Jim Charter wrote:
>Rows
>
>The vibrant colors and tidy handling gives this
>picture a slightly unreal gaiety. A warmth
>in contrast to a subject normally thought of as dreary
>even derelick.  These rowhouses seem
>homey, in a way, inviting.

Thanks!
The rowhouses are probably (as someone mentioned in the comments) a little
too varied for a normal street, but I was trying to show different styles.
The flat-roofed brown brick ones are like the ones I saw in the midwest,
the light paneled ones are like the ones in the small coastal towns here in
California, and the reddish-brown ones are like the Philidelphia style. I
had wanted to do the style that cover San Francisco & Seattle, but that
would have required more macros for bay windows, porches and fancier roofs
and time was running out :(

>
>It is a little like English painter, L. S. Lowry,
>finding some humanity in the dismal trappings of industrial
>sprawl.

Double thanks! The painting look was what I was after with the colors and
the sky, so I guess it worked!  Not familiar with Lowry, but I'll have to
look him up now that you said that.

>
>The Castle of Saulxures
>
>I thought this was an impressive first entry to the contest.
>The scene is well framed with a beautiful, understated
>harmony of saturated cools and warm grays, and is nicely
>completed with a realistic sky and pretty grass.  The
>approach to the topic is personal and poetic, to recreate
>the appearance of a now dilapidated chateau.  And indeed
>it comes back to life in this picture.

I thought this one very impressive, and the score it recieved was a shock. I
had personally rated it much higher.  This and M. Jacquier's "Erasmus" both
finished far lower than I would have expected, both I thought were
excellent.


>
>Futuristic Tower
>
>This picture defines "futuristic" as dynamic, machinelike,
>and having a certain inscrutible randomness.  The sky and
>framing of the view gives the picture a very dramatic
>atmosphere.  The color harmony, along a yellow-purple
>axis, adds to the unease.

An interesting interpretation. The tower itself was well done but I thought
it needed either a lower camera angle or something else in the scene to
provide a better sense of scale.


>
>Simplicity
>
>One wants to be cautious when interpreting Veijo Vilva's
>finely crafted entry.  Previous entries indicate there is
>always a great deal of thought put into them and a
>meticulous craftmanship to the modelling and
>texturing.  This craftmanship lends a sense of density
>to the scene which is balanced by the fastidious placement
>of objects and overall spareness of the composition.
>
>The lines of the architecture are rectilinear with the picture plane.
>The setting is idealized, an unreal sky meets the edge of
>an artificial pool.  Immaculate instruments for music
>stand on a thin stage above the water.
>
>There is a feeling of reduction, of elemental juxtaposition.
>There is spartan form and lavish texture, dense sky and flickering
>caustics, transparent textures and opaque reflections.
>
>Simplicity?  I'm not so sure.
>
>
>-Jim
>

I haven't seen anything by Veijo Vilva I would call simple!
As usual from Veijo, beautifully detailed modelling, good choice of colors
and meticulous arrangement of objects makes a very nice scene.  I didn't
find it all that related to the topic though, as the architecture depicted
seems almost like a stage set. The primary focus of the image is more the
objects than the setting.
(But I sure love those intruments! Would like to see an example of that
bass? being played... is it plucked or bowed?)

RG

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