Catching Up on Work!

I just realized that I had been so focused on painting and going to work that I never posted my reactions to the other three websites that we were supposed to look at. Therefore, I will post all of them now.

#2

This site has a lot of opportunities for those interested in art including a great amount of internships and grants. The site itself is very well organized and while I do not think that I am currently interested in any of opportunities made possible by this site, there is plenty of details for each specific grant and contact person so that it would be easy to access if I was ever interested. However, while this site did include a lot of interesting information, I did not really see too many images or art pieces, which is kind of what I had been hoping for. I thought I clicked on almost all of the links, but did not see many images, so I wish that there could have been more visuals for me.

#3

I looked around at a few websites, but the one that was the most interesting to be was the website for the Art Institute of Chicago. I remembered taking a trip to there back in middle school and how there were so many amazing pieces there that caught my eye, so I thought it might be interesting to look into the website a bit. This museum has a ton of pieces and exhibits, so obviously I do not have time to go through everything on this sight. However, while browsing, I came across this painting titled ‘Red Hill with Flowers’ by Georgia O’keefe and I remember seeing that piece in person and for some reason it caught my eye. It’s such a simple piece, however, there is something about the color and layout of it that just makes it absolutely beautiful. In fact, a lot of the pieces at this museum are actually like this. There is such a variety—some fairly simple and some very complex. It’s amazing how so many different types of art can be featured in one giant museum. But the permanent exhibits are not the only ones that are interesting to me, there is also a huge amount of exhibits that are only featured for a limited amount of time. However, each of these temporary exhibits are also very unique and not what one would necessarily expect. For example, when I went to the museum, there was an exhibit of art inside of these clear orbs and while it was a bit peculiar, it was very neat to look at. Therefore, the fact that this museum has such a large variety of artwork never ceases to amaze me.

#4

I’m not going to lie, on this website, I was much more interested in reading the writing pieces than the art, but I managed to stop myself from getting distracted from all the cool stories. However, even when I was looking through all of these art pieces, I found it to be a bit difficult to spot any that stood out to me. Many of the paintings were dark colors or portraits of people, neither of which are really my style. However, after searching for a decent amount of time, I found these three pieces that peaked my interest. Yeah, I know it’s no surprise that two of them turned out to be animals, but that’s just how it goes. While I could not figure out how to find out more information about the artists themselves, I found it amazing that these beautiful images were created by people my age, especially since the second is created by a girl named Sarina Zhou, who is only 14 years old. I love the use of color and detail in this piece and it makes me want to try a landscape piece like it. As for the other two images, the picture of a horse is by a seventeen-year-old named Anna-Sophia Lagos and the cat portrait is by an eighteen-year-old named Caroline Curran. Both of these images stood out to me due to the detail of the animals, making these artists relatable to me in that both of us must be very interested in animals. I know that I have not experimented much with just drawing realistic animals other than dogs, but I think that this is something that would definitely benefit me and my artwork this year.

Mabel is the Best

I have decided to try a project that is a bit different from what I typically do. I decided to try something more realistic, so naturally I decided to paint my dog, Mabel. However, I wanted to make the piece more interesting than just a simple portrait, so I decided to try using different colors to help portray her. While this product did not turn out as neatly as I wanted it to, I'm glad that I tried something new and will continue to experiment with different ideas.

Sail Across the Sun

Wow, I really need to start posting on here more consistently again. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time finding time to do art this summer, I mean yes, I work basically every day, but I don't know, this summer is just going by way too fast. I am not ready for school again. However, I was able to finish this piece. It didn't turn out as cool as I hoped it would, but if you look at it from a distance, I kind of like it better. It's about my favorite band, just like most of my art probably is, but oh well. I'm really going to try working on art more frequently!

The Power of Writing

I'm sorry that I have not posted in an extremely long time! I have been at writing camp in the morning and working at night which is awesome, but I haven't exactly had a very large selection of time to do art. However, I have been working on my first official piece here and there and finally, I have been able to complete it. Since writing has been on my mind a lot, I decided to make it the focus of this piece to show the significance of writing in my life. So, here is the finished product!

Mabel

Took a lot longer than it needed to, but like I said I attempted to paint an animal. More specifically, my dog. I've drawn her many times before, but painting her was much different and much more difficult. However, I thought I did a better job than I thought I would so I would like to experiment with painting animals a bit more.

Awesome Artwork

Today I decided it was time to start looking at those websites that were listed on our summer homework page, so I began by looking at portalwisconsin.org and found the gallery to be really interesting!

When exploring this site, I was mostly interested in the painting section considering that paint is my favorite media to work with. It’s not too surprising that the two paintings that stood out to me the most were animals, but the odd thing is that they both stood out to me for different reasons. When I first saw the dog one, which is titled “Lars” by Sally Berner, I stopped to look at it not only because it is a dog, but because it is just so realistic that at a glance, it almost looks like a photograph rather than a painting. I have always thought paintings like this were just so unbelievable. The second painting that I found is titled “Winter Bliss” by Beth Scott and while it is simply a picture of a cat, i thought the way it was painted was interesting. The brush strokes are much different from the neat ones in the first painting I was drawn to, almost making the cat look extra furry. Also, the other images created by this artist were interesting as well, however, they were flowers rather than animals, but still looked very beautifully painted to me. Therefore, while I did not look at a ton of different items in this website, I found that I really should be attempting to paint animals more often since I adore them both in real life and through beautiful paintings. I might need to test out painting a dog in my sketchbook one of these days.

Free Time!

I cannot believe that it is July already! I also cannot believe that I have the majority of the day free, so of course, I decided to work in my sketchbook some more! I decided that I want to make my first official piece about one of the greatest things in the world: writing! And I want to use a combination of painting and decoupage into this piece, so I decided to practice with some of those things today before I actually get started!