Painting The Figure Versus Painting Something Else, And The FASO Painting Competition

Greetings,
Welcome to the Cooper studio, where today is Saturday, and the only thing painted so far is the fence in our back yard.  But it does look much better, thank you.

I was just browsing through the entries for the FASO painting competition.  Has anyone else noticed how many paintings are appearing there that involve painting the figure in some way, shape, or form?  True, a couple of them are fairly abstract, and one is of someone's legs and feet, but we'll call them figurative anyway.  Of the 130 submitted when I checked, 41 involve the figure.  I thought that was a pretty high percentage, so just for kicks and giggles I jumped over to the canvasflyer pages.  I decided that ten pages was a nice round number, that's 60 images, so that's how many I scanned.  Four of those 60 had the figure involved.  I am an artist, not a CPA, but I think that means 32% of the paintings entered in the contest were figurative, while on the canvas flyer a mere 6% were figurative paintings.

That information could lead us to several conclusions:
1.  Do artists think figurative paintings are better accepted in competitions?
2.  Do artists paint landscapes, still lifes, etc for their everyday stuff and when they need to jump up a notch, they paint the figure?
3.  Are artists that paint the figure more competitive, and therefore more likely to enter a competition?
4.  Or one other possibility, ha, maybe landscape, still life, abtract painters are more laid back about getting their entries in and they plan on getting it done tomorrow or one of these days soon.  (remember I said "ha" so that means #4 is like a joke!)
5.  And the best possibility yet, because I paint the figure, maybe I pay way too much attention to things like this and it's really just a coincidence!



But you have to admit it's a little bit interesting.  Now we'll all have to keep a little closer track of the contest entries to see how the scenario plays out!  Have a great rest of the weekend.

Later, Cooper

5 Responses to Painting The Figure Versus Painting Something Else, And The FASO Painting Competition

Marsha Robinett
via web
Love this...both your humor and your thought process. You're right, my curiosity has been raised. I will most definitely be watching for an update here as the contest entries progress. On another point...I'll bet your have the best looking, most artistic fence in town!

Lori Woodward Simons
via web
Hi Cooper, The pendulum has swung towards figurative works in the last 5 years as far as OPA goes and other shows. A lot of landscape painters who entered OPA this year (who usually get in) did not. However, I think a lot of figurative works did get in.

There was a huge glut of plein air landscape events for a long time, and collectors wanted something different - that was figurative and still life. I recently spoke with the director a major gallery in Scottsdale and she said they have too many figurative artists right now, so the pendulum may just be in the process of swinging away from figurative works. Who knows...

The judge does mostly figurative work - Jeremy Lipking. He's a pretty good landscape painter too, so he might select a bit of everything. We'll have to wait and see.

That's my take, but like everyone else, I'm sort of guessing here.


Diann Haist
via web
Karen, I have yet to see a juror on any art competition or selection committee who is an abstractionist. Wonder if this could be a deciding factor for artists' submissions.

Marian Fortunati
via karencooperpaintings.com
My friend Sharon thinks that figurative is still getting more attention... (although she's great at both, she usually paints landscapes.)
I say we need to paint what makes us happy.

KCooper
via karencooperpaintings.com
Marian, I agree on the paint what makes us happy part. I think when we do, then the world ends up getting to see better paintings.
And I think you are the one who got me hooked on reading Sharon's blog posts--always an interesting outlook there as well :)









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