Project #5:
Exhibition Text:
This piece is an impressionist painting that depicts a building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin aka where I live. This piece represents an appreciation of my environment and the things I have been given in life. I wanted to make a piece about where I live since I am influenced by my environment. I wanted to depict my environment as something beautiful and use light colors to depict this.
Meaning:
The meaning behind my piece is quite simple: Home. I wanted to make a piece about my home and my life. I am influenced by environment and I wanted to focus a piece on this concept. I wanted to put an emphasis on where I am from because it is something that has influenced who I am as a person today. Where someone is raised is always important and has a large impact on the personality, morals, and beliefs.
Artist Inspiration:
My artist inspiration is Shelby Keefe. Keefe is a native Wisconsin artist that is known for her impressionist landscapes. She is a full-time painter. She uses her surroundings as inspiration for her landscape pieces. Keefe is a minimalist, which means she believes in painting less because it means more. The artworks I chose as inspiration are "A Beautiful Day in Talbot County" and "Rainy Reflections". I decided to use "Rainy Reflections" and "A Beautiful Day in Talbot County" because both were aesthetically pleasing and excellent examples of the impressionist art movement. I wanted to use " Rainy Reflections" for my color scheme. I liked the bright colors and hazy-look of the colors. Milwaukee night life, the theme I chose, is very bright and hazy. I wanted to use bright yellows and oranges as well as light blues and hot pinks. I chose " A Beautiful Day in Talbot County" because of the structure of the piece. I wanted one building in the foreground that was my main focus. I wanted to have other buildings in the back as well to fill in the background. I wanted to use both pieces as a way to structure my piece and the color scheme of my piece.
Journal, Planning, and Process:
Experimentation:
The experimentation of this piece mainly focused on the color choice and structure choice. A large concern for me was color and I wanted to use bright, neon colors. I experimented with the hue of my colors, specifically blue and orange. I took the picture at sunset, so yellows and oranges were extremely important. Blue was also important because I wanted the sky to look nice in the background. I wanted a light baby-blue color. I also experimented with foreground and the shape of my buildings. I knew that I wanted one building to be the focus of my piece. I experimented with the size and shape for proportion and the color of the building. I has a picture I was basing the image off of, but I used that picture loosely.
Actual Process:
The process of this piece was pretty simple since I have done this process many times before. I first made my canvas which is 24 cm by 24 cm. I wanted to canvas small because I wanted the proportions to look correct. I am better at proportioning my pieces if the canvas is smaller. I next drew on my image, which is of a Milwaukee building at sunset. Next, I painted it. This wasn't a hard process, but was time consuming.
Comparison:
I believe my piece is similar to my artist inspiration. I used the bright colors that Keefe used in "Rainy Reflections". Both of our pieces contained bright yellows and blues, as well as hot pinks. I loved using these bright neon colors because not only were they easy to create, but really made my painting bright. I originally was going to use black paint to trace the edges of all my buildings but I decided against this because in theory it would look nice, but in reality it would take away the impressionist feel and just make my piece look tacky. I also used similar structure in relation to placement of buildings. I had one building front and center like " A Beautiful Day in Talbot County". This made my building the main focus of the piece, which it was.
Reflection:
I like to believe that this piece was nice overall. Painting is not my strong point by far, but I wanted to do a painting to challenge myself as an artist. I think that choosing impressionism and an impressionist artist was very smart being as there really is no solid shapes. It is just rapid brush strokes made to look like a shape. The main issue that could arise is color. I think that the color of an impressionist piece makes all the difference. I made sure that I used bright colors like "Rainy Reflections". I think that the painting probably could have been a little neater. I think I took the impressionist ideology a little too far because my "lines" are a little fuzzy. Overall, I believe my piece was well put together and correctly emulated Keefe's pieces.
ACT Questions:
1. Due to Keefe using bright colors and one building in the foreground, I used bright colors and one building in the structure.
2. The artist frequently used landscape and her surroundings to influence her.
3. Your surroundings are extremely important in day-to-day life as well as your future.
4. My central theme was the influence of your surroundings and Milwaukee in general.
5. I came to the conclusion that where you are from is important in influencing your personality and behavior.
2. The artist frequently used landscape and her surroundings to influence her.
3. Your surroundings are extremely important in day-to-day life as well as your future.
4. My central theme was the influence of your surroundings and Milwaukee in general.
5. I came to the conclusion that where you are from is important in influencing your personality and behavior.
Work Cited:
“Rainy Reflections by Shelby Keefe.” The Pfister Blog, 3 Jan. 2012, blog.thepfisterhotel.com/2012/01/details-in-photographs/rainy-reflections-by-shelby-keefe/.
“Artist: Shelby Keefe.” Artist: Shelby Keefe | Plein Air Easton, 1 Jan. 1970, pleinaireaston.com/artists/shelby-keefe.
“Artist: Shelby Keefe.” Artist: Shelby Keefe | Plein Air Easton, 1 Jan. 1970, pleinaireaston.com/artists/shelby-keefe.