Sunday, April 05, 2009

Rice Fields by Cynthia Ann Morgan


My piece for Challenge 31 is based on a photograph of terraced rice fields in Asia. Lots of muted, shaded and toned colors with bits of pure hue. I didn't get quite the effect I was going for...oh well!

Comments welcome

Cynthia

9 comments:

Art by Rhoda Forbes said...

Cynthia, when I enlarged the picture I can clearly see the rice fields. This is a wonderful piece the colors are great whether it has planes...well I think it does. I see the rice fields fading off in the distance.
Susan is definitely the authority on planes.
Beautiful piece.

Jan said...

Perhaps too much blue in the front rice paddies? I have a photo a friend took in Madagascar and they are very similar. This photo shows just a small patch of blue with darker greens in the others and the hill sides more browns planted with different crops. When I saw your quilt I knew immediately it was rice paddies before reading the title.

Cherie in Del Mar said...

I don't know what effect you were looking for, but to my eye it looks right. The dotted fabric causes it to look pixilated in the small photo LOL. Love the colors
Cherie

Susan B said...

This is a really fascinating piece and it definitely captured the terraced rice fields. I think you have also created the sense of planes and distance. The diminishing sizes of the fields worked well.

Wendy said...

I saw it as abstract, and definiately showing planes and depth. What were you trying to achieve? I think its pleasing to the eye and has great flow from edge to edge. Maybe if you had added some sky?

Joni said...

Cynthia, your rice field is very well done, the water seems to sparkle, and the terrace effect works well. I think that perhaps the reason you are not really happy with this, is that your background is all the same fabric. Perhaps if the intensity of the background faded a little as it went back, then more depth would be achieved. I like it the way it is, as it reminds me of when I lived in Japan. Rice feild like yours were everywhere.

Carole said...

Having the benefit of everyone else's comments, I can only concur... I am not sure what you were hoping for.. but rice fields it is... I like the pure hue in the front. When I enlarged, wow, what a lot of little pieces to achieve your effect. IMHO I would say well done!

Cynthia Ann Morgan said...

Thank you for your comments everyone. I think the background fading away would have helped

brendaj said...

Hi Cynthia,

I really love the basic concept of this piece. I think the foreground is just right; I can see the light reflecting off the surface of the water.

What seems "off" to me in the background is that the water surfaces give the appearance of not being level. I'm not sure I'm describing this correctly, but the terraces seem like they are traveling uphill rather than being level planes along the side of a hill. Does that make sense?

One other comment is that you have the foreground and background split about 50/50. I could see cropping some of the background from the top to give the foreground more emphasis.

I hope this doesn't seem overly critical. I think this is a great idea for a future larger piece? Hope you are thinking the same thing; I think it would be a really wonderful composition. I REALLY see the potential in this design, and you know I love your work!

Brenda