January 16, 2010, Michaele Harrington

Michaele Harringon was our guest speaker at the Senior Artists Alliance meeting on January 16, 2010.

Over 40 SAA members attended.
She talked about "critiquing your art work".  Members who wanted to have their paintings, photos, prints or sculptures critiqued brought a work of art to the meeting.

 
All participating members joined in the discussions.  This was a very interesting session.
 

The speaker, Michaele Harrington, is best described is a practicing fine artist and art educator at colleges in the Baltimore-Washington area.  She has exhibited regionally, nationally and internationally and conducts workshops in experimental water media.  Her own work explores two and three dimensions, which express her interest in psychology, archetypes and personal symbolism. 

 

Best described as an "eclectic artist," Ms. Harrington presented a format with which to critique art using: five ELEMENTS OF DESIGN:  LINE   SHAPE  VALUE  TEXTURE and  COLOR.  She then discussed the Organization of these design elements into the PRINCIPLES OF HARMONY and PRINCIPLES OF VARIETY.  Principles of Harmony include Repetition, Rhythm, and Visual Links while Principles of Variety include Factors, Difference (light/dark), Contrast (large/small areas) and Elaboration (detailed/simple).  Ms. Harrington suggested deciding on a focal point and orchestrating a crescendo around your focal point (rest place) to hold people's attention (squinting helps to select that point).  She mentioned that one should avoid putting the focal point at the edge of the work.  Another aspect of creating art is the POINT OF VIEW which includes Balance, Proportion, Dominance, Movement, Economy (strip to the bare essentials), Space (generally avoid dividing in half), and Unity.  Ms. Harrington noted that when all of the above elements work together to create a space, you have unity.  This is the technical aspect of the art.

 

To Ms. Harrington's mind, creating art is a conversation between the developing art and the artist.  She feels you reach a point where you must be willing to let the work exist on it's own.  For her, a painting is never finished.  She leaves a work alone for a couple of months, after it is 80% complete, and then looks at it again.

 

The members present then had an opportunity to present one work each to Ms. Harrington to critique jointly with the audience using the principles discussed earlier and how they viewed the art..

 

The afternoon was thoroughly enjoyed by all present as indicated by the rapt attention , participation, and questions.

 

Submitted by Arlene K. Polangin