A Sense of Place

The mood created in the mansion is one of abandonment in the first painting. This painting by Anselm Kiefer shows the slow deterioration of a hallway in a mansion. The glass seems broken and the brown wooden walls seem to be crumbling based on the varied texture. Kiefer uses continuation of the open doorways and vantange point to make the hallway look like it goes on forever. There is a broken glass chandelier made up of light and dark contrasting colors, on the floor; this shows that this place was once a luxurious wealthy place probably full of people, but it has lost its sheen and glamor now. No one appears to have lived there.

The second painting by Edward Hopper depicts the lady on the right hand side of the theater as being troubled or dismayed. Maybe she was waiting for someone and that person did not show up. She also seems to be in deep thought because of the gesture she makes with her hands; one holding the side of her face, the other hand propping up the first one. The warm bright colors of the red curtain, and the contrasting colors depict the essence of loneliness. The lamp sheds light on the woman's face highlighting her features and captures the emotion in her face. There is a sense of longing also. Plus, the place where she is standing is more illuminated than the rest of the theater. The rows of seats are dim. This creates contrast and puts more emphasis on the woman.

Start of White Objects Painting

Where Are You At?

I really like the pepper I did. Even though it was a small study, it was the first one i really think I did a good job on.

I am still working on the White Objects painting and I find it difficult to get the right color or shade of white that matches the actual object's color. It is a little hard to make the fabric look like it has texture and folds on it. I also have trouble making the shadows and highlights really stand out. However, I am learning day by day and I am getting a little better. I am making my way.

I have improved on color mixing and showing different textures of the cloth in the White Objects Painting through varying the brushstrokes. I have also used wet brush to effectively mix colors and dry brush to blend colors together.

Looking at paintings made throughout history have a huge impact on us as painters today. Seeing others paintings gives us painters inspiration to make great paintings. We receive an insight to the artist's mind, emotions, and views through the abstract and surrealistic paintings. Seeing many painting like Starry Night and Sunflower by Van Gogh and many others helps bring out our creativity.

Some Famous Paintings

The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali is a very renown, unforgettable piece of art. It depicts floppy, limp like watches and clocks. There is a golden clock that is covered with ants which represents the decadence or decay of time. In the center of the painting is a strange looking creature that sort of resembles a human face with long eyelashes, a big nose and an eyebrow and a lifeless clock on top. The images in the foreground seem like they have appeared out of a bad dream and everything has gone wrong. The only thing that appears to be real are the golden cliffs that are in background. The cliffs symbolize the coast of Catalonia-where he lives.

Salvador Dali was Born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Spain. In 1929, he joined the Surrealists. Dali became widely known and got his fame through self publicity. He took over surrealistic theory automatism and turned it into what he called "Critical Paranoia". This is the reason why most of his paintings deal with delusions and hallucinations.

Salvador Dali concocts paintings by combining weird cartoon like objects with realistic objects. His paintings always involve surrealism and things he experienced in his childhood. His paintings are meant to intrigue or confuse the onlooker and make the person think.

I found this painting very interesting and its images of frail bendable clocks and a creature in the foreground and cliffs in the back caught my attention. I like the way he uses repetition with the clocks, continuation, and contrast. He varies the textures of each object to create a sense of the clocks looking floppy. It looks as if you could easily touch them and it would feel rubbery and be lightweight. He emphasizes the cliffs very well by using a lot of detail to accentuate the jagged rough curves of the cliffs and making them a vibrant warm yellow so it is striking to my eye.

I think this painting is important today because it has many meanings and themes. It represents how reality and the imaginary world sometimes get mixed up or become inseparable. It represents dreams people have wishing for something extraordinary to happen. When people watch a fictional movie, the movie has some unreal aspects that capture your attention and could become real through constant thought and manipulation. Some people take the dreams they have and turn it into reality by making a cartoon or writing a story. Persistence of Memory causes viewers to think creatively and beyond and above, and influences them to make other works like it and take action.

Creating the Illusion of Texture

Paul Cezanne uses lots of shadows and highlights in this painting. He uses highlights and mid tones in the fruit and varies the brush strokes on the pears to show the smoothness and bring out its round shape. My eyes are brought straight to the pears because of their warm bright hues of orange. Cezanne effectively uses contrast and shadows and value in the tapestry because it is clear to see all the folds and curves in the cloth it' s as if you could just put your fingers on the cloth and feel its softness and the folds. The side of the painting that contains the tapestry is dark in comparison to the fruit on the white cloth. it creates interest. The vases and jars look smooth and glassy. He mixes up the edges on one of the vases to give it a bumpy criss-cross feeling and pattern that you could touch.

White Object Thumbnail Sketches

Studies in Smallness Paintings and Reflection

These are my two finished paintings. I struggled with making shadows and highlights because I got mixed up with combining complements of the object's color and the paper's color. At times I could not effectively create the shadow or highlight I wanted. However, I am happy with my pepper painting because I was able to incorporate the highlights and shadows well and make the pepper look 3D and realistic.