The work of art I chose for this assignment is a painting entitled “Shotgun House,” by Al Brouilette. It is acrylic on paper, and is hanging at the Upstairs Gallery in Arlington, Texas. The image is of an older frame house positioned in the middle of the painting and extending to the left. Behind the house is what appears to be a dense wood, and in front of it a field of unmown grass with a few bushes.
There are some invisible lines in this painting. Grass is implied by directional brush strokes with just a few well-placed painted lines. It gives the painting life, as the grass seems to be blowing about in a breeze. More visible lines are seen in the outline of the house and the fence row. There are no figures in this landscape painting.
The artist does not make use of much negative space in this work, except for a small area of the grass in the foreground. The house is visually projected—I felt as though I were standing in a field of grass (or perhaps on a road at the edge of it) looking at this house. As for depth, the house is shown in perspective, as its size diminishes as your eye travels from the front of the house to the back (to the left in the painting).
The source of the light is implied, rather than obvious. The setting sun is to the right foreground, shining full on the front of the house, which is brightly lit except for the hard-edged shadows cast under the porch roof. The left side of the house is completely in shadow. The trees behind the show show some little bit of highlighting where the sun hits the first few at the edge of the wood; most mostly they are dark and shadowed. Except for where the sun strikes objects, the background is rather dark and receding. All shadows are created by the light, and created with color mainly, but also defined by hard-edges. The entire foreground of the painting is brilliantly lit, with not much shadow.
Most of the colors in this work are warm, rather than cool, with shades of brown (sepia, burnt umber), gray, and black, with splashes of terra cotta and a pale blue. I found the intensity of the colors to be indicative of the quality of the light implied. I imagined this setting to be autumn, at sunset. Most of the leaves on the trees have turned brown, and some have fallen. The grassy field is a pale yellow. Complementary colors of blue and orange are mostly seen in the foreground as either shadow or detail in the light. A bit of atmospheric perspective is shown in the blue gray sky visible between some of the trees, leading your eye further back in the wood.
This painting has a smooth texture overall, with one exception. The bushes in the foreground appear to have a somewhat fuzzy seedpod on them, but upon closer inspection, it is seen that the fuzziness is created by diluted splashes of paint that actually have no physical texture at all.
The balance is asymmetrical, with the house front in the middle of the image and the rest of it is positioned to the left hand side. This leaves the viewer with the impression that he or she could easily walk up to the front door and walk into the house. Dark shadows on the house contrast starkly with the front, indicating intense sunlight. The straight lines of the house appear to be tilted, so that the house appears to be leaning. This adds to the feel of age. The simple fence follows the line of the house from center to left, but rises as it moves left. This creates the illusion that the house is leaning even more.
The emphasis in this image is all about the house, and especially the front of it. There is a bit of rhythm in the bushes and their seedpods, repeated from the center of the image out to each side, but more of them on the house side. They serve to further carry the eye along the length of the house. The medium used, acrylic on paper, limits the artist to a thinner paint. No thick dabs of paint can be used, or the paper might buckle. The appearance is rather flat, giving it the appearance of a dry-brushed watercolor, rather than acrylic.
There are some invisible lines in this painting. Grass is implied by directional brush strokes with just a few well-placed painted lines. It gives the painting life, as the grass seems to be blowing about in a breeze. More visible lines are seen in the outline of the house and the fence row. There are no figures in this landscape painting.
The artist does not make use of much negative space in this work, except for a small area of the grass in the foreground. The house is visually projected—I felt as though I were standing in a field of grass (or perhaps on a road at the edge of it) looking at this house. As for depth, the house is shown in perspective, as its size diminishes as your eye travels from the front of the house to the back (to the left in the painting).
The source of the light is implied, rather than obvious. The setting sun is to the right foreground, shining full on the front of the house, which is brightly lit except for the hard-edged shadows cast under the porch roof. The left side of the house is completely in shadow. The trees behind the show show some little bit of highlighting where the sun hits the first few at the edge of the wood; most mostly they are dark and shadowed. Except for where the sun strikes objects, the background is rather dark and receding. All shadows are created by the light, and created with color mainly, but also defined by hard-edges. The entire foreground of the painting is brilliantly lit, with not much shadow.
Most of the colors in this work are warm, rather than cool, with shades of brown (sepia, burnt umber), gray, and black, with splashes of terra cotta and a pale blue. I found the intensity of the colors to be indicative of the quality of the light implied. I imagined this setting to be autumn, at sunset. Most of the leaves on the trees have turned brown, and some have fallen. The grassy field is a pale yellow. Complementary colors of blue and orange are mostly seen in the foreground as either shadow or detail in the light. A bit of atmospheric perspective is shown in the blue gray sky visible between some of the trees, leading your eye further back in the wood.
This painting has a smooth texture overall, with one exception. The bushes in the foreground appear to have a somewhat fuzzy seedpod on them, but upon closer inspection, it is seen that the fuzziness is created by diluted splashes of paint that actually have no physical texture at all.
The balance is asymmetrical, with the house front in the middle of the image and the rest of it is positioned to the left hand side. This leaves the viewer with the impression that he or she could easily walk up to the front door and walk into the house. Dark shadows on the house contrast starkly with the front, indicating intense sunlight. The straight lines of the house appear to be tilted, so that the house appears to be leaning. This adds to the feel of age. The simple fence follows the line of the house from center to left, but rises as it moves left. This creates the illusion that the house is leaning even more.
The emphasis in this image is all about the house, and especially the front of it. There is a bit of rhythm in the bushes and their seedpods, repeated from the center of the image out to each side, but more of them on the house side. They serve to further carry the eye along the length of the house. The medium used, acrylic on paper, limits the artist to a thinner paint. No thick dabs of paint can be used, or the paper might buckle. The appearance is rather flat, giving it the appearance of a dry-brushed watercolor, rather than acrylic.
No comments:
Post a Comment