Oil Painting 2: Abstracted Landscape
This assignment was to paint a landscape from your imagination. My mind went to Steampunk landscapes floating in the sky. That's where my mind goes when I think of unusual landscapes. But we couldn't use anything recognizable so I kept the concept of floating chunks in the sky. I wanted to play with color as I usually tend toward monochromatic or analogous color palettes. I chose orange-red, purple-red, and blue-green. I was not familiar with working with this color palette so I chose a neutral variety of grays to make the rounded shapes on top of the cones of earth floating in the sky. I bought silver iridescent oil paint and included it on the rounded gray shapes to add dimension and interest and bring your attention to the tops of the shapes, away from the verticle of the orange and the canvas as a whole. I was inspired by the art of Dr. Seuess and the art of Christina Shurtz. Dr. Seuess' personal artwork and his public artwork are both phenomenal when it comes to imaginary landscapes. I loved the shapes that Shurtz creates in her landscapes. They reference mountains. Mine are gray so they look like big boulders sitting on top of these Steampunk sky scapes. I chose to add texture in horizontal lines to juxtapose the very long and narrow canvas and skyscape. I created depth through repetition, size, and placement of the skyscapes. The one closest to you is larger while the others get smaller the further away up the canvas they are positioned. Overall, I don't really like this color pallette but I was trying something outside my comfort zone and learned from it. Don't be afraid of color!
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Dr. Seuss' artwork.jpeg)
Steampunk Landscape.jpeg)
Christina Shurtz