Humans, as a species, are often unobservant. We live in a world that is absolutely filled with creativity and beauty, and yet, somehow, we manage to be almost completely ignorant of it. Every day, we pass by objects in nature that seem too small or simple, and we deem them insignificant. Most people do not walk by a flower and stop to do a double take. They do not pause, observe the flower more closely, and contemplate how so much beauty can be packed into something so tiny. It takes a truly special person to find charm and grace in something that appears so ordinary. It takes and even more special person to be able to paint and recreate beauty in a way that is impossible to ignore. However, this is exactly what Georgia O’Keeffe sought to do. …show more content…
By using bold, vivid colors to paint enlarged flowers, she managed to show to world how something that may go unnoticed can hold a world of beauty. O’Keeffe’s attention to detail isn’t the only thing that sets her apart from the vast majority of people—her boldness and strong-will are things that managed to help her survive in the art world. A world that, at her time, was only meant for men. With her blunt personality, she was able to establish herself as an artist that was more than fit to stand alongside the men and be appreciated for the works that she created. For these aspects of her personality, it’s hard to deny that she’s a truly admirable person, one who managed to leave a long lasting impression on the humanities. On November 15th, 1887, Georgia O’Keeffe was born in the town of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin to Ida and Francis O’Keeffe, two dairy farmers. Since she was just one out of six children, Georgia grew into quite an introverted person, who more often than not kept to herself. However, she made it known from an early age that she was already determined to do great things. When asked what she wanted to do when she was older, she would always respond that she wanted to be wanted to be an artist, specifically a portrait painter (Shuman, 11). As she grew older, her love for art only continued to grow and develop. In 1905, she decided to attend the Art Students League, wanting to further develop her skills. When she began attending, however, she realized that one of her biggest problems was that she didn’t exactly fit into the artistic mold at that time. Many of the others studying art at the time were more inspired by the impressionistic style—they used pale colors and fuzzy outlines to create almost dreamlike images. Georgia, however, painted nothing like that. Instead, she used bright, bold colors, and define brush strokes. Due to her difference in style, other painters often thought that she was learning to paint the wrong way. Once, in an effort to ‘help’ her, a fellow student painted over her entire canvas, trying to show her the proper way that it should be done. Another time, after she had expressed her distaste to modeling for her male classmates, Eugene Speicher said, “It doesn’t matter what you do, I’m going to be a great painter and you will probably end up teaching painting at some girl’s school.” (Shuman, 14). Though, at the time, most women who went to art school ended up being art teachers, O’Keeffe was upset with how undervalued women's art was, and how it wasn’t taken seriously. In 1907, Georgia decided to move to New York City. Here, she went to William Merritt Chase’s school, which proved to be much better for her temperament and style. At these classes, she was encouraged to use the vivid colors that she loved some much, and quick brush strokes. Instead of being discouraged by her unique style, she was pushed to develop it more and more. A couple years later, O’Keeffe managed to get a teaching job in South Carolina. During this time Oriental Poppies, painted in 1928, is perhaps one of Georgia O’Keeffe’s most iconic works.
Just from glancing at it, one can immediately tell that it’s an O’Keeffe painting, and can recognize how much of her personality and style show through. On this canvas that is approximately 30 by 40 inches, are bold, beautiful flowers. These flowers, though in real life are rather small, were painted on a much larger scale, as O’Keeffe often wanted to make the beauty of the flowers hard to ignore. By painting it on a bigger size, she was able to further enhance the details of the flowers, beautifully painting the edges of the flowers, managing to capture the movement of the flower petals, how they flow and overlap each other. Using paints, she manages to make it appear as if light is hitting the flowers, nearly making them glow. Another thing to note is the contrast in colors. Though she uses bright reds and oranges, in their centers, she uses a deep black. Despite the fact that it’s a darker color, it still manages to be just as bold as the brighter ones. This is partially due to her use of oil paints, which was often her medium of choice. With oils, it’s much easier to create eye-catching colors, as the paints are strongly pigmented. O’Keeffe often used this to her advantage, especially in this piece. Nowhere in it do you see murky or muddy colors. The composition of her piece also helps to further develop these poppies into something that can truly evoke emotions of happiness and …show more content…
warmth from a person. While she could have just painted one flower in the middle of the page, she decided to paint two, and have one that is slightly more dominating of the canvas. She paints them in a way that makes it look as it they were pressed right next to each other, which creates a beautiful, curved line that guides your eye from the top to the bottom of the piece. Along with that, it’s worth noting that she crops the flowers at their edges, helping the further enhance the illusion of bigger flowers. When looking at this pieces, it’s hard to deny that an incredibly amount of thought and detail went into this. This iconic piece is truly a gorgeous one, one that represents O’Keeffe’s style perfectly, with confidents brush strokes and purposefully impactful color. Without Alfred Stieglitz adoration and appreciation for O’Keefe’s art, it’s debatable that she might not have become as well known as she is today.
