"Jim Charter" <jrc### [at] msncom> schreef in bericht 
news:4613fd55$1@news.povray.org...
>
> It goes against my principles to say too much, but that I am tempted too 
> shows how interesting I find the picture.  The ivy does come off  as just 
> that, some sort of muddying of the waters.  Perhaps to cover up not quite 
> realized details, or perhaps as an element that once made sense but now 
> just confuses.  By climbing up the tree the ivy intermediates between the 
> two levels of scale, the real world scale of the miniature tree, and the 
> fantasy miniature scale of the figures relative to whom the tree is "real 
> scale" not miniature.  The leaves of the ivy seem caught in between, just 
> as the ivy is rooted in the miniature grass but climbing up the real world 
> tree.  The scale of the leaves is plausible, as some sort of grape-type 
> creeper, but not the scale of garden ivy we are more familiar with. 
> Further, there is a sense of "interference" with the leaves of the tree. 
> It does grieve me to expose you to such close critique, but then close 
> observation and mincing conception are invited by the whole precept of the 
> picture. It is deceptively casual, and really quite ambitious.  Please see 
> my critique as enthusiasm.
>
>

Reading Jim's comments on the ivy made me look again carefully at the image.
This is a difficult and, somehow, crucial element of the scene. I would like 
to see it really as a 'go-between' linking the two worlds: the real one of 
our experience, and Faerie (note the quaint, antiquated way of spelling 
here! That is important). There is a subtle Celtic undertow here imo, not in 
the sense of Little Folk, which would be too easy and obvious, but in the 
sense of a hidden gate to the Otherworld, which is enhanced by the tree 
itself, standing as it were in the two worlds.

Thomas

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