Title: luz para mis flores
Size: 60 cm x 60 cm
Medium: acrylic
Date: summer 2018
This piece was inspired my Paul Gauguin, specifically his use of expressive colors and his cultural references. The calla lily is often a symbolism of growth and through that the theme of this piece is how I thrive on gaining more about my culture and family. I used different tones of yellow to illustrate the mood of happiness. Also for the most part I used colors that overall blended together in the same way that Paul Gauguin does in number of his pieces.
Inspiration
After Paul Gauguin began to stray away from western artistic forms he adopted a new style in which his devotion was on synthetism and simplifying sensory factors to their basic fundamentals. Within his artwork one of paul gauguin’s most prominent factors within his works is his use of color in terms of how he utilized them for their emotive qualities. Paul Gauguin usually used analogous colors to produce muted affects. His colors seemingly blended together with the exception of his primary colors in which he would intentionally assure that they would stand out with bright tones. In all aspects of his art he would innovate and his techniques evolved in different ways throughout his career. Eventually his prime painting technique settled on him applying his paints through broad brushstrokes and his finished figures were often finalized with a bold dark colored outline which served to develop seemingly abstract and flattened forms. He implemented large forms to develop emphasis and he used valiant lines in order to create contour.
In the process of moving away from Impressionism he developed an admiration for traditionally odd factors of nature. For he saw nature’s beauty in another angle that was not its literal and final form but rather it’s act of creation. For this piece I want to emulate this component of Paul gauguin's work by utilizing non traditional colors for nature to develop of a dream like state. For for this piece I wanted to use his technique of layering colors on top one another while using thick bold brush strokes. Another element of his style that I wanted to utilize is his tendency to complete the figure with a bold typically dark blue outline around the figure to further flatten its demension. In terms of color, I want to replicate his tendency to use an emotive color pallet. Gauguin usually used bright primary colors but for this piece I want to use warm colors more specifically yellows and oranges. |
planning
The first sketch consisted of a figure in the center. At first the intention was to have the figure appear content and only the upper half of the figure would be shown. However after thinking over it I realized that the pose did not appear to be what I had wanted and instead looked as if the figure was bored. Also in comparison to the work and composition of Paul Gauguin I realized that only having the upper half be viable would not correlate along with the the full body painting that Paul Gauguin leans towards. Also since I initially wanted the calla lilies to be growing from the ground, only showing half of the fire would cut off the bottom where the calla lilies were to be placed. In the end I decided against this sketch
The second sketch includes a similar composition to the first sketch where I had the figure sitting down and only half of the figure was showing. But as stated previously, When I compared the sketch with the work of Paul Gauguin I realized that only having the upper half be viable would not correlate along with the the full body painting that Paul Gauguin leans towards. Also since I initially wanted the calla lilies to be growing from the ground, only showing half of the fire would cut off the bottom where the calla lilies were to be placed.
The final sketch included a the appearance of the whole figure which would make it easy to place the calla lilies and have them be visible on the ground. With this sketch my plan was to have sun beams come down onto the flowers, especially on the flower being held on the hand to create emphasis to the flower since the calla lily was essentially one of the primary components to the piece to show my theme.
process and experimentation
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reflection
The result of this piece has be please for the most part all due to how I believe that when it came to applying Paul gauguin's technique I have fulfilled it appropriately within my own work. His emotive use of colors is another factor that I I see in my piece that I have successfully implemented. Despite these successes i see that there are still blemishes and there is room for mending. This flaws can be seen in how I did not fully succeed in using colors beyond a normal landscape and limited myself too much within my color pallet.