Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

Snow
Ella E. See

This is one of those works whose subject matter perfectly fits the style in which it was painted. Pointillism works great here and the spots of pigment mimic the real world scene. The snow falls in large, wet flakes. The evening sun shines on and reflects off them, mixing a very pale yellow and pink in with the cold, pale blue and white. Complementary colors that shimmer and sparkle against each other and paint that is applied in irregular and random daubs make the painting move. I see the flakes fall to earth, thick enough to veil the cityscape in the background.

In the lower half, people walk through the heavy snowfall. It has only just begun as the street, sidewalk, trees, and buildings are still bare. Some people walk, some run. Their quick actions balance the slow, lazy motion of the snow. I like the contrasting movement within this piece. The snow moves in a slow, calm, quiet vertical while the people move in a quick horizontal full of hustle and bustle. The traits of the snow win out, though. The large blue/pink screen of snow muffles the sounds of the city. Anyone who lives in regions where it snows regularly understands how think snow can deaden sound. Sometimes, it’s an eerie sensation.

At the extreme bottom, See has added deep reds to contrast the blues and pinks to define the human figures. These figures are small and few, however. They contrast enough so they can be seen but not so much to take away from the overall scene. The use of red continues upward in the composition to outline the fence and posts. From bottom to top, the use of red is less and less. Red is a strong color. Too much would overpower these lighter, paler hues. Putting the red at the bottom anchors this light work, and outlining the fence with small strokes of red keep the color of the figures from looking out of place.

I like how the ascending vertical of the corner wall post and the descending trees meet in the visual middle of the work. They allow the two contrasting halves to overlap and lock together like puzzle pieces. This painting is not disjointed or piecemeal. Although the pointillist style can make a work look patchy, here, a simple palette, repetition of color, and interlocking forms sew the work together creating one whole work of art.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:30 AM

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