Image of the Day, July 24, 2012
“The Conversation” by Barbara Pence received the “People’s Choice” award and the jurors’ award of merit at the recent 2012 Spring Salon and the Springville Museum of Art in Utah.
In the painting “The Conversation” it is fascinating to observe how Barbara Pence combines still life painting, commonly depicting inanimate objects, with elements of portraiture—hands and arms. Each place setting tells a story depicting a range of emotions from passivity to aggressive gestures as one dinner guest points a knife at another. One person is half way through desert while another barely touched the meal. The birds-eye view heightens the inherent sense of voyeurism as the viewer is privileged to take in the entire scene at once.