Clarence A. Gagnon's piece entitled "Wayside Cross, Winter" depicts the landscape and lifestyle of rural Quebec in the winter season. Through the medium of oil painting, Gagnon communicates his intimate and sympathetic knowledge of peasant life and the Quebec countryside. The overview of the village captures an ephemeral moment, despite the cold presence of the snow, the serenity of the town enraptures the viewer in warmth and welcome. The rustic simplicity of the image charms the foreign spectator, however to the French-Canadian native, a potent reaction is induced; a sense of patriotic pride for the land of Quebec. Through the use of Impressionism and pastel hues, Gagnon is able to capture the duality of nature and French-Canadian culture.
The theme naturally represented is that of a backcountry; a straggling village on the outskirts among the hills, suppressed under an enveloping blanket of untouched snow, with a quiet and restrained beauty of its own. As seen in the foreground, the collinear forms of the cross and houses contrast with the diagonal lines of the arms of the cross and the slope of the terrain, as it does with the sinuous bends of the road and the rickety fence that follow the path. The snow-clad street
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wind their way among the quaint village houses, the road abruptly vanishing over the distant slopes. The hills in the far distance, indicated through light brush strokes, invoke a sweep of country and sense of grandeur. Rendered in the corner are horses and a figure which draw the bright red, archaic work sleigh. transporting a heavy load of logs, adding a note of primitive rural simplicity to the picture. All the compositional details of French-Canadian village homes are delivered with a fine broadness and simplicity of direction. The main charm, however, rests in the pattern of delicate tints blended into this picture. The early morning sun casts a warm glow over the valley and the distant hills, adding an ethereal, heavenly beauty to the village; beckoning as a safe haven for the settlers to maintain their traditions and customs. The warm colours of the distance also lends a decorative note of contrast with the blue casted shadows of snow at the foreground, completing a sense of somber tranquility in the image. Gagnon adopts a distinctive landscape style featuring a sun-doused winter ambience consisting of valleys and hills, vibrant hues and winding lines, and sharp contrasts of light and shadow. Canada, a land full of vast natural beauty and thriving wilderness, is conveyed in Gagnon's artistic creation through the radiance of colour, atmospheric effects, and a play of lights. Using a bright colorful palette and rapidly-indicated brush strokes, Gagnon utilizes the Impressionistic style to suggest the forest of trees drenched by the rays of the sun. Gagnon applies a polarity of particular colors, such as the reds in the sleigh and houses set against the complementary green shutters and dark blue silhouette of the evergreen trees, in contrast with the pearly tints of snow beneath it. There is a definitive personality in his work that reaches out to the spirit and tradition of the French Province; he presents life and action of each peculiarity – people, houses, horses, and sleighs – as a part of a living entirety. Gagnon not only interprets the external details but also the deepest musings and aspirations of the people, attesting his evident love for his native Prince. As opposed to being simple rural geology, there is sensitivity and a depth of understanding guiding every stroke of Gagnon's brush, thoroughly capturing the French-Canadian spirit. Clarence Gagnon gives homage to French-Canadian life in his depiction of habitant life; his vision for beauty portrays the harmonic relationship between a certain state of culture and the wilderness.
Gagnon employs a vivid palette, delicate treatment of light and atmosphere, and loose Impressionistic brushwork in his painting to represent the cultivated landscape, in which nature has synthesized with agriculture and local settlements. His enriching picture, conceived through his sympathetic understanding of his land and his people, immortalizes the beauty of the rural winter scene. The image, in essence, is a single whole that documents Canadian life; charming to the enthusiast of design and colour, but beyond value to the natives of the
country.
While Snow Falling on Cedars has a well-rounded cast of characters, demands strong emotional reactions, and radiates the importance of racial equality and fairness, it is not these elements alone that make this tale stand far out from other similar stories. It is through Guterson’s powerful and detailed imagery and settings that this story really comes to life. The words, the way he uses them to create amazing scenes and scenarios in this story, makes visualizing them an effortless and enjoyable task. Streets are given names and surroundings, buildings are given color and history, fields and trees are given height and depth, objects are given textures and smells, and even the weather is given a purpose in the...
