November 25th, 2005 by admin
Adding color, texture, adjusting composition for balance
At this point in the piece there is more color added to all the fields in the foreground, giving them more solidity and believability. The sky has been filled in using a gradient blue and some texture has been added to the strip of land behind.
This next phase of the piece has more color and texture added to the foreground hills and the shape of the green mountain in the rear has been altered slightly to make a nicer flow.
The main additional ingredient here is the additional shrubs and trees. It felt sparse as compared with the original scene and also seemed necessary for the aesthetic balance of the painting.
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Relevant Tags:aesthetic appreciation, aesthetic balance, art, Art Appreciation, Art Development, color, composition, negative space, subject, texture
October 4th, 2005 by admin
Art, Ugly & Beautiful, Aesthetic Crossroads
One of the things I enjoy in viewing art, creating art, and interpreting the world - is the cusp between ugly and beauty. We take as common place the expression - " so ugly he’s cute" - but much of the world is the same way. So much so that people talk of beauty being in the eye of the beholder. I never cared for that expression much - because it tends to negate the realness of beauty. Plus as I have stated elsewhere, I believe that taste and perception of beauty are developed and change and grow over time.
It is interesting to note that in art - a little ugliness can make a piece work - note this snip-it of a review in the arts.telegraph how " both works slightly caricature their subjects, making them ugly and so undermining 19th-century conventions for depicting little girls as pretty, carefree creatures." The work of many artists who have been ahead of their time have been frequently viewed like this.
What is more interesting to me - is finding the beauty in something everyday which is considered ugly or that piece which seems to be both ugly and beautiful at the same time. These are not necessarily pieces I would want to live with, but nevertheless find the crossroads fascinating.
I think like much of life, if you are looking for one thing you might find it by looking for what it isn’t. Beauty can be found where there is ugliness, because it stands out. That beauty and ugliness are opposites is clear, but that they actually point to each other is a bit less obvious.
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Relevant Tags:aesthetic, aesthetic appreciation, art, beauty, development, Taste, ugly
September 1st, 2005 by admin
Taste, Development, & Patterns for Appreciation
The question of why something is found beautiful or appeals to us is one that has been asked continually. If one had the secret, could one always create things which appeal? Are there even creations which are universally considered beautiful?
The closest we might find to universal beauty, I suppose, would be found in nature. I am not sure if anyone would question the beauty in a glorious sunset, but even that is not 100% certain.
What I have observed - is that each of us brings our experience at viewing, hearing, tasting etc. into each new experience. Pieces of music which I originally found foreign as well as certain art when first viewed have become familiar over time and quite welcome. It is as though we are being asked to learn a new language when our experience is being challenged.
The point of this is not that we must learn to like things we don’t, but rather that appreciation and taste are developed. The most obvious example of how taste changes, would be how a child’s taste differs from that of the same individual as an adult.
At any level of appreciation, what seems to be the pattern for whether one likes something - is that it must be enough like what has come before to be somewhat familiar, but enough different and new to be stimulating.
I suppose the real test of such beauty is whether it can continue to be stimulating over time.
Relevant Tags:aesthetic appreciation, appreciation, beautiful, development, Taste
