For our final project of the class we did a mixed media painting inspired by Luke Miller Buchanan. The place I chose for my painting was Joyner Service House on campus and the corner on which it is located. I really liked the lamppost and the fence and the beautiful bricks. For this painting we were supposed to work more all over the painting instead of painting and working on one section until perfected. In the third painting you will see some of that technique because I stained the areas without photos all at once instead of working on one area then moving to the next. It adds more fluidity to the piece. I enjoyed the technique since it was different from what we usually did. I went out and took lots of pictures of the house and surroundings from different angles and viewpoints. The key was to have some visual hiccups in the painting when we laid down the pictures and painted. Luke Miller Buchanan's work often has these visual hiccups and while at first glance it may almost look like a picture, on closer inspection his paintings have various things that make it obvious the piece is a mixed media 2-dimensional painting. While this painting is still in need of improvement I really like how my painting is turning out and I hope to finish the project when I return to school in the fall. I will post a final picture of the painting when I complete it!

Still Life-Mary Cassatt Inspired

In Painting we were assigned to paint a still life painting and incorporate an artist of our choosing by using that artist's style or color pallette, etc. I chose Mary Cassatt for my artist and I particually liked her color pallette and how often her painting were very upclose and cropped. The viewer was in the painting. To begin the project we took many photos of various objects set up together. Then we chose a photo and went to painting. I personally liked this project the best because my color pallette was very bright and the subject was interesting. It took some time for me to get used to using different colors for objects instead of their usual like a brown or black desk. I actually changed the color to a vibrant purple and it worked really well. In the end I think this painting came together really well! The first picture is the one I chose to paint.The next two paintings are by Mary Cassatt and were my inspiration.

Human Right to Water Painting Project

For our dirty/messy type of painting we were to choose a quote about identity or social justice and portray that quote through a painting. I chose the quote,"Access to safe water is a fundamental human need and therefore a basic human right." by Kofi Annan. I had done a project in my design class last semester that was about the same issue and I wanted to do more on the subject. I decided to find pictures of all of the people that are affected by having no clean water and these pictures became my background in the painting. I then covered them with a tan paint so it gives the illusion of a dry and parched surface. I found a beautiful picture of hands and used those and extended the arms slightly. The water took some time to perfect but eventually it felt right. I really enjoyed this painting!

Still Life Value Painting

This was our first project in Painting 1. The goals of this still life project were to paint the five objects that were on display from our perspective using only black and white. This is called a value painting. We were supposed to create a painting that had a feeling of a logical single light source and to bring a wholeness between the figure ground relationship. We did this by having at least 3 to 4 values in the painting and in the objects. We could only use black and white oil paints for this project and could not add any other objects or take any out. This project was a lot of fun and really a great learning experience when it comes to value range and an introduction to painting. Of course looking at my finished piece there are improvements I could still make. The shadow of the dark pot is slightly darker than needed and the background needs a little more solidity. Overall I am pretty happy with my final painting for this project.