Observational Painting
Title:
Size: 30cm by 60cm Medium: Oil paints on stretched and primed canvas Completion: November 2023 |
Exhibition Text
Inspiration
In preparation for this painting, I knew I had to look for dramatic paintings, similar to a baroque art style because of the way that everything is . The reason I wanted to make this painting in the first place was because I wanted to express how I feel about love, whether it be platonic or romantic. I think that in order to feel love, you have to uncover parts of you that most people don't know about you, which can be difficult to do and can sometimes be messy, similar to the way that peeling a pomegranate or orange can be. I also chose to paint these fruits because of the meanings that can be associated with them. In Spanish, there is a nickname, typically referring to soulmates, "mi media naranja," translated to "my other half of the orange" which is used only towards people you have the most love for. I wanted the oranges in this painting to represent both platonic and romantic love, as I believe that you can have a platonic soulmate. The pomegranates in this piece would be representing romantic love as they represent fertility and are associated with Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
Artist in Focus: Pieter Claesz
Artist in Focus: Vincent Van Gogh
Check list
Inspiration
Inspiration
- Artist/Culture Inspiration (Critical Investigation)
- 2 photos of inspiration minimal
- 300-500 words of research based around your artist or cultural inspiration
- Accurately cited MLA or AP
- this can happen at bottom of page
- Creatively discussed how you plan to use this inspiration in your work
- Techniques and style inspiration
- Meaning and metaphor inspiration
- Analyze the Inspiration
- What is the artist intent for making this artwork?
- What’s going on in this artwork?
- What was your first reaction to this artwork? Why do you think you had the reaction?
- Describe the Elements and Principles in the artwork.
- Which area of the artwork is emphasized by the artist? Why?
- How does your eye move through the artwork? What choices did the artist make to make that happen?
- What do you think was this artwork created for? Why do you say that?
- What emotions do you notice in the artwork?
- What technique did the artist use to make the work?
Planning
Check list
- Planning (ideas and intentions)
- 3 planning drawing minimal
- A mix of physical drawn pages and typed journal entries
- Described these drawings (what your plans are)
- Drawing out your ideas
- How you plan to move forward
- This is your Action Plan
- Show and Tell
- Your theme
- How you plan to show and use it
- What emotions or statements are you trying to evoke?
- Your theme
- Steps of Creation
- How do you plan on pulling this off?
- What steps do you foresee?
- What dimensions (scale) are you planning on making your work?
Process
Check list
- Process (the how you did it)
- 300-500 words
- Minimum 5 photos
- Clarified the:
- Development of
- Skills
- techniques
- Reflections
- Critiques
- Creative ideas
- Evaluations
- Of your work
- Of others work
- Development of
- Did you illustrate/explain your brainstorming ideas?
- Did you communicate your process?
- In an accurate written and visual format.
- Compare and contrast it against your inspiration
- Did you illustrate your Process and Techniques?
- Arranged a minimum of 5 images of your process
- Detailed your process and experimentation
Experimentation
Check list
What does it mean to Experiment?
One could say experiment guides us through stages of creative work. Here’s an example:
- Experimentation
- 300-500 words
- The experimental quality of art is more likely to be understood as a matter of degree of innovation.
- Minimum 5 photos
- Did you show your experimental stages?
- Did you describe and discuss your experimentation?
What does it mean to Experiment?
One could say experiment guides us through stages of creative work. Here’s an example:
- Discovery — “This thing, what does it do? What can I make with it? This stick, this pen, this hammer?”
- Exploration — “Now I’ve used this hammer for years making chairs, what else can I make with it?”
- Expansion — “Now I’ve made tables, cabinets, chairs of course, and a dog house. What if I were to do variations on these, change things up from how they’ve been done before?”
- Manifestation -- “I’ve always had this vision, hard to describe because its never been seen- but I’ll do my best to build it, and then I’ll find out if I was right about it.”
- Transition — “I know a lot about hammers and nails but not much about brushes and canvases, what would emerge if I tested these things out?”
- Revelation -- “What would happen if I were to set out with no course at all, just like in the very beginning, and see if I can stumble on something neither I nor anyone else could have anticipated? I will meander, I will see what falls out in the process, I will make myself an open gate with no intention for a while.”
Critique
Check list
Describe how the work is organized as a complete composition:
Tips on what to compare and Contrast
• How is the work constructed or planned (i.e., acts, movements, lines)?
• Identify some of the similarities throughout the work (i.e., repetition of lines, two songs in each act).
• Identify some of the points of emphasis in the work (i.e., specific scene, figure, movement).
• If the work has subjects or characters, what are the relationships between or among them?
• Analysis: A discussion of formal elements and principles. Provide information about how the artist presents subject matter. Tell of the artwork's composition, arrangement, and visual construction.
• Elements: Line, shape, light and value, color, texture, mass, space, volume.
• Principles: Scale, proportion, unity, rhythm, balance, directional force, emphasis or subordination.
Check list
- Compare and Contrast your art against your inspiration
- Analyze your art...break it down into its major components
- talk about what went well and what could have been improved on
- talk about the challenges and successes
- Critique
- Comparing
- (Similarities)
- Contrasting
- (Differences)
- Comparing
Describe how the work is organized as a complete composition:
Tips on what to compare and Contrast
• How is the work constructed or planned (i.e., acts, movements, lines)?
• Identify some of the similarities throughout the work (i.e., repetition of lines, two songs in each act).
• Identify some of the points of emphasis in the work (i.e., specific scene, figure, movement).
• If the work has subjects or characters, what are the relationships between or among them?
• Analysis: A discussion of formal elements and principles. Provide information about how the artist presents subject matter. Tell of the artwork's composition, arrangement, and visual construction.
• Elements: Line, shape, light and value, color, texture, mass, space, volume.
• Principles: Scale, proportion, unity, rhythm, balance, directional force, emphasis or subordination.
Check list
- Compare and Contrast your art against your inspiration
- Analyze your art...break it down into its major components
- talk about what went well and what could have been improved on
- talk about the challenges and successes
Reflection
Check list
- Reflection
- Your final thoughts on how you acquired and refined your skills, processes, techniques.
- How did you develop as an artist.
- What was your inspiration for the project? Does it connect?
- What was the biggest challenge you encountered on the project?
- How does this project tie together previously learned exercises and concepts?
- What was your favorite part? Your least favorite?
- In conclusion how do you hope others view your work?
Connection to the ACT
Check list
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- this is regarding your research and investigations
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- this is regarding your research and investigations
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- this is regarding your research and investigations
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- this is regarding your research and investigations
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- this is regarding your research and investigations
Bibliography:
- MLA or AP format
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- this is regarding your research and investigations
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- this is regarding your research and investigations
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- this is regarding your research and investigations
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- this is regarding your research and investigations
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- this is regarding your research and investigations
Bibliography:
- MLA or AP format