Artists draw inspiration from many factors, one of the main one being culture. Just as we can tell if a painting is abstract or realistic, we can also tell if it is a Chinese or Western or Aboriginal artwork. Some artists apply more than one cultural feature in their artwork to achieve interesting effects; this essay will examine how two landscape artists used this method in their art making. The first artist is Margaret Preston who incorporated Aboriginal features in her art and the second artist is Claude Monet who incorporated Japanese feature into his art.
Claude Monet born on the 14th of November 1840 was a French painter; he was one of the first impressionists and contributed greatly to the growth of impressionism. Impressionism is an art style which uses vibrant colour compared to gloomy brown common in realistic Western painting to . These vibrant colours are painted in small but visible brush stroke that when looked at from far away blends together creating a unique effect.
Monet’s love for Japanese art is clear as his house was decorated with 231 Japanese prints at the time of his death, selected from the best masters. The type of prints that attracted Monet was largely old fashioned, colourful works that do not follow the rules of realism; this style of art has many similar concepts to impressionism but has a very different visual approach which may be why Monet was so interested in them. In fact, amongst the masters that Monet collected art from, one was Hiroshige whom Pissaro described as a great impressionist. As well as collecting them, Monet also drew inspiration from Japanese art, creating ‘Madame Monet’ and the Japanese bridge series.
The Essay on The Art of Japanese Food
A Hindu saying goes “a man is what he eats. Not only is his bodily substance created out of food, but so is his moral disposition” (Ohnuki-Tierney 3). Indeed, food has no longer been considered as a means to acquire energy and fuel for the body. Many anthropologists, sociologists and historians have begun to view food as a reflection of one’s culture. This is because the preparation, cooking, ...
‘Waterlilies pond’ is the name of this version of the Japanese bridge series. Like many Japanese artwork, ‘Waterlilies pond’s main subject is Japanese style arch bridge although he did not include any figures unlike most Asian bridge artwork. Compared to Monet’s other bridge artwork, ‘Waterlilies pond’ has a cooler colour theme, including very few warm spot; also Monet chose to draw from a perspective where more of the bridge can be seen. The painting is done in Monet’s trade mark dot style which in his own words means that any area or detail in the artwork comprises of at least two colours juxtaposed side by side, usually a bright primary and a secondary colour. The painting was done with oil on canvas in 1899.
From a personal point of view, this is a well painted painting and I find that it attracts my attention longer than most scenery artwork. As expected of a good impressionist painting, the artwork does not only convey a combination of shapes and colour but also evoke strong feeling in the viewers. In my case, the cool colour theme makes me relax and at times, I would lose attention on shapes and form and only see the colours; I feel that the painting style is not too abstract that I can’t appreciate the artwork but enough so that there is still room for the artist’s creativity to come through. Finally, the combination of Asian scenery and a Western painting is very interesting in my opinion as it quite seldom happen. Overall for me, there is much to like and little to dislike about this painting.
Margaret Preston, born 1875 was one of Australia’s most successful artists and most well known for her modernist work. As she said herself, ‘when is a work modern?’ Preston was not afraid to experiment and went through many changes of style during her career. Preston produced her most famous works towards the end of her career. During this period, Preston started to paint more landscape work where as she primarily did still life before. Preston’s work became more abstract, every lines was painted with thick, black brush stroke creating great contrast between the lines and the bright earthy colours consisted of mostly brown, yellow, red and white. By 1953, Preston’s landform in many of her painting became almost unrecognizable, and some were entirely abstract.
The Essay on Painting Styles 2
Neoclassicism, Impressionism and Abstract Expression all have their own style. Each is from a different era and reflect on different subjects. Neoclassicism was part of the European art movement during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The inspiration for this movement comes from thr classical art and culture of ancient Greece or ancient Rome. Neoclassic Artwork is very unemotional. In this ...
Australian Indigenous art was the style influenced the last decade of Preston’s career. The practice of Indigenous art being recorded as far as thirty thousand years back when the only mean to get colour was by using crushed rocks and mud. These earthy colours are still used today in modern day Indigenous art in the form of thick dots and lines. Often Indigenous artists don’t represent things in their painting the way we see them but through symbols and patterns, for example, ‘w’ shapes may represent footprints. Preston openly expressed her fondness of Indigenous paintings and applied many of their concepts into her own works. However she also stated that her usage of pattern and symbols were sometimes only means of decoration and did not contain any meaning. This raised bad critiques from some Indigenous critics, saying Preston ‘still has a way to go’.
‘A mile out of Alice Springs’ is an example of Preston’s later works. This drawing shows an arid landscape with some trees and bushes in the foreground and rocky hills in the background. In this drawing, we see Preston was under the influence of Indigenous art as her representation of the landform had become quite abstract and the dry medium she used makes the artwork feel more earthy. However Preston had not made a full transition in to Indigenous style at this point, still retaining some Western element in her drawing. For example, her colour palette still lacked some primary Indigenous colours such as white and red and included some non Indigenous colours such as blue green and purple. It is likely that Preston drew some inspiration also from stain glass artworks on church windows as thick outlines and bright colours such as purple and yellow are also frequently used in that art style. The drawing was done with colour stencil, printed on thin black card with gouache in 1949.
From a personal viewpoint, ‘A mile from Alice Spring’ is a great artwork. I particularly liked the grainy medium that Preston used and how she used them, especially on the sky in the background. Also very interesting I found was Preston’s art style here which was both Western and Indigenous and created a unique effect. Looking at the drawing, I feel a bit of sadness, most likely from Preston’s heavy use of black and brown in the brown, however there are also positive emotions from the exciting colours of the hills. If there is anything I would change about this drawing it would be to have a few highlight of white in the foreground or to have a more diverse tone of the colours that are already there; however this is not a negative critique from me, only something I would like to see.
Baroque Essay Art Painting Style
The Baroque Period was the age of reason when minds and imaginations opened up new worlds of scientific knowledge as well as artistic creativity. (Fleming, 375) The Baroque era was a period of grandeur and magnificence that gave off a powerful awe inspiring style that was full of flamboyant concepts and overall dramatic quality. From Venice, as well as from Rome and the centers where international ...
Using more than one cultural style can add more value to an artist’s work and make it unique, however it is not an easy practice as there is more room for flaws and negative critiques. Margaret Preston and Claude Monet are two examples of artists who have successfully employ this practice in their art. Through hard work, patience, skill and most importantly, their passion for art, these two artist have truly became household names in the art community.
