Activity #7

Nature, like still life’s, can be taken for granted by some, as it is just stuff some people see everyday depending on where they live. But for many nature in is a gateway to a completely different place with every brushstroke on the canvas highlighting not only the landscape but the animals that inhabit it. The desire to portray landscapes is been matched by the desire to create them as visual delights. Also like a still life, nature is not only a subject, but the material for art. But unlike still life’s that some my find unimaginative because of its realism, the ability to take transfer a colossal landscape to a canvas can be breathtaking. My exhibition showcase’s the art in nature theme from the dynamic landscape, the ferociousness of nature’s wildlife, to the quaint scene depicted by an artist.

Trail Riders by Thomas Benton, fixates your eyes immediately to a glorious mountain peak amongst the clouds that is lightly colored than the rest of the mountain to show its height and dominance compared to the much darker ridges cascaded below it. Your eyes are lead down toward a body of water vanishing into the bottom of the mountain. In front of the water is a symmetrical semicircle of pine trees that leads to the riders on horseback which follows the title. The scene in this painting is very serene and relaxing. Another piece in the exhibition is Niagara Falls from the American Side. This one is contrary to Trail Riders as William Bennett shows nature’s liveliness through the Niagara Falls. Though the emphasis is placed on the energetic moving water, towards the bottom of the artwork a group in a canoe calmly row towards the shore as if the powerful flow of water isn’t close to them at all. The next three paintings show nature and its wildlife. All three have the most focal weight in the middle of the picture and multiple animals. Charles Raleigh’s Law of the Wild shows exactly as the title says, the law of the wild that the hunter kills the hunted as a sea lion is caught by a polar bear. The textures throughout the painting are very smooth. It’s almost as if the smirk-like grin on the polar bear shows it knows the sea lion has no chance to escape on the smooth, slippery ice. D.G. Stouter’s On Point and Right and Left by Winslow Homer both also show the law of nature that before stated law of nature but with human interaction. On Point shows a dog of the pointer breed which is a popular hunting dog, looking down at some birds that are possibly quail. The birds are repeated as they trail to the right but are scaled down towards the right to show they are chicks. Right and Left show has two ducks in the center just like the previous paintings with one to the right and one to the left as the title suggests. The two birds a just about the same with one rotated towards the water as if it was shot. The blue and white mixture on the water under the ducks shows where the shot was fired though it isn’t clear which one was shot because of expression and posture of the left duck. It is apparent that Homer showed the fragility of life in nature.

The artists in my exhibition illustrate many different aspects of nature. I found that art with this theme usually have titles that are exactly what is seen in the painting with the perfect example in my exhibition being Head of Cabbage with Insects by Rosenwald.