Georgia’s first meeting with Stieglitz wasn’t exactly on good terms. He had decided to put pictures that she had painted on display, despite the fact that they were meant to be private. He had even put them under a different name, saying that they were created by ‘Virginia O’Keeffe’. When O’Keeffe saw that her paintings were put on display without her permission, she was livid and demanded that they be taken down, despite the fact that he had displayed them in the largest room and took great care in the way that they were put up (source 2). Stieglitz was, at the time, a known photographer, 23 years older than O’Keeffe who was, at the time, completely unknown. Despite this fact, Alfred saw an incredible amount of potential in her, and was thrilled by the fact that she was a female artist (Source 3). Despite their originally rocky start, O’Keeffe and Stieglitz began to get closer and closer. He was her as an inspiration and often took pictures of her, loving to photograph her life. It wasn’t until years later after their little affairs began that they actually got married. When Stieglitz divorced his wife in 1922, he immediately asked Georgia to marry him. However, she rejected his request, saying that she didn't see the point in it. After a lot of persuasion on his part, he managed to convince her to marry him in 1924. At the
time, she was 37, and he was 61. One thing she refused, however, was to take his last name. She said, “I’ve hung on to my name with my teeth. I like getting what I’ve got on my own’. From just this act alone, one can tell that O’Keeffe was a rather independent person (source 2). Another issue that came up in their marriage was the fact that O’Keeffe wanted to have children, as she enjoyed them, and had always wanted to be a mother. Alfred, however, did not want to since he was getting older. On top of that, he believed that O’Keeffe should dedicate her life to her art, since being a mother would take away her time to do so (source 2) Another iconic piece of hers is called “Summer Days”. This painting represents another artistic style that she developed after she had moved to Mexico. Prior to this, she had been living in cities, painting skyscrapers and buildings, or the flowers that she so often created. Once she moved to the barren deserts of New Mexico, however, she realized that it was nearly void of flowers, and much life in general. The desert mostly consisted of land and animal skulls. So what did O’Keeffe decide to do? She decided that those would be exactly what she painted. In “Summer Days”, perhaps the most prominent element is her use of space. Though the bottom of the approximately 30 by 36 canvas, it appears as if it's merely a landscape. As one’s eye moves up the canvas, he or she will find that this couldn’t be further from the truth. Instead, the skull of a deer is most prominent, along with the few flowers below it. This use of space creates an almost surrealistic type of feeling, as the clouds fade and leave the background of the top half a plain white. Though it’s a different style, Georgia still displays her iconic use of bright colors. The sandy hills of New Mexico are painted using vivid oranges and yellows, which contrasts nicely with the blue of the sky. As the sky turns into clouds of white, the flowers trail up to the animal skull. Though tans and browns aren't exactly interesting colors, O’Keeffe manages to make them just that. She beautifully displays the texture of the skull, painting each crack and shadow with careful detail. This is further demonstrated through the texture of the antlers, and how she paints the ridges and bumps. With her lighting, she makes it look as if the skull truly is sitting in the blinding sun of a hot day in New Mexico. This piece, to O’Keeffe, represented both life and death, and the cycle it goes through. By having the flowers flow and trail up to the skull, it makes it more evident what O’Keeffe was trying to show. Though it’s a different style than her more recognizable works, this is still a wonderful piece that shows how well O’Keeffe can represent subject matters other than her usual flowers. (END) Humans are unobservant—than much we know. There are certain people, however, who decide that they don’t want to mindlessly pass by the beauty in life. Certain people, like Georgia O’Keeffe, who, through her art, demanded that people recognize that the world is so much more than it seems, that even the little things can be so incredibly beautiful. As her art grew and developed, she proved herself more and more. People loved her paintings, thought her surrealism was beautiful and one of a kind. Even today, people can look at her pieces and automatically know that she was the one who made it. However, most people don’t know how truly inspiring she is, how hard she had to work to even be recognize. Thankfully, with the help of her husband, she was able to prove to the world that even though she was a female, she wasn’t any less capable than any of her male counter partners.