These assemblages of work mirrror a reflection of glimpses of landscape beauty, a particular solace found in the nature surrounding us during her time in the outback, elegance, simplicity and the lifestyle of the physical world around us. Gascoigne has an essential curiousity displayed in her work exploring the physical word that is captured in an essence of this rural home which brings evocate depictions, subject to the arrangement of these simple remnants that offer so much more. The assemblages focus us on viewing the universe from a unique turnpoint, compromising of corrugated iron, feathers, worn linoleum, weathered fence palings, wooden bottle crates, shells and dried plant matter. The art works offer a poetic expression that traces remnants around the world that individually hold meaning to their placement in the
Larry Watson, in “Montana 1948”, uses the motif of light and silence in many ways to develop, clarify and reinforce ideas about truth and injustice, and portray the nature of some characters. He illustrates the injustice in Bentrock through the motif of light and then demonstrates to the reader the occurrence of something wrong through the motif of silence. The motif of light also sometimes assists the motif of silence to emphasize the significance of the event.
As characters in the poem are literally snow bound, they find that the natural occurrence actually serves a relaxing and warming purpose, one that brings together family. This effect is further achieved through the use of meter throughout the work as a whole. In its simplistic yet conversational tone, the author uses meter to depict the result that nature has forced upon these humans, who are but a small sample size that actually is representative of society that that time. Due to nature, the characters can talk, represented by the conversational meter, and thus, they can bond within the family. A larger representation of this more specific example can be applied to a more general perspective of human’s relationship with the natural world. Although “Snowbound” captures what humans do as a result of nature, it can also represent a larger picture, where nature appears at the most opportune times to enhance relationships from human to human. In “snowbound,” this is symbolized by the fire, “Our warm hearth seemed blazing free” (Whittier 135). This image relays a spirited, warm, mood full of security, which is expertly used by the author to show how fire, a natural phenomena, can provide such beneficial effects on humans. This very occurrence exemplifies how such a miniscule aspect of nature can have such a profound effect on a family, leaving the reader wondering what nature and its entirety could accomplish if used as a
Topography is the features of land in an area. Those features can include rivers, mountains, lakes, hills, forrests, etc. A White Heron is overflowing with references to the topography of Maine, and more specifically the coast of Maine. The first sentence of Jewett’s A White Heron gives the reader a preview into the appreciation Jewett has for her home state of Maine, “The woods were already filled with shadows one June evening, just before eight o’clock, though a bright sunset still glimmered faintly among the trunks of the trees” (413). While this description isn’t specific to Maine on the surface, it is specific to Jewett’s interpretation of the woods at sunset in Maine, and the beauty of color writing is that each reader will imagine their own sunset based on their own woods in their own region. Jewett was just beginning and her description of the land around her, and as the story progresses the d...
The symbol of this story is snow because it is reflecting how becoming an immigrant can be so harsh and hurtful but in the end a beautiful thing as you overcome the struggles. The narrator who shines herself through Yolanda portrays how her life was like when she first became an immigrant. It was a disastrous and hurtful time, b...
The representation of the new age of exploration, which serves as an allusion to man’s potential, is starkly contrasted with the depiction of Icarus that serves as an allegory for man’s limits, indicating the shift from a euro-centric universe. This painting is an oil canvas landscape of the sun setting on the horizon of the ocean sea, while the ships were sailing through the body of water. The focus on humanism during this period is clearly portrayed by the presence of the plowman, shepherd, and fisherman performing their daily task. Lighter colors are used, which differ from the darker colors that were emphasized during the Dark Age or Medieval period. Shadows can be seen on the ground next to the plowman, showing the increasing artistic methods that begin to be utilized.
