Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

Fishing Village in Winter Time
Walter Moras

When I look at this painting, I see a sleepy village in a beautiful landscape. When I look closer, I also see Moras’ excellent use of composition, line, color and light to build his painting. Moras was a German landscapist who specialized in realist winter scenes, although his work became more impressionistic in his later career. From what I’ve seen, his art is peaceful and quiet, focusing on nature and its beauty. People are rare in his works. When they do appear, their presence is small or inconsequential. I find this feature attractive; it lets me focus on the exquisite details of nature more and get lost in the setting and details.

There are two focal points in Fishing Village in Winter Time — the sun and perspective’s vanishing point. Located above and to the left of visual center, the sun draws my eye. It was the first thing I noticed. In a painting that has a dark, neutral color scheme, the bright gold radiates. But notice how the sun is not actually seen. A cloud covers it and produces these pretty sunrays. Instead, the cloud glows. It’s quite lovely. The gold light tints the whites and greys of the snow-covered landscape and provides a slight warmth — but only slight. The cloud cover keeps the light dimmed and the temperature low. It is still winter, after all. A bright yellow fireball in the center of the work would throw everything off here.

The vanishing point, the second focal point, is located on the horizon just left of the mast of the sailboat. I like how Moras placed the vanishing point so far left within the composition. To me, it shifts everything rightward. It creates interesting framing and dramatic lines and angles. The arrangement of the houses seems more scattered. For a quiet piece like this, it makes it more interesting to look at.

The horizon line divides the work into almost equal halves, but the lower half looks larger. I think this might be because it has more “stuff”. The sky is big. It has light and clouds, and a flock of birds in flight add energy. But the earth has a lot more: ice and snow, buildings and people, and a harbor with boats. As minimalized as human activity is here, there’s still things happening. Three males are preparing a boat in the foreground. A woman walks with a child in the left middle ground. Boats sail in the water on the extreme left. None of these are dramatic or dynamic, but they are still alive.

The large area of grey, black and white also outweighs the gold in the sky. The golden tint in the snow adds to it. Notice the small patch of reflected sunlight in the water next to the boat being prepared by the three men. It sparkles in the ripples. To me, while the sunlight in the sky is larger, it is also airy, transparent, and spread out. The light in the water is concentrated. It's one bright glow surrounded by solid, heavy greys. I think it makes the blacks and greys stand out more, weighing down the lower half.

By painting a winter scene, Moras uses few colors: black, white, and yellow. This creates some interesting challenges. Black and white provide contrast while grey fills in the details, but this can be drab and boring. The yellow adds warmth. In your mind, change this to a night scene. Notice how moonlight alters the mood and temperature. This work becomes all grey with a silvery highlight. It becomes colder and bleaker. I think the small dose of gold brightens the mood like it does the sky. It’s just enough. It changes a dreary landscape into something quite lovely.

posted by Open Blogger at 09:30 AM

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