The Wind by kamui (I have no other info on this artist)
What makes this picture work
Great bold composition and smart use of the medium.
The diagonal composition always looks dynamic, but here it is enhanced by the arrogant frame cropping and making the top half of the canvas the focus. The leaping sphinx is almost (the key point is, almost) too big for the frame, which reminds the viewer of a lucky snapshot photograph, further enhancing the dynamic effect. The two parrots help fill the space, as well as create and enhance secondary lines of action, "pulling" the sphinx along.
The lower half is filled with silhouetted trees, which underscore the height of the sphinx's leap and balance the composition without distracting the viewer's attention. Skillful use of texture and brushstroke is remarkable; they enhance the points of interest but never become a point to show off. The hair is lushly textured, but the spots are sketchy and don't distract from the feline body form. The front parrot is detailed, but the back one is subdued and sketchy. The trees are actually a posterized photo, but the collage technique is used so subtly and altered by hand, you would never realize that. Everything is used in moderation. Even the color is subdued and neutral to bring out the gold in the sphinx.
Incidentally, the sphinx is clearly a close relative to the one in Khnopff's Caress. It's good to see cultural allusions like this.
What could be improved
Cohesion could be better in some places. The artist clearly used photographs here, and used them well, but if you look at the way the head is attached to the neck, you could see that the forms and anatomical structures do not quite mesh believably. A part of it is the angle of the head, turned towards the viewer rather than forward. That might have been an artistic decision or limited by available photograph. But in either case the artist should have thought of where the muscles attach, rather than follow the reference to the letter.
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