What's New

visual clues, size, depth, shadows, and pizazz

The trees and shrubs have now been defined better and the fields in front now have a deeper color with some more imaginative tones in the green fields - perhaps hidden in normal viewing, perhaps imagined - such as we might have seen from Van Gogh, Cezanne, or Monet to name a few.

This is the last image before the final finished piece.  A number of things have been added to give the piece more of the "mmph" I was looking for and more of the sense of space.

First off, there is a tractor added. Its size gives the mountains and everything else a greater sense of space and grandeur. There is also a rather large shadowed area in the crease of the hills as well as the forefront of the left hill. My feeling is that this creates some movement within what is generally a pretty peaceful and still scene. The shadow enhances the depth and promotes eye movement around the piece.

See Also

• Alazraki Fine Art
  Quick and excellent example of imaginative color tones
• Ohio State University Theatre: Art Through Technology
  Interesting aside on how different color tones and textures evoke different moods
• Vincent Van Gogh Gallery
  See many works by the master
• Cezanne Gallery - Mont-Saint_Victoire
  Wesleyan College Teaching Gallery - works 1885-87
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  Ask excellent collection of Monet, online as well - leads to painting search

Impact and the need to create

Continuing with the theme of how art is created. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to show a work just created - "Spinach Harvest". Pieces on the blog won’t necessarily appear for purchase immediately on the website, but are being offered as something fresh and hopefully insightful. 

Surrounding my home are agriculture fields. Next door they are harvesting spinach. When I first looked, I noticed that the crew was on its knees in the wet fields bunching as they harvested. I thought about day in and day out harvesting spinach and what that must be like. The workers were energetic, goal oriented, quick and seemingly tireless 10 hours later.

The piece was time consuming to create, with all the workers, spinach, and details which I wanted to be right;  but only appropriate for such a subject. To be successful, I needed to create something beautiful, dignified, and a little difficult to watch. Our food supply requires real people working long hours generally unnoticed.

From an artistic perspective, I am not sure who this might come from, I choose to think it is original.  Although, there are undoubtedly many influences, I am including this piece by Claude Monet from the Museum of Modern Art as an example of use of multiple colors in mountains.

The truth is art comes from many places too numerous to choose from, but sometimes it tries to communicate something more than just seeing.

See Also

• Every Worker an Organizer, Part 1
  Photography and stories of farm workers by David Bacon
• The Farm Workers Website
  Education in the life of the farm worker
• The Daily Texan - Focus -César Chávez - migrant farmer to movent leader
  Some history in current news of César Chávez and the UFW