Wayne, transforms this painting into a three dimensional abstract piece of art. The focal point of the painting are the figures that look like letters and numbers that are in the front of the piece of art. This is where your eyes expend more time, also sometimes forgiving the background. The way the artist is trying to present this piece is showing happiness, excitement, and dreams. Happiness because he transmits with the bright colours. After probably 15 minutes on front of the painting I can feel that the artist tries to show his happiness, but in serene calm. The excitement that he presents with the letters, numbers and figures is a signal that he feels anxious about what the future is going to bring. Also in the way that the colors in the background are present he is showing that no matter how dark our day can be always will be light to
If one came close to the figure’s stomach where there’s the seafoam green, one can see the strong mark makings of the paint brushes and knife strokes, making the paint come out of the canvas. Similarly, Brown also uses big paint strokes of different colors to direct viewer’s eyes around the artwork. For instance, on the left side of the figure, there is a big vertical downward motion of a brush stroke in maroon, that connects to a green streak that goes up and encompasses the figure’s head and then downward to the body of the figure, which outlines and pushes the figure to stand out. And to make our eyes go back to the figure, Brown paints a blue triangle on the chest, making it a focal point due to it’s dark color that stands out of the light colors. And if someone stood facing the side of the painting, one can see the thick globs of paint that would make the viewer take a double glance to see if it was either a painting or a sculpture, which reinforces the idea that the painting is coming alive and making one feel
The author creates imagery for her readres to visualize her perspective. Didge conveys in her essay “Flowery and beautiful, it
The piece uses a gorgeous palette of green, blue, and yellow. Creating a calm and relaxed tone that flows throughout the whole painting. The sole cypress tree is the focal point of the piece. Dark green attracts the eye from the overall light colored piece but does not distract the viewer completely since used sparingly. The brushstrokes used to create the piece bring it to life. The piece goes beyond the canvas by engaging the imagination of what else is there but left unseen. I picture a river to the right of the wheat field which eventually leads to a small town on the other side of the blue mountains. To the left I see the rest of the wheat fields for miles on end with farmers plowing and children playing. I feel the wind blowing, the clouds moving, and the trees rustling. I feel as if Van Gogh intended for this piece to feel alive, for the viewer to feel as if they were there embracing
This is an image that I think of when I consider Japanese culture. They love gardens like this and you see similar images often when considering their culture. It is difficult to tell for sure, but the people in the distance appear to be dressed up. It is as though they have put on their best clothes to step out and enjoy this relaxing setting. I believe that this print is successful at capturing a moment in the mid 1800’s very well. It causes me to sense and experience what the artist was trying to capture. This print seems to conform to the formal theory of art. The print has only images of each object. None of them are particularly detailed or real to life but they do a very good job of organizing and describing the basic elements of the scene. It uses similar colors, shapes, and lines to those one might find in this garden in
My favorite thing about this piece is the depiction of the New York skyline during a starry night. This is because I am in love with the city at night time. It makes me feel warm. My least favorite thing is the floral border. At first glance, it looks dumb and out of place. I did not understand the purpose of this border until further research was done on the piece of art. I do not think the artist was successful at achieving her goal. I think this because at first I didn't even notice the young girl flying above the bridge. Once I noticed her, I could not tell she was the same girl laying on the rooftop. This made the wild background not make much sense to me. If I were to do something differently about this piece, I would make the flying girl bigger, or put her into more of the focus. Also, I would do something special to show that they are the same girl. Maybe a unique outfit or something would do the job. During the time this artwork was created, Ringgold played a role in the organization of protests and actions against museums that did not show the work of women and people of color. She usually used “overly political paintings” to present her anger (Spector, Nancy). Within this work, she used a story quilt. Everyone loved it! She turned down her angry theme to show this light hearted example of a “spirited heroine”(Spector, Nancy). Women in this time period’s society loved to see a young colored girl
Georgia O’Keefe is a famous American painter who painted beautiful flowers and landscapes. But she painted these images in such a way that many people believed she was portraying sexual imagery. “O’Keefe’s depictions of flowers in strict frontality and enlarged to giant scale were entirely original in character . . . the view into the open blossoms evoked an image of the female psyche and invited erotic associations.” (Joachimides 47) O’Keefe denies these allegations and says that she “magnified the scale of the flower only to ensure people would notice them.” (Haskell 203) O’Keefe’s artwork was misinterpreted because of cultural prejudice, her non-traditional lifestyle, and gender bias art criticism. But despite these accusations, Georgia O’Keefe’s artwork was not based on sexuality.
