Dressed-up girl

My dear friend Luc does not share my opinion and thinks it is rather nauseatingly sentimental and hardly art at all.  

I don’t know. For me, Carol Arnold is dangerously near the edge, but she doesn’t fall over the cliff in the ocean of kitsch. Sentimental it may be, but is well executed and nicely done with a lot of psychology. I see a girl imagining to be a lady. She is rather overdressed, and seems to be impressed by it.

She paints children rather well. As is the case with the portrait of her son (see below) there is a kind of reflection about passing youth.

It is just one moment in time, caught by the painter on canvas, and there for us to contemplate, for those who like it.

Luc thinks it is kitsch, a German word for ‘camp.’ Only rather more artsy-fartsy. For me that is not a reason to withhold. I like kitsch and have always done so. Not all of it, only the best pieces. There is good art and there is bad art and in the same way, there is good kitsch and bad kitsch.

But Carol Arnold is not even kitsch. I continue to believe it is good art.