Tryptic
"Do My Feelings Make Scents?"
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 3 ft x 2 ft
February 2, 2017
Exhibition Text
Karen Armenta
Do My Feelings Make Scents?, 2017
Tryptic
In this tryptic piece, flowers are symbolizing who I am to myself, how the people around me see me, and what I want to be in my future. Specific flowers have specific meanings, and I wanted to bring out these symbols in my baroque painting. Inspired by still-lives of flowers by Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Ambrosius Bosschaert, and the Baroque period, my feelings are portrayed through the values each flower holds and focuses on the technique and message of self-identity.
Do My Feelings Make Scents?, 2017
Tryptic
In this tryptic piece, flowers are symbolizing who I am to myself, how the people around me see me, and what I want to be in my future. Specific flowers have specific meanings, and I wanted to bring out these symbols in my baroque painting. Inspired by still-lives of flowers by Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Ambrosius Bosschaert, and the Baroque period, my feelings are portrayed through the values each flower holds and focuses on the technique and message of self-identity.
Artistic Inspiration
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poppy_Flowers
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunflowers_(Van_Gogh_series)#/media/File:Vincent_Willem_van_Gogh_127.jpg
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http://artistsinspireartists.com/painting/paintings-flowers-flower-art
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http://www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?ID=114096
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I was first inspired to replicate one of Van Gogh's Sunflowers, and I was going to interpolate Baroque's technique into the piece. I am more attracted to paintings with blending and more of a realistic take on things in our daily lives. I knew early on that I wanted to include flowers in my tryptic piece but found it hard to come up with ideas as for how I was going to pull it off. I also wanted to practice more on blending and drew inspiration from many artists that were very fond of painting flowers so I could use as references. Soon enough, I found many other artists rather than Van Gogh that also painted sunflowers and bouquets of flowers that imitated the same technique that I wanted to emulate, like Claude Monet.
Van Gogh's Poppy Flowers seemed to fit more on what I wanted to accomplish with my piece, I wanted to draw inspiration from more realistic paintings and still see the technique and effort into the work of art. Poppy Flowers has a sense of texture that also captured my eye and its the effortless strokes that made it stand out from Van Gogh's other flower still-lives. Although the Impressionism movement wasn't an inspiration to me, I still used his still-lives as references.
Claude Monet was another example of who I drew inspiration from. His techniques were similar to what I wanted to emulate because of the sketchiness and messiness texture and mood he created within his pieces. It almost looks effortless, yet so realistic and that's what I tried to aim for. I was attracted by the symmetry and unity that his still-lives had. His use of shading was also a great feat and was something that made me want to improve based on his works.
Lastly, my inspiration was mainly centered around the works of Ambrosius Bosschaert. His exquisite and realistic paintings of flowers inspired me to get me practicing on the art of painting flowers. For me, flowers were always hard for me to work with and as much as I wanted to paint them, I avoided them because of how simple, yet complex they were. His art was dedicated to mastering floral paintings and its the technique that sets him apart from other artists. His baroque pieces inspired me to replicate much of his backgrounds and symbolism in my own piece.
Planning
I started off sketching things related to how I see myself. I knew from the beginning that the theme given to us could go any way we interpreted it. I thought of it as this: how I see myself, how others see me, and how I see myself in the future. With this in mind, I went ahead and brainstormed ideas that could fit along the lines of these broad topics. I had to dig deeply about how I saw myself, and inferred how others saw me, and thought about metaphors I could include into my painting sketches.
My first initial idea was to create a landscape tryptic and incorporate some Impressionism into it with the water and rays of sun. I wanted to highlight the beauty of the serenity of nature and how people do not take the time to appreciate a point in time where everything is lush and evergreen. My second idea was to do a Pop Art inspired piece featuring different versions of myself. I wanted two of the panels to be in the icon Lichtenstein style and incorporate a bit of Dali's technique in there. I wanted to also paint myself as a pony to add the theme of childhood and how being an IB student is hard, but I didn't go with this idea because I felt it wouldn't meet the criteria. My last sketch was ultimately the one that I went with.
My first initial idea was to create a landscape tryptic and incorporate some Impressionism into it with the water and rays of sun. I wanted to highlight the beauty of the serenity of nature and how people do not take the time to appreciate a point in time where everything is lush and evergreen. My second idea was to do a Pop Art inspired piece featuring different versions of myself. I wanted two of the panels to be in the icon Lichtenstein style and incorporate a bit of Dali's technique in there. I wanted to also paint myself as a pony to add the theme of childhood and how being an IB student is hard, but I didn't go with this idea because I felt it wouldn't meet the criteria. My last sketch was ultimately the one that I went with.
Sketches
Process
I started off painting the backgrounds and using the blending technique to get a shadowed effect going on. I did it three separate times for each canvas and I actually messed them up. They ended up being completely different shades, but I used it to my advantage. I then transferred my sketches freely, meaning I just redrew them on, and as a result, my 'vases' were not proportional. After getting my guidelines onto the canvases, I began to fill them in with paint.
I painted on the flowers first to see how I could tackle the positioning of each flower and then painted on the excess leaves to finish off the bouquets. After each finished canvas, I worked on shading and experimented with blending and shading techniques.