By not cherishing the gift of sight and using it properly, many discoveries are left unfound. In the writing piece, Seeing, Annie Dillard speaks of nature and the small things that we all are unconsciously blind to and not appreciative of. Seeing explores the idea of what it means to truly see things in this world. Annie Dillard’s main point is that we should view the world with less of a meddling eye, so that we are able to capture things that would otherwise go unnoticed. There’s a science to how we view things in nature.
The two focal figures are illustrated with complementary colors, the woman 's dress being orange, and the man’s pants being blue. Benton uses these colors to bring life into the painting. The background is made up mostly of earthy colors like, greens, browns, and greys and a light blue for the sky. Benton seems to add white to every color he uses, which gives the painting an opaque look. The deepest hues found in this painting are the blue one the man’s pants and the orange on the woman’s dress, everything else around them looks washed out and Benton does this to emphasize his focal points
The composition of the painting takes place with the square of the canvas. The square is approximately 5' x 5'. A black frame surrounding the painting protrudes approximately 4" off the canvas. There is a 1" inlay between the canvas and frame. From this square, Reinhardt breaks the composition into six equal squares in three even rows. Texture is no where to be found in the painting. No visual indication of the artist's brush stroke is present. No varnished glare is given off by the piece. The entire work, including the frame, is completely matte. The squares take up the entire canvas in a checkerboard type arrangement. Each square is a slightly different shade of blue-black. It almost becomes impossible to see the difference between each square. The middle squares in the top and bottom rows shift more towards blue than the rest of the squares. The division of these middle squares become more obvious than the others. When the painting is looked at from a distance, it is almost impossible to see any of the squares at all. When looking from a far, all a viewer can see is a blackish blue canvas. As you stare longer into the painting, a halo begins to form around the corners of the canvas, creating a circle inside the square. Once you look away from the canvas, the circle is gone. With this observation in mind, we could say that the painting most definitely relies on the viewer. A viewer is required to look at the piece for its full affect. We could say that the squares in the painting are self-contained.
This painting by Vincent Van Gogh is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago Museum, in the Impressionism exhibit. There are many things going on in this painting that catch the viewer’s eye. The first is the piece’s vibrant colors, light blues and browns, bright greens, and more. The brush strokes that are very visible and can easily be identified as very thick some might even say bold. The furniture, the objects, and the setting are easy to identify and are proportioned to each other. There is so much to see in this piece to attempt to explain in only a few simple sentences.
One of the visual elements of this painting is the color he really uses the color to get people's attention because he uses watercolors to blend them together to make such a wonderful painting. He blends many different colors together to make new ones there is not a spot in this painting that there isn’t color. The second visual element is the people in the painting they are naked and dancing around like nobody's looking. The people in the painting are relaxing and enjoying one another and various ways. Some are even having sexual contact in the painting it’s expressing themselves from one to
It seems to be his style of painting, thick brush strokes. It is not simple, there is much to the painting, there is emotion in the painting. It is a stunning piece made by him.
Upon further review I was instantly intrigued by the technique in which it was created. Not a single brushstroke of what is commonly used in paintings but rather small perfectly round dots in vibrant yellows, greens, oranges, and blues. Small dots of color perfectly marrying together to form a single image. One could instantly imagine the painstaking hours and the amount of effort that went into creating such a beautiful piece.
In times, we often see things, but we don't really capture what is beyond it. In some cases, there are people who are artistic and are prone to see what other's cannot visualize. Every individual has a talent which can be expressed and processed differently. Something you see can mean entirely divergent things to someone else;for example, some may see thing's that may seem simple, but in the eyes of an artist, it can be perceived with a whole new definition, dimension, and a potentially new discovery. As a photographer, my view of the world, can be skewed towards looking at everyday objects as potential art, but it wasn't always like that.