Project Two
De Soto in Fall
61cm x 81cm Acrylic on wood board September and October 2021 Almost every fall I visit my uncle in De Soto, WI, with many rolling hills and warm colors. I wanted to capture and express the calm and relaxing feeling I get when seeing the landscape in paint. I was inspired by Monet's impressionist paintings of vast landscapes, where the scenes are tranquil and soft. I applied the impressionistic style with acrylic on a wood board to show a tranquil fall day of my memory. |
Inspiration
Low Tide at Pourville, near Dieppe (1882) by Claude Monet
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I was inspired by Monet and his tranquil landscapes. On the left is his painting Low Tide at Pourville, near Dieppe, here he uses his famed impressionistic styling of brush strokes and color. There is a softness to the work that is achieved by the light hues and the similarity between the them. There is a consistent feeling given off by the whole work due to the hues and the repetition of them. Here the composition is asymmetrical and a heavy emphasis on the layered land formations. This layering of the different grounds and things is the far distance. This is very interesting to me as there is just a little bit of definition between the layers where they blend together slightly, but the difference is this there.
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Another one of Monet's work that inspired me was La Corniche near Manaco. Here the hazy hills in the background take up most of the space and has vague rocky cliffs. This is contrasted by the heavily vibrant and detailed vegetation. There is at least 4 layers to this art that give many perspectives and definition to the work: the foreground (the road with vegetation), the midground (the closer rock formations), the background (the hills) and the backgrounds behind that (smaller hills behind the main one). Similarly to the other painting there is a consistency in the hues, behind the foreground, which are soft and cool. There is also asymmetry created with the land forms and their layering. This had inspired me to showcase lots of layering in my as it is seen in De Soto. I also saw the rocky cliffs, similar to the ones on the sides of large rolling hills in Wisconsin. |
La Corniche near Monaco (1884) by Claude Monet.
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Planning
I started with my wood board an from ideas of what to paint after that. I have been wanting to use this board I had for awhile, so I decided to use it for a painting exposing the wood in some way. I originally was thinking of doing a portrait, but that defeated the purpose of of using the board, as I would have no way to show the wood texture efficiently. I also had the idea to possibly do some animals, but decided against it to instead paint a landscape. After finding my inspiration of Monet's landscapes, I wanted to do something that made me happy or calm. I thought of Bob Ross and his paintings, but I have no personal connection to mountain as I have never seen any.
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Experimentation
As this was my first time painting on wood, I wanted to first test what would work out the best: painting straight on the wood board or painting over Gesso. I did this by layering different amount of Gesso on the back of my board: none, one layer, two layer, and three layers. I decided that no gesso was the best. While the three layers of gesso would look more consistent and give a base layer to the painting, I like the inconsistent look to the painting. Without gesso you can see the texture of wood beneath the paint, which adds another layer to the texture I am already making.
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I also tried hue matching with the base color of the wood. I did this to get texture on the exposed wood on the rocks. I left areas unpainted so the rocks would be given texture by the wood grain already. To add onto that I created a base hue that match with the wood, this was so I could create shades and tones from the base color to give depth to the rocks. The matching was harder than I originally thought, as there is many different tones and shades within the wood itself.
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Process
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After finalizing my composition I taped of the area where I wanted the rocks to be. This is where I did not want paint and did want the natural texture of the wood to come through. I then started painting the most distant hill. I originally just painted it with a dark green trying to illustrate ever greens, but I then added some more warm hues so it would look more like a fall landscape. Then with the next hill I added my detail by layering with a dark green first then different warm hues for the changing leaves. After that I then did the sky, this was not planned, as I intended to do the sky first so I did not mess up the hills I painted, but I fixed it by adding more trees to both of the hills over the sky layer. |
After that, I continued on to the next closest hill, once again with the base layer of green then the warmer hues after. I then painted one of the rock formations, utilizing the wood texture already there and the base hue I made prior. I then painted on a shore line and the river, leaving spaces for the islands. As I have never painted water before, I wanted to show the direction of the current and how it looks rapid but still at the same time. I added the islands and then the base for the closest hill, taking the tape off as I go.
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I continued on adding bushes and grass in the closest hill, creating the most detail in those to show depth. Next I continued with add detail in the background with thin dark brown lines for tree branches and lighter lines over that for highlights of the beaches. When I did this that is when I started to see the work come to life and I saw De Soto. I then did the large tilted evergreen that reminds me of the trees around my uncle's house with their irregular forms. I the final thing I did was add some shading to the bare wood where the rocks are. |
Reflection
In this piece I really wanted to capture what a Wisconsin fall looks and feels to me. This is a work I felt I had to do justice to and make it realistic to an extent. As this was the largest landscape painting I have done, it was hard at times to get everything in proportion to the perspective. I also think I could have taken more of an impressionistic approach on the painting overall, as it has only some impressionism elements and looks very realistic. Although I took inspiration from both Monet's technique and composition, I did little to incorporate the technique. If I was to do this again, I would definitely take a different approach to the style. I think I a good job of proportion throughout the work, and keep it consistent.
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Critique
Similarities:
-To me these works are both very calming, Monet's and the soft color palette and mine with it's warm comforting hues. -Both are landscape paintings that utilize layering of land to show depth, and have a fairly close foreground. -There is a slight similarity in style with the use of many brush strokes in both works, along with using the paint to show flow and direction. Differences: -The composition of both works are very different, in my own work there is not a side that holds more weight and objects take up the whole space, unlike Monet's, which is clearly asymmetrical and leave much open space for the work to breathe. -The contrasting color palette is also a difference, with mine being relatively warm and Monet's being mostly cold with the water and the large hill in the back. -There is a different tone to the work based on the location and style. With Monet's there is a lighter feel to it with the hues, while mine comes off as more harsh with the rich deep hues and more realism. |
La Corniche near Monaco (1884) by Claude Monet.
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ACT Responses
1) Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
I was inspired by Monet's work and used his composition and style as a starting point for my own ideas. 2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration? There was a positive, informative approach to teach. 3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration? Monet is a very well known artist that is beloved around the world for his captures of nature and people in paint. 4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research? I wanted to find work that reminded me of De Soto. 5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research? I concluded that Monet had a very advanced understanding of composition and technique that allowed to him paint landscapes. |
Bibliography
The Cleveland Museum of Art (n.d). “Low Tide at Pourville, near Dieppe (1882) by Claude Monet, Sea, and Oil Painting.” Rawpixel. https://www.rawpixel.com/image/930541/low-tide-pourville-near-dieppe-monet.
The Cleveland Museum of Art (n.d). “La Corniche near Manaco (1884) by Claude Monet, mountains vintage, and Oil Painting.” Rawpixel. https://www.rawpixel.com/image/547239/monet-landscape-painting-wall-art |