Artwork Analysis Of Three Paintings Essay Example

The goal of this essay is to provide artwork analysis of three contemporary paintings such as Whitney’s Cold Moon Dancer, Sheehan’s I Never Planned to Have You Here, and Dugas’ Wake. These three works of art exemplifies the influences of modernism due to the fact that artists explored different artistic styles in order to portray their subjects from a different perspective. From that point, the resulting paintings were brave, bolder, and revolutionary in a sense that these works broke the traditional art forms of either ‘humanizing’ or illustrating realistic and religious figures. For instance, Whitney’s Cold Moon Dancer (see fig.1) painting did not focused on humanizing the character on her painting. The painting portrays the torso of a Native American Indian chieftain clad in ceremonial garb. The artist used the decorative feature of the lines. Various lines such as curved, straight, and the shapes formed by it portrayed the rich brocade of designs attached on to the traditional garment. The colors only remained in monotones of black and white due to the mezzotint painting; chiaroscuro was achieved by combining light and dark pigments together and strategically placing them on the areas of the body exposed on the light source. The muted black background compliments the highly decorative foreground. There is also an implied oblong shape starting from the neck down to the waist. Pattern repetition is clearly evident on the designs embroidered on the garment; for example, on the shoulders contained small triangular shapes of varying sizes arranged alternately. The first row on the topmost part shows rows of right triangles. The next row on the middle part has smaller equilateral triangles while the succeeding rows consists of repetition of bigger equilateral triangles going to different directions such in the case of the third, fourth, and fifth rows wherein the third illustrates triangles going to the left side; the triangles on the fourth goes to the right side and then the fifth repeats the same pattern of the third row. The sixth row also includes the same repetition of right triangles found on the topmost part of the shoulder patch. The artwork is symmetrical because the figure is located on the center and the designs are evenly distributed throughout the canvas.
Next artwork was Dugas’s Wake (see fig. 2) which is the richly decorated and colorful of all the paintings featured in this paper. The painting somehow a reminiscent of Van Gogh’s painting style characterized by smooth curvy swirls, relaxed lines, and the rich polychromatic contrasts of neon pigments. In this painting, the artist is trying to illustrate the chaos brought by the roaring fire that destroyed the entire village. The image is a cacophony of swirling lines and rich contrast of light and dark pigments of orange, navy blue, and white. The screen painting texture was smooth due to the transitions of the colors from light to dark pigments. The foreground and background has been utilized to emphasize the chaos of the surroundings. Furthermore, the figures still retain their abstractness especially the one figure of the man that is made up of swirly lines; although the contours of his body was indirectly drawn, the swirly lines emphasized the curves of the body. Implied lines were also used to portray the figures of the electric posts, the restless waves of the ocean, the foggy surroundings, the form of the house and the broken windows. Pigments contrast with each other and yet it suited the painting quite harmoniously because it illustrated the chaos brought by the fire amidst the stillness of the night; and the bright colors were used to depict that raging fire that consumed the whole scenery. There is a balance on the painting mainly because the images were distributed evenly onto the panel but no repetition of designs has ever occurred throughout the scenery. Chiaroscuro was successfully attained with the brilliant contrast of polychromatic pigments. The clear contrast of the pigments can be likened to Van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night which is a Post-Impressionist painting that combines both abstract and realistic images. In the case of Dugas’ Wake, this painting was a 21st century modern rendition of Van Gogh’s swirling style of sketch, relaxed, and dreamy; in a sense that the rest of the painting is often clouded within hazy white light which adds to subtle elegance and mysterious imagery.
Lastly, Sheehan’s I Never Planned to have you Here (see fig. 3) is semi-abstract linear illustration that is monochrome blue and white mixed media artwork featuring a pregnant woman clad in lingerie and sitting solemnly on her bed as if silently contemplating the situation she was in. What makes this artwork differ from the other paintings featured herein was the systematic way of sketching the figure through the use of guidelines. Looking closely onto the panel, one would see the faint and thin blue lines that illustrate the repeated figure of the woman from various angles; from the side, front, while at the back contains another small scale image of the seated woman viewed on the front. The images were only distributed on to the sides especially on the right panel which makes the work asymmetrical. The central panel is not utilized; the artist left the bottom panel blank and untouched by the pigments. Chiaroscuro was attained by shadowing of pigments. In other words, those parts of the body and the scenery exposed to the light have been light smears of blue ink to emphasize the depth and to create a three-dimensional perspective of the surroundings. In some cases such as the flooring for example, faint lines suggest that the artist somehow resorted to linear hatching and cross hatching to create more shadows of dark blue pigments.
On a final note, the three paintings mentioned previously embodies modernistic traits due to their improved styles and exploration of different methods in order to create an image that is both modern and blends with the Impressionist styles. These painting used artistic elements to make their imagery attractive and meaningful with conveying it directly to the audiences.
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