 5X7 and the majority of the painting is dark colors. Why would this matter you say? I'll tell you why. Small paintings have to be put in a place where you see them closely frequently in order to enjoy them. From any amount of distance away from them, your eye loses all of the wonderful detail that make it such a great painting to begin with. Add to that the darkness of most of the painting and you have to realize that if the colors are dark on the computer monitor, then when you take the actual piece of art into your real world, it is even darker than that, because there is no longer any backlighting. This means that wherever you display it in your home, you have to make sure it has very good lighting in order to see the details, whether the painting is small or even a bit larger.
I already knew all this and on a normal basis it would make me mentally acknowledge that I liked a particular painting and then proceed to pass it by.
So... with all that in mind, something in me didn't let me pass this one by.
Since I have had this one, I put it in a little frame I already had here and I display it on a little stand that was made to hold your cell phone. This actually works great for small art, better than most small easels in my opinion. When I am at my work desk, I have it behind my phone since I can telescope it up a few inches and it is at a place that catches the light from my desk lamp. After work, I move it to a table beside my personal computer where another lamp gives it the light it needs so that I can see the happy details as I play at my desk.
There is so much to see in this small painting. I don't even know how people paint so small ha ha.. no really, that would become tedious to me and yet a lot of folks can do it. Like I said before, I loved the tree itself, the bottom 2/3rds more than the top. There is water in the background, a lake or river and you can see small lights from the houses across the river. There is a red house or barn or boathouse in the bottom left and a white fence behind the tree. Besides the tree though, I love the way it makes it look like there are so many wildflowers scattered through the grass, although in the bottom right corner I suppose that could be a blooming bush. You do get to use your imagination a little. Last, but certainly not least, the moon ! I have a great affection for the moon. I don't know why. We like what we like and we don't like what we don't like and who can explain all that? I can't ! The artist really crammed a lot in this small space and I thought he did it very well for the overall look. It is true that when the moon is full and the sky is clear, sometimes you can see things outside as if it is not truly quite night time
Oh ! ...and this artist goes by "Bumo", Douglas "Bumo" Johnpeer out of California. What little I could find indicated that he is a self taught artist who when young, saw Bob Ross on TV and when his grandmother realized he was interested, gave him a few small paints and canvasses and brushes and he began to teach himself to paint. Even knowing that was his first influence, he has certainly honed his talent further as to me, although you may see bits and pieces of the Ross influence, most of Bumo's paintings wouldn't make you think of Bob Ross, or they don't me. I had seen some of his paintings before I read that and before I read it, I didn't relate the style at all. You may be able to see a little of it in some trees in other paintings, but not in most of them. Also, in most of his paintings I have seen, the majority of them are at night with bright moons. Although I like some of the others too, most are great on the computer and would be great as a photo if displayed in a photo light box maybe, but are dark enough that in the real, they will still need to be displayed with great lighting in order to be enjoyed.
As I like to do, here it is in B & W. I would have liked for the filter to show more detail on the strokes, but none of my filter options seemed to do that for this painting.
Of course, all that I've had to say is totally just in my humble opinion. I am only a valid art critic to myself.
It's Saturday. It is sunny now, but his morning it was gray and cloudy and my body was resisting getting going, so I ate breakfast and took some advil. I was going to watch TV till it kicked in good and proper, but then decided to post instead while waiting.
I hope you are having a good day or night or whatever it is where you are now.
