Art Business

Landscapeby Dean M. Carpenter, charcoal, 42 x 66. This dramatic landscape is enhanced by the artist’s skill with charcoal. I am attracted to the texture of the foreground and the mass of middle-ground hill against the sky. If the texture in the middle-ground hill were played down—not eliminated, but made subtler—the viewer could better feel the mass of the land against the sky. When the foreground and middle ground are equally articulated, you lose the sense of distance. The hierarchy of highlights is also relevant to this drawing. The highlights on the distant trees and on the grass in the…