Congratulations on receiving an Art History Honorable Mention/ Spring 2024 and best wishes ongoing to:
JULIA SIMON a Junior at The Parsons School of Design, NYC, NY
“I currently study Museum and Curatorial Studies, along with Integrated Design and Sound Design. I have combined all of those interest and for the past two years have been creating guided tours for my friends and family to navigate the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as more physical art such as mixed media paintings and sculpture. These projects are based around the idea of evaluating what my ideal museum experience looks like, and creating tools to bring it to life and share it with others. Specifically, this is seen in a more relaxed, fun, and humanized approach to audio content and tour composition, giving patrons a friend to guide them through the collection.”
Honorable Mention ESSAY: Compare and contrast the 2 paintings below:
At first glance, one might think these paintings are very similar. They both depict the same type of trees and are made in watercolor. Compositionally and stylistically, both artists provide more detail and structure to their objects in the foreground, such as trees and grass, than in the background. Both artists also attach their trees to an anchor of land, although it is clear the land is not the subject but rather the pedestal holding up the subject. Besides these similarities, the differences in these paintings are much more abundant. The overall style and method of painting for both artists are unique, along with their use of perspective, emphasis of details, and artistic principles to create dimension.
Fredric’s painting style and method seems to be color blocking with light washes of muted colors, followed up with fine details with more opaque colors. He is able to emphasize elements and details as a second step after first determining the composition.
Eileen’s painting style seems to be less systematic and more expressional. She included the same details in her recreation of the tree, however they are less bold than Fredric’s. They blend into the tree creating this organic, and dynamic close up of nature. While following the branches, at some point you eye looses them, allowing you to jump from branches to leaves creating dynamism. In Eileen’s painting, you get the sense that she is studying the tree and what makes it unique, rather than trying to replicate it perfectly.
The compositions of the paintings show that the artists’ were drawn to different elements. With Eileen’s painting, she focuses on one specific tree and how the light interacts with it. Fredric’s piece depicts the wider landscape, using multiple trees in the background and foreground as an anchoring point to add dimension. Fredric’s trees inform the larger landscape but do not act as a singular subject being studied in the same way Eileen’s piece does.
Fredric uses shapes and directionality to create dimension as well. The horizontal blocks of color in the background highlight the vertical trees inthe foreground running up the canvas and branching out into an organic, rounded silhouette. The sharpness, opacity, and detail of branches and dirt make it jump off the canvas compared to the background sky.
There are no identifiable shapes in Eileen’s sky which makes the definition of the trees that much clearer. Eileen mainly relies on color to create dimension in her piece. Both Eileen and Fredric use color to identify the focal point and create depth, yet in opposite patterns. Eileen’s subject is light over a darker background, while Fredric’s trees are darker over a lighter background.
Fredric’s background is horizontal washes of five colors, making up the grass, mountain, and sky. Besides the green grass, there is little variation within each horizontal layer that might indicate brush strokes. It is very solid and blended together seamlessly to create a gradient. While the trunk of the trees do not contrast the sky greatly, they do contrast the dirt ground in the foreground, and the brown sticks and leaves towards the top of the canvas give the impression of a clear forest silhouette.
In Eileen’s piece, the background is a solid shade of blue, yet creates dimension by adding in varying shades of blue, along with the same green, brown, and yellow seen in the trees for unity, although it is very subtle. It is easier to see her brush strokes, such as in the top right corner, which creates a more abstract and dynamic sky compared to Fredric’s. Instead of her colors being blocked and blended, she creates variation in color through layering these richer blue colors. The lightness of her tree and leaves shows a reflection of light, and asserts the tree as the subject because of how it boldly contrasts the sky.
Lastly, these use of color creates the setting and establishes time within the pieces. Eileen’s painting is set at night, while Fredric’s is set at sunrise or sunset. In his painting, you can tell from the scarcity of leaves on the trees, brown dirt in the foreground, and use of muted down and earth tones that tell it is autumn. Eileen’s tree has the same scarcity of leaves, however, her use of color against the background makes the greens and yelllows seem brighter, giving the painting a feeling of a spring night, rather than fall.tings offer a remarkable glimpse into the breathtaking beauty of nature.
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