Image Essay # 13

This is a painting my Gabhan O'Keeffe, an interior designer. There are many things I like about this picture of a dining area. The first thing I noticed were all of the colors. It seems to me that the color scheme is analogous, or three colors that are close to each other on the color wheel. The three colors that make up this analogous color scheme are red, yellow and orange. The red hue I feel is the most dominant. Even though red is used as an accent color, it really makes a statement. Red is also used on the back wall, as over sized vases. The color red also used to bring in drama into the room. By using such a bold hue of red is risky but makes the room dramatic. When red fabric is used on furniture, especially chairs, it gives the person who is sitting in it a sense of royalty.

I also think that the orange color that is used on the carpet sets as a good background to the rest of the room. I think that the orange carpet also warms up the space and makes everything feel warm. The other color that adds interest to the room is the hue yellow. The yellow in the red vases really makes the back wall pop. By using all of these combinations of texture gives the space life. By life I mean a feeling that it is a lively environment, where people gather to eat and talk about past times.

Image essay # 12

This picutre was drawn by the artist Eric Fischl. Most of this artists' work are becoming of age stories. This picture is of a man and a woman in the bedroom with little or no clothes on or even appearing to be getting dressed. When I looked at this picture many things ran threw my mind. At first it just looks like a nornal every day picture, like one you would shoot from a camera. Then as I was doing some background on this painting I found that this painting was part of a series. The was the third painting and was called Bedroom Scene #3 . This series of work was showing the "fantasy" of two people becoming intimate with each other. Each painting showed a different scene, and by looking at each picture by it self it let the imagination fill in the gaps as to what was going on, but with the pictures all together, the viewer could put together the entire story.

I also noticed that in this painting there was a complimentary color scheme going on; with the red and green. I thought it was very surprising and risky to but such chromatic colors in the background. Usually colors that bold are placed in the foreground wanting to jump off the page. Also, the white is very vibrant in this picture and I feel it adds a lot of depth to the painting. It looks like the bright early morning sunshine, or even the bring moonlight is coming through the window illuminating the back of the painting. I like this risk and I think it works very well!

Image Essay # 11

This is a painting by Hans Hoffman. In class we briefly talked about this artist, and after I saw a few of his works I wanted to look at more. This picture caught my eye for a few reasons. The first reason this painting caught my eye was because of the very bright colors, the very chromatic blues and reds. Some of the colors seem to want to jump off the page and hit you in the face. Also the colors blue, red and yellow create a triadic color scheme, which means these three colors are equidistant from each other on the color wheel. Also in this painting I liked how some of the colors seemed to pop out and yet other colors seems to recess and fall back. This is because the very bright chromatic colors pop out of the page. The more dull colors such as the pale blues and the pale yellows seem to recess and not have as much of an impact as the more vibrant colors. Because some colors are more vibrant than others it gives a great amount of depth to the painting. If all of the colors were the same vibrancy then the painting would look very flat and not have much dimension to it at all. This is a very exciting painting to look at because of these bright colors and the way they are juxtaposed on the page. Also, all colors look different when they are placed next to other colors. I was trying to imagine what this painting would look like if the red block of paint were juxtaposed against different colors.

Image Essay # 10

This is a paining done by Lucian Freud. As I was looking through other pieces of his art work I noticed that he mostly paints people. Also, in most of his works the people that he paints are usually naked and are positioned in what would seem like an uncomfortable position. This painting are also painted uses very bland colors, such as brown and burnt oranges, giving the picture a feeling of disgust or something unpleasant to look at. When I came across this piece I was a little surprised. First of all the man in this picture is wearing clothing and was not positioned in an uncomfortable position. The second thing that caught my attention was the colors that were used in this painting. Freud uses varying shades and tints of blue, this gives the painting depth. Another feature in this painting that also grabbed my attention was that the face did not seem to be in pain. Although, in this painting the mans face looks depressed, he does not look like he is in pain. I also like this picture because the person seems to show affection towards the dog, also showing something different that his other works.

