Art Gallery

The reason I chose these pieces is because they were two of my four favorite pieces. The other two pieces that I really liked were ceramic pieces by the same artist. This is a picture and a painting. The other reason I chose these pieces is because I learned more about them. The main elemental qualities I find with the water picture are its shape, color, and value. The shape comes from the waves of the water. These waves are in rhythm on the right of the picture, and to the left of the picture is a rythm of smaller ripples, which are really just small waves. This rhytm of waves can be seen by the lighter and then darker colors of blue water from the light hitting the waves at different angles. In this picture the light really works together with the shape of the wave in order to give us different values of color. The picture shows us how our own eyes work. Light bounces of the surface of different objects, and then our eyes pick it up as different colors, and this allows us to see what shape the object is. I really don't find too much emphasis on any one portion of the picture. I think that because of the rythm of the waves my eyes aren't really drawn to one point in particular. I think the emphasis is on the overall color, value, that is created by the shape of the waves. For the painting I think that the main focuse is on the color, texture, and value. The first thing that really jumped out at me was the red face contrasted with the blue background. The shades of red, white, and black on his face and neck make it look like there is a light which is shining from the right to the left of the painting. Moving from right to left on his face and neck there is the white spots, then the red areas, and on the left there is black, which makes it look like a shadow. I like how these colors are spaced out on his face. Then there is the blue background which is a rythm of blue and white. It looks like a bright blue sky to me. Maybe the white is supposed to be clouds. There is also little strokes of red mixed in at an even spacing. Being that it is an oil painting there is also a lot of texture to it. You can deffinitely tell that the hair is going at a downward angle, and that the background is going at a horizontal angle. I think that the texture helps to create emphasis on his face because the downward texture is different from the horizontal texture of the background.

Both of these pieces are aesthetically pleasing to me. I think that the awkward colors of created by the rythm of the waves in the picture make me feel like I'm in the ocean, or I'm under water or something. What is pleasing to me about the painting is the nice bright colors of red, blue, and white. I don't like a lot of dark colors, or pieces that look depressing.

I don't really know that the artist of the picture had a lot of intention behind it. She told me that she was on vacation, and she had her little sister jump around in the pool and make splashes while she messed around with different lighting. Then the picture just kind of came out. I think that this is what most photography is about. You get the right settings, and then you click away, and sometimes you get a good picture and sometimes you don't. It really makes me question if photography is really art or not. Almost anyone can take a really good picture if they do it enough. I think that the painting had more thought behind it. I know that before he made the oil painting he made two pencil drawings of himself as a way to practice and study. He made a 45 and 30 minute pencil drawing of himself first. The painting definitely took thought to show the light coming from one direction to another. I think maybe he just wanted to paint himself using oil instead of drawing with pencil in order to show a different side of himself, or something different about who he was.