Peter Kraus at the SFVAC June Meeting

      Months ago, I had an idea to have a SFVAC meeting where instead of a demo there would be a critique of members work. At the time, I had no idea how much time it would take to get the June meeting together with Peter Kraus. Rachel Weissberger told me after the meeting, that it was the best meeting ever, so I think it was worth the effort.

      SFVAC members emailed images of their work for Peter to improve with changes in color, value and composition. Peter took the original images and made actual changes to the photos, showing how he would improve the image. He discussed the original paintings, its strengths and how he thought the painting could be improved. Then with the magic of Photoshop, showed the after picture right next to the before image(below is an example).

Before and After Peter Kraus Critique

      There were aha!! moments from the audience, who mostly agreed with the improvements. Of course, since art is subjective, not everyone agreed with every change. The important benefit of a critique is to start a discussion and see how each artists interprets the information. Whether an artist takes the changes and applies them to the original work or rejects the suggestions, the insight from an objective eye is informative and interesting.