James Schlavin

"Buffalo Soldier" - 12" x 16" Oil on Linen, Les Lefevre
Done well:
1. Use of color blocking to create overall dimensionality/form. This allows a pleasing balance of both provided form (more carefully blended areas) and areas where it is more left up to the viewers brain to blend the colors and blocks.
2. Use of light/shadow to create a form that reads in term of lit/shaded value areas. This use of value helps form a basis for
Could be better:
1. There is little "grounding" of the head to much of the painting and vice versa. While some of the colors are similar, they don't reflect on each other enough and it cuts the head off somewhat.
2.  Use of cool and warm tones in all colors. Specifically the browns. This would help create a lot more dimension from shadows to lit areas.





"Bravo" 24x36 Oil on Canvas Leonid Afremov
Done well:
1. Use of gestural palette knife techniques with color blocking. Gives a strong sense of physical presence in the form
2. Shifts in color families - Blues, reds, earth tones, and flesh tones to really emphasize both the warmth of flesh and the coolness of shadows.
Could be better:
1. Indistinctness in some places leaves a lot to be desired. While the soft/blurred/gestural lines are a brilliant tool for suggesting overall form the beauty becomes too uniform and the potential for equally beautiful detail to contrast it is missing.
2. There is a lot of white in this figure. While I respect this artistic choice, it is used so much that the figure seems drained of some color.



"Blue Dancer" Oil on Canvas 24" x 18" Paul Berenson
Done Well:
1. Use of strong colors in order to denote warm/cool tones of the body. Both are used in lit and shaded areas.
2. Spread of color throughout piece (ex. Greens used throughout whole figure. Unified body in general.
Could be better:
1. While the whole figure is good in form, it flattens out because there is too much of the same texture and colors overall
2. Again, as in Bravo, the figure is texturally even, and the beautiful sculpting is lost because it flattens out.

Art around Albuquerque:


Oscar E. Berninghaus, Pueblo Indian Woman of Taos
From the Albuquerque Museum of Art
This painting is mixed for me. I personally don't like the composiytion as a whole. It doesn't feel cohesive to me. However the figure is beautifully rendered. I think that this composition is good at one thing, which is putting the woman in isolation from the things around her. This makes her truly stand out from the background, which seems to occur naturally in the rendering to begin with.