A Pastiche of Famous Art

Of the Impressionist pastiches this one stood out for me. Slavíček is not as well-known as many others painting in that genre. The combination of vegetables, fruit and pottery is a common one among Impressionists (and other painters) and is therefore fairly easy to set up in the photographer's studio. This is nicely done, with well-controlled lighting and good post-processing. There was fierce competition for my Top Ten, and this was just squeezed out alongside those others Commended. Well done.

I presume this to be a pastiche of one of the Master's lesser known paintings of sunflowers: Two Cut Sunflowers. It is excellently done and gave me much pleasure on seeing it, standing out from other sunflower images. The post-processing treatment and colour balance all add to make this the sort of image you would like to see framed on your wall. I am pleased to give it a Commended. Along with the others it narrowly missed being included in my Top Ten.

I have Commended this image because of its technical quality. The lighting is excellent and conveys the mood very well. The post-processing is well done. You were kind to spare the model the all too obvious protuberant belly of the original sitter. Henner is one of the lesser-known artists and overall as a pastiche of 'La Madeleine' this works very well, thank you.

A brave attempt that works well. You have captured the essence of the style. I was a little disconcerted by the frame, because there is no direction to the light - it's even all round. I would consider imagining the light coming from a single strip at the 12 o'clock position, or two lights a the 10:30 and 1:30 positions. Nevertheless, I am pleased to award this a Commended.

Just over a year ago this would have been a controversial entry, because the original in the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco was thought to be a fake. IIRC, in was only at the start of 2019 that it was authenticated. This is well rendered, pleasing to the eye and very reminiscent of the Master's work. I can forgive the blown-out areas on the apples, the splashes of white paint used originally would have similarly been burned out. However, I did find the fringe around the fruit slightly distracting; suggesting either a composite not perfected executed, chromatic aberration, or an artefact of post-processing. Unfortunately, this moved the image marginally out of my Top Ten. But well done and much appreciated by me. Commended.

This is inspired, literally ... by Wahol's iconic work and by Kosuth's particular image.

I was particularly amused by your inclusion of a tablet as a substitute for the poster in the original. Your use of the back of a picture frame works well and provides something of an echo of the wooden floor and off-white wall of the original.

Very well done, it was a stand-out for me from my first pass through.

I was impressed by this submission. The choice of subject lends itself to pastiche but the artist (Jacob Jordaens) is not particularly well-known.

It must have been an interesting shoot. The lighting is well done, with minimal burn-out in the white hair of the second Evangelist and by the metacarpal joint of the nearest Evangelist's thumb.

This image stood out easily on my first run-through of the images in the contest and after several iterations to produce my Top Ten I had no hesitation in awarding you First Place.

Very well done, congratulations!

Chirico's Metaphysical art is not to everyone's taste (what art is?), but I rather like it.

You have captured the essence of his work, a couple I know include a steam engine behind a wall, although I think there might be a statue (different in each case) in the open space. But this is pastiche so that detail can be ignored.

Overall this is pleasing and meets the brief well. Also, it was good to see a lesser-known artist used as inspiration.

This certainly deserves its place in my Top Ten, well done and thank you.

I found this to be a very good pastiche of Jack Wiggins' work, and there is little to critique about it.

It is a gentle and relaxing image, well post-processed and presented.

It was clearly going to be in my Top Ten as soon as I saw it, and after reviewing all the images several times, it retained its original spot. Well done.

An innovative take on the original, with gender and aspect reversed and the addition of the gas-mask adding extra surrealism to the photograph. There is engagement with the viewer that adds to the compelling nature of this image which was just edged out of my Top Ten amid fierce competition. Well done, and thank you: Commended.

I believe this to be "Woman Reading" by Jacques-Emile Blanche rather than by Laura Muntz Lyall.

Regardless, it is both an amusing and a challenging image, encapsulating much of the concerns of the current time (the Coronavirus pandemic for future readers).

As a pastiche it works very well, and the gender reversal adds to that.

In general, and for an image where the subject is wearing light-coloured and reflective clothing and is lit face-on including the light from the tablet, the fall of light has been pretty well controlled, with those areas that are somewhat blown-out not detracting from the overall appearance.

You might consider cloning out the red strip creeping in at the lower right edge, as it provides a small distraction.

The orangey-reds in the chair and netting create balance in the lower part of the image and provide strong colours in an image of otherwise limited palette. The grey 'negative space' is nicely broken by the complex patterns thrown by the chair.

Well done, I like it.

A good pastiche that was beaten out of my Top Ten by a small margin. Your choice of artist(s) was a differentiator as I was pleased to see a few submissions by lesser-known artists. This is very well done, in a style that many will recognise even if they cannot immediately put a name to the creators of the original. I am pleased to award this a Commended.

I liked your interpretation of this famous painting.

The horizontal flip and use of realism differentiated it from other renditions.

It's a little bit of a shame that there wasn't another passer-by, but in a live shoot you have to work with what you get.

I would consider cloning out the red dots at the top of the image, and muting the intensity of the light areas in the background to reduce these as distractions, especially the yellow life-belt (?) boxes.

This was the last image to be included in my Top Ten, which was a very contested place with eight pastiches jostling for that final spot, so well done.

As an admirer of Ansel's work I immediately recognised this.

Black and white photographs often seem to struggle for votes among the many colourful images on Photocrowd, so I was pleased to see such a lovely monochrome image. The tonal range is very good and the selection and arrangement of the leaves and background must have been painstaking. But the effort was certainly worth it.

Thank you for this entry, it well deserves its place in my Top Ten.

I was pleased to see a representation of something other than a painting entered in the contest. Your choice of a wood block print was very welcomed amid a sea of images inspired by the Impressionist and other painters.

I like the post processing, the effect is very reminiscent of the original print - which I have had the pleasure of viewing - making this an excellent pastiche. Seen from this perspective and with this crop, Buachaille Etive Mòr is a fair substitute for Mount Fuji.

Well done, you were pipped to the top spot by only a tiny margin.

I really liked this interpretation of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, most inventive. That you presented it in black and white differentiated it from other pastiches of the painting. The lighting is well controlled, with only a tiny amount of blow-out on the earring itself A flag or a diffuser would have reduced that, as it is something of a distraction. Diffusing the light hitting the throat (or burning it down in post-production) would have removed that distraction too. Nevertheless, an image that had a lot of merit in the context of the contest, and I am pleased to award it a Commended. Well done.