Master Study of Thomas Hart Benton's Trail Raiders
This assignment required us to find an artist and learn to paint from his or her style. During my trips to the state capital and the Nelson Atkins Museum, I have been thoroughly impressed by Thomas Hart Benton's work. He also holds significant importance to the Kansas City area; a place that I now call home. For this reason, I felt that he was an excellent source of inspiration.
Painting in Reference to Thomas Hart Benton's Style
In this painting, my goal was to take the observations I had learned from my master study of Thomas Hart Benton's work and apply them to my own. It was difficult for me to break own style enough to fully replicate Benton's style but I feel that the finished painting was still successful in helping me to break away from the expressive strokes I was so attached to.
Abstracted Still Life
In this assignment, I was required to create a painting of a still life that was abstracted. Through expressive strokes and a wide variety of colors, I was able to create an abstracted image whose inspirations were still distinguishable.
Abstracted Still Life II
This painting was one of my favorites. The colors used interacted well with each other and the line-work did an excellent job of keeping the viewer engaged. The imagery had movement but was not so abstracted that the viewer could no longer tell what was depicted.
Complimentary Color Painting
The goal of this painting was to create an image of a still life using complimentary colors. In this painting, I used green and red to complete the assignment within the parameters of the project.
Saturated Color Painting
Our assignment for this painting was to create a still life using only saturated colors. To accomplish this, we were not allowed to blend the colors. I avoided blending colors together by using solid shapes placed adjacent to each other. By doing this, the painting gained a more "graphic" quality.
Still Life
For this painting, we were allowed to use more colors and thus create a more "realistic" painting.
Pallet Knife Painting
The goal of this assignment was to add texture to our work. To accomplish this, we were only allowed to use pallet knives to apply the pigment. After completion, Mr. Louder did what he called a "touch test" in which he closed his eyes and ran his hand along the surface of the canvas. Our goal was for the painting to no longer be a smooth canvas after the painting was completed.
Portrait of Ai Weiwei
This painting was, for me, a tribute to one of my favorite artists, Ai Weiwei. It features his face directly in the center and is composed of colors that were popular during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. By doing this, the painting becomes a homage to Ai Weiwei and the struggles he has faced because of his political and social activism.
Portrait of Sitting Bull
This painting was a continuation of the blending techniques I had learned in my Thomas Hart Benton studies; yet, also incorporated my own expressive style.
Analogous Painting
The assignment pictured here called for us to paint an image of the still life using only analogous colors.
Monochromatic Painting
This was the first painting I completed in Painting I. The parameters of this assignment were simply to create a painting of a still life using only tints, shades, and saturated versions of a single color.