From the piece of artwork “Rain at the Auvers”. I can see roofs of houses that are tucked into a valley, trees hiding the town, black birds, clouds upon the horizon, hills, vegetation, a dark stormy sky and rain.
The first photos of the gothic transition come from the “Prairie Images of Ground and Sky” collection. The collection shows untouched nature that gives a feeling of the sublime. It shows wide green expanses, bathed in warm light, that shows a raw beauty and goodness created by nature. This feeling of the sublime is a major aspect of the gothic due to its ability to provide contrast with the often dark plots. This aspect also gives the reader a sense of wonderment that causes a confrontation and reevaluation about the power of nature versus the characters and other elements of the novel. The photos from “Prairie Images of Ground and Sky” collection instill the sublime in the viewer but lack the evil component often in gothic novels because the landscapes are pristine. These open expanses represent the unknown, but not in a traditional gothic manner that would cause worry for the possibility of something treacherous hidden in the landscape. Instead, they are lacking of any sign of human activity and utilize soft lighting associated with virtue and goodness. This collection shows the distant and sublime before contact with other gothic themes that cause a darker scene to unfold.
One motif which reappears in the film is the power of nature, especially in relation to the individual. In fact, the film begins with a majestic shot of the Rocky Mountains showing its beauty and height. The beauty of nature and even friendliness of nature changes as the film develops. As the movie progresses the snow still seems white and pure, almost virgin like, but nature becomes an isolating force, not providing the family with a retreat from the pressures of modern life, but forcing the family to turn in on its dysfunctional and psychopathic self. Imprisoned by the snow and the tall mountains , the family seems weak and vulnerable.
Similar to many of the van Gogh’s paintings completed close to the end of his life, Vincent van Gogh's Wheat Field with Crows is a representational painting depicting nature around him. This piece is showing the wheat fields surrounding the graveyard of the Church in Auvers-sur-Oise - the graveyard where both van Gogh and his brother, Theo, were buried. The artist shows his interpretation of the wheat field on a stormy day, with three paths converging in the center of the painting's foreground. The center path disappears into the distance with an “abrupt termination” on its way to the horizon, creating a true sense of depth, while the other two ...
...f the shadows is sprinkled with the orange of the ground, and the blue-violet of the mountains is both mixed with and adjacent to the yellow of the sky. The brushstrokes that carry this out are inspired by the Impressionists, but are more abundant and blunter than those an Impressionist would use.
The setting takes place in the daylight of the woods. I felt that Frost set the poem in the woods because it helps reader imagine trees, leaves, and bushes. Therefore readers know that the speaker is alone without any road signs or knowledge of any direction on which road to take. The “yellow wood”(1) means that its somewhere in the fall when the leaves are changing colors. The “yellow” brings out a beautiful image of the autumn to readers. The “yellow wood” means there is a continuous decision one makes in li...
This is because of its inviting appearance and appealing composition. Its location stood out to me as provoking as it was obvious that the mural was dedicated to an artist, while being ironically painted on the side of a radio station. Right across from the street is Stella’s restaurant, giving the open concept windows an incredible view of the expansive mural. This location encourages people to appreciate Johnston’s piece and promotes conversation of our culture while submerging themselves in simple activities like having lunch with friends. Johnston’s technique is remarkable as homage to Neil Young and Manitoba’s lake country is dominantly distinct by using strong colours. Homage to Young is differentiated by the painting style, where everything and everyone surrounding him is bathed in a warm atmosphere, stimulated by the campfire in the middle.The warm mood unites the characters portrayed while homage to the lakes is differentiated by the noticeably purple skies and visible horizon, being the only strong straight line depicted in the mural. Although the lake is smaller in comparison to the people, it stands out because of the more harmonious arrangement, being framed by branches and provides a less intense texture. Recognition of the mural’s creativity is attributed through Johnston’s use of technique and
Nature as imagery is a largely spread idea in most of Frosts poems. However he is not telling us about nature or trying to explain nature to us, rather, he is using it as a source of narrative to metaphorically position something else. This, we can deduce,...