My Art Appreciation

My Art Appreciation

I’m going to be honest.  I love going to museums and learning about our historical past, but I am not a huge fan of art museums.  I absolutely enjoy looking at artwork, and analyzing the colors, shapes, textures, and the stories that each art piece has to tell.  But I spend less than a minute with each artwork and then move on to the next art exhibit. In the online article “Art of Slowing Down” the author asked a question: what if people slowed down?

 

I went to the Sacagawea Art Collection during the week and had planned to pick an artwork (less than a minute) and leave.  But when I saw this oil canvas painting by Shelby Keefe, I slowed down.  I know that there were elements from the painting that captured my attention, but I was not entirely sure what elements or how to express the connection I felt.  In Chapter 5, we learned of different elements that are seen in art (p.44).  Color is very important in paintings because I’m drawn to soft warm calming colors that give life to the picture.  This oil canvas had simple, yet expressive colors. When you first see the painting you notice that there are big gray/white clouds that are surrounded by a dark shade of blue, maybe to give the impression that a storm is nearing.  There is appears to be a shadow from the clouds that is hovering over the mountains, trees and the river.  The trees are a wonderful deep green, which helped me to envision a real forest: the smell, all the crowded trees, green leaves, and the rocks that meet the river.  Further back, I noticed the sky is lighter blue with smaller clouds, perhaps an indication that the storm will not be going in that direction.  Chapter 5 also discussed the focal point element (p.51) and to me, it is all the beautiful, white formed clouds.  The clouds caught my attention and helped me visually organize the picture to understand that I would view the painting from the top where the clouds were and work my way to the Earth, where the river flowed quietly, the mountains are numerous, and the trees stood still.

 

Finally, I think this painting has the element- unity (p.58).  The sky, the clouds, trees, rocks, river, and all the colors unify this picture to tell a story of Earth and Mother Nature. The possible storm in one area of the sky, but calm and quiet just a short distance away, in the same sky hovering over the same Earth.  It helped me to make a connection by seeing how beautiful nature is. 

 

Does anyone have a favorite artist or art piece that they could recommend? I’d like to visit some more art museums this summer.

 

Christy