Ford Fairlane on Douglas Ave.

Ford Douglas. 30x24. Oil on linen.
$1760--SOLD.

This painting was one of the hits of the Diver Studio show and sold recently. I really like the combination of realism and sketchy impressionistic techniques which give it a real depth. Most beginning painters feel the need to render each and every part of the painting at the same level of detail. This is always a mistake. The star of the show is the focal point. All else must be subservient to that star. The Ford in this painting is rendered in near photorealism, a technique that is not that hard; whereas, a sketchier rendering is far more difficult because it must look natural and it must convey the sense of the objects in the painting without falling into the uncanny valley. Sounds like an old horror film, doesn't it? The concept of the uncanny valley is that on a sliding scale from completely abstract to exactly realistic, on the side of exact realism there is an area where just being slightly off in drawing or values causes a gut reaction, a feeling that something has gone terribly awry in a painting, drawing, or animated movie. Then, as the style moves towards the abstract, that sense of revulsion lessens. German expressionists created monstrous looking people, but we are good with that. Go to Disney world and look at the animatronics, where they really tried to capture life but just missed the mark, and you will see the uncanny valley. Your job as an artist is to not hit that uncanny valley. I suspect that many painters try to create realism and just miss the mark. There is something wrong, but they cannot figure out what. And, having recognized that, they move back towards abstraction to avoid having to deal with the uncanny valley. Of course, there are people, both artists and civilians, who do not see that uncanny valley. They find any painting to be just fine.