I picked this painting because when we were looking at his works in class I did not fully understand the concept of his paintings. As I looked through more and more painting on my own time I began to see a "trend" in his art work and this painting seemed to me that it went "against the grain".

Blog Entry # 5

The Interior Designer Gahban O' Keeffe uses very simple but elegant design. In his work he uses a lot of natural materials, which is healthy for our environment. For example, if he uses bamboo for a furniture piece this is much more resourceful than oak, since bamboo is able to reproduce itself in such a short amount of time. He also spends a lot of time on detail and making things look extravagant. For example, in this picture the canopy that comes over the bed makes the bed look "rich" or more expensive that it would with out it. O' Keeffe also uses many different kinds of fabrics in his work. Sometimes he uses fabric in places that a non interior designer would think. In the second picture we see that he uses fabric on the walls. The walls are covered in leather and gives unique texture to the room. What impresses me most about O' Keeffe is that he can mix and match different styles and make them all come together in a room. Usually people would stick with only style like country or contemporary and decorate accordingly. In the third picture there is an example of this. The back wall is very contemporary with the square blocks, and the red arm chairs are more formal or old word style. This interior designer uses dominance in a unique but sensible way. He seems to have one focus point in a room and tries to make that point stand out as much as possible. For instance, in the fourth picture the dominant object is the bathtub. Even tho the tub is not big or close to us in the picture it is outlined by panels of fabric. O' Keeffe addressed human form in an unusual way. In most of his rooms his the elements are very tall, whether it be fabric or window treatments. You would tend to think that one may be intimidated by this but this designer also has things at a human level. For example, the bed in the first picture has a very big canopy, but the things that surround the bed are normal height for humans. After looking at his work I have been realized that you can mix and match many different kinds of style and use fabrics in a different way and the design will still look complete. The color that O' Keeffee uses are earth tones. He uses a lot of greens and beige and a few colors that stand out and make the other colors "pop". I like this idea because not every color takes over, but there are a few small pops of color that add great interest to a room. In the last picture you notice that the walls are a golden color, along with the couch, and in the middle of the room there is a red ottoman with oranges. This really makes everything pop and stand out.

Image Essay # 9

Recently in class we have been talking about a childhood memory. This is a picture of a boy who is maybe playing baseball with his dad for the first time. He maybe feeling a variety of emotions. He may be excited because he is learning how to play a new sport, he may also be sacred because the ball is coming towards him. Also with this project we have been talking about using multiple elements that we have already learned and incorporate them in the picture as well. One of the very first things we talked about in class was dominance. In this picture the dominate object was the baseball bat. Also we talked about foreground, middle ground, and background. The foreground in this picture is multiple things. First off the boy with his bat, secondly the baseball, and then the boys father. In the middle ground you see either the boys mother or possibly his older sister. Since she is in the middle ground she is blurry and cannot see her as well, and the details and the textures are not as dominate. In the background we see the trees and bushes. These too are blurred, more so than the women in the middle ground. You can see that the background is trees and bushes but you cannot pick out each leaf or each branch on the trees. I think this is a very good example of all of the things we are talking about this week.

Image Essay # 8

This is an example of figure ground reversal. Figure ground reversal is when a visual illusion where perception alternates between two possibilities. A pair of shapes, either of which taken alone would be seen as an object of some kind, share a common border-line. What happens then is when joined, each shape competes with the other. I think this picture is a very good example of this. The first thing I notice when I looked at this picture is that there were a bunch of swans juxtaposed in a circular motion. Then I looked again I noticed that between the swans in the front that the black color is actually another shape of a swan. This also goes with the idea of Gestalt. When we first look at this picture we want to know what is going on and make sense of it. This picture also contains many principles of gestalt, such as containment as seen with all of the swans flying in a circle. It also has repetition because the entire image is made of the same type of bird, swans. And lastly continuity as seen by a fluid connection between all of the parts in the composition. I like the fact that an artist can use multiple aspects of art in one piece and still create something that is relaxing to look at makes sense. One may think that if an artist was to use multiple techniques that a picture would be confusing and uneasy to look at.