I painted on the flowers first to see how I could tackle the positioning of each flower and then painted on the excess leaves to finish off the bouquets. After each finished canvas, I worked on shading and experimented with blending and shading techniques.
Experimentation
For my paintings, I struggled to blend and had guidance through my blending process. At first, it was with the background, but later, it was the shading for the flowers. After multiple attempts, I began to understand the technique and process and kept practicing until I got it right. I experimented with different colors and ways to show depth and light in my piece.
Reflection
As I go back and reflect on my process, I feel like I could have spent more time prioritizing what I had to do. I should have experimented more with my colors and should have taken a risk with this piece. I feel as though I could have gone more advanced with this and gone out of my comfort zone and try something I wasn't used to. I could have experimented with color or used different color gradients instead of practicing more with blending and creating realistic paintings. I also noticed that in most of my pieces, I try to aim for symmetrical balance because I feel like for me, it is pleasing to the eye to have symmetry.
However, I was very pleased with some shading in my piece. I was scared to add in shading because I feared of ruining my piece, but I believe that the shading added some nice touches to my flowers and created the illusion of depth and texture. In fact, I feel as though I did exceptionally well with getting my main ideas across when it came to the message I wanted to send to my audience. Each flower holds a representation of how I perceive myself to be, who I want to be perceived as, and how others perceive me to be. The background gradients also correlate to the stages of how I depict my own being. The first part of my tryptic has a darkened background to represent my insecurities and dark side that I have, but the flowers contrast with them, along with the vase, to demonstrate my colorful personality. The second one represents how I believe the people around me see me. The background is neutral compared to the other two, but the flowers compliment the hues and have a sense of unity. Lastly, the third one represents how I want to be in my future. Painted against the lightest gradient, I used bright colors to show how I want a bright future for myself.
If I were to do this piece again, I would pick a different art movement to emulate. I want to expand from my comfort zone and acquire different art skills and techniques by trying out another art movement. More specifically, I would have liked to explore the Pop Art movement but since it seemed very popular among my peers, I opted against it so that my art would be able to stand out.
However, I was very pleased with some shading in my piece. I was scared to add in shading because I feared of ruining my piece, but I believe that the shading added some nice touches to my flowers and created the illusion of depth and texture. In fact, I feel as though I did exceptionally well with getting my main ideas across when it came to the message I wanted to send to my audience. Each flower holds a representation of how I perceive myself to be, who I want to be perceived as, and how others perceive me to be. The background gradients also correlate to the stages of how I depict my own being. The first part of my tryptic has a darkened background to represent my insecurities and dark side that I have, but the flowers contrast with them, along with the vase, to demonstrate my colorful personality. The second one represents how I believe the people around me see me. The background is neutral compared to the other two, but the flowers compliment the hues and have a sense of unity. Lastly, the third one represents how I want to be in my future. Painted against the lightest gradient, I used bright colors to show how I want a bright future for myself.
If I were to do this piece again, I would pick a different art movement to emulate. I want to expand from my comfort zone and acquire different art skills and techniques by trying out another art movement. More specifically, I would have liked to explore the Pop Art movement but since it seemed very popular among my peers, I opted against it so that my art would be able to stand out.
Connecting to ACT
Identify cause and effect relationships between your inspiration and your artwork.
My inspiration's art movement led me to pursue similar techniques and aspects of art regarding background and textural qualities, along with shading and blending.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach would be how their art styles compliment their works and how each stand on their own when in comparison to each others works. Since they all share similar qualities, they also contain distinguished features that could be seen as individuals.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I concluded that flowers can have more than one meaning and that they vary in different cultures, just like any other object would whether it be religiously or aesthetically.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I wanted to focus on self-identity throughout my piece and the use of obsession with flowers and their symbolic meanings.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made the inference that flowers were more common in female artist main ficus but I was terribly wrong. Upon research, I found very few female artists who specialized with painting flowers and instead found many male artists use flowers in new mediums and topics in their art.
My inspiration's art movement led me to pursue similar techniques and aspects of art regarding background and textural qualities, along with shading and blending.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach would be how their art styles compliment their works and how each stand on their own when in comparison to each others works. Since they all share similar qualities, they also contain distinguished features that could be seen as individuals.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I concluded that flowers can have more than one meaning and that they vary in different cultures, just like any other object would whether it be religiously or aesthetically.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I wanted to focus on self-identity throughout my piece and the use of obsession with flowers and their symbolic meanings.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made the inference that flowers were more common in female artist main ficus but I was terribly wrong. Upon research, I found very few female artists who specialized with painting flowers and instead found many male artists use flowers in new mediums and topics in their art.
Bibliography
"Flower Meanings - List of Flowers With Their Meanings And Pictures." Buzzle. Buzzle.com, n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.
Https://www.facebook.com/cakespy. "13 Must- Know Acrylic Painting Techniques for Beginners." The Craftsy Blog. N.p., 03 Jan. 2017. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.
Https://www.facebook.com/cakespy. "13 Must- Know Acrylic Painting Techniques for Beginners." The Craftsy Blog. N.p., 03 Jan. 2017. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.