Talk:Billie Nipper/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: 凰兰时罗 (talk · contribs) 21:47, 4 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Rate	Attribute	Review Comment
1. Well-written:
	1a. the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct.
	1b. it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation.	~~I believe the lead section is too short, and in this particular case it may be indicative of larger problem: the size and depth of the article itself (see 3a).~~
2. Verifiable with no original research:
	2a. it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline.
	2b. reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose).	With one minor optional suggestion: The sentence "Out of boredom, Nipper bought an art kit and began painting." is a bit unusual, so it might benefit from an immediate inline citation. (I checked that this information is present in the source that is given after the next sentence in the paragraph, but I am thinking that since it's unusual it needs an immediate verification.)
	2c. it contains no original research.
	2d. it contains no copyright violations or plagiarism.
3. Broad in its coverage:
	3a. it addresses the main aspects of the topic.	I think that one important aspect of the topic is omitted -- In the article, I do not see any specific information on her art -- style, opinions of critics, etc. One of the sources that you provided calls Nipper "expressionist" which might not correlate with the only paining that is in the picture. So what was her style (except that she once used montage)? Did she work in different styles? What did art critics like and/or dislike about her work? I would think that an article about an artist should have a section on this subtopic. The second section that might be missing is Nipper's horse breeding activities. (This is optional and depends on what role the breeding played in her life.) If so, and since she received a recognition in this area, we might want to learn more than a couple of sentences about it -- another separate section and some summary of that in the lead. What was her contribution to horse breeding in the context of national/statewide horse-breeding? ~~So, any luck with additional info in either of these areas?~~
	3b. it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).
	4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
	5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.
6. Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio:
	6a. media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content.
	6b. media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.
	7. Overall assessment.	These are my comments after the first reading. For now, my overall suggestion is to fix/discuss the issues above. However, please don't take my comments as condescending instructions set in stone — I'm learning this process myself. So, I am open to discussion, and I am very appreciative to the great work that you've already put into this article.

Discussion

Replies in order of comments:

Will expand the lead by at least another paragraph, including some of the more important details from the rest of the article.
Will source that one odd sentence.
Her art appears to consist mainly of horse portraits, done in either a realistic, photographic style (one source shows a painting of a mare and newborn foal lying in a stall) or the montage style, which she used for most of the World Grand Champion portraits. I'm not really happy with the link used to explain montage, because while that's the word they use in the sources, that Wikipedia article doesn't describe what Nipper did. In most of the paintings, there's one small picture of the horse in a pasture or something, another one of its head, and then one of it in a horse show class, all on the same canvas. Everything I've seen of hers is in a realistic style, though. I don't know if it's expressionist; to me that means Monet and the soft, blurred-looking things like he did. I'll look for critical reception or reviews, though no telling what I'll find in that area. Update: Found out that she did landscapes and added that.
Will look into her horse breeding, and include it if she bred a champion or horse that became really notable in some way. I think she was inducted into the Hall of Fame mostly for her paintings. Can rephrase in order to make that clearer.

White Arabian Filly ^Neigh 23:08, 5 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@White Arabian Filly: On 3: It looks like our views on the issues of her artistic style within the scope of existing sources are very similar. I was referring to the same non-conformity. So, if expressionism is clearly incorrect, the challenge is to find other sources. However, please keep in mind that if an honest and comprehensive effort to locate such sources fails, I can't insist on the addition of this section. If material is not in reliable sources, I can't suggest its inclusion. It's still a little unusual to have an article about an artist without any in-depth treatment of her art, but I understand that this case might be unique. Perhaps, if horses were more important than the artistic style, than more information can be discovered on horse-breading...? 凰兰时罗 (talk) 23:33, 5 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It seems like she's most famous for her portraits of the World Grand Champions. Her first one was done in 1976, and it's an annual thing, so by my count she painted 37 of them, all different horses. (The same horse won 2013-2015, and she didn't live to see the 2016 competition.) In most cases the original paintings seem to be owned by whoever owned that particular horse, but the sources do say prints were made and sold. The World Grand Champion horses are pretty iconic and generally loved by a lot of people, so the prints seem to be in high demand--they're still available for sale. I'm looking at the sources already there and trying to expand some. White Arabian Filly ^Neigh 23:49, 5 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Update: None of the sources say anything about a horse she bred being notable, so I think that must have been more of a hobby. One of the sources does say that she was given an award by the Walking Horse Trainers Association for being a friend of the group, so I think I will add that. I can't find any reviews of her work, but given her subject matter and the fact that she lived in a fairly rural area without a lot of art, that's not surprising. ::Update again: I posted a note on the WikiProject Arts talk page to see if anybody knew of a source for reviews of her art. No replies so far, but I thought they might know of something that wouldn't show up in a regular Google search. White Arabian Filly ^Neigh 18:54, 7 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Okay. As I mentioned before, if an honest and comprehensive search doesn't yield anything, I'll assume that the article is complete. I'll take your word for it. 凰兰时罗 (talk) 21:12, 7 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No replies as yet, but I'm going to give them another day because a lot of people don't edit on weekends. If nothing is posted by tomorrow night, I'll assume they can't find anything either. White Arabian Filly ^Neigh 22:38, 8 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

So, what's the current status? 凰兰时罗 (talk) 16:33, 12 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No replies from the arts project, and I haven't found anything additional online. I'm guessing that if anything else is out there, it's offline and hard to get. Are you ready to pass this? White Arabian Filly ^Neigh 23:51, 12 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. Thank you for efforts to make another Good Article! And thank you for your attempt to find additional sources. 凰兰时罗 (talk) 05:33, 13 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]