Acrylic Painting
Title: Fire Flowers
Size: 60.96 cm x 45.72 Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas Completion Date: July 10, 2023 Exhibition Text:
In my piece, Fire Flowers, I try to portray how something like fire which can be seen as destruction can still have beauty and admirable aspects. I want to show how everything is beautiful, even things that may have bad connotations. I took inspiration from Rene Magritte’s composition of pieces in my work. I had the main focus of the piece in the middle like some of his works with a surrounding background. I used acrylic paint on a canvas to make the piece. |
Inspiration:
Artist in Focus: Rene Magritte
Rene Magritte is a very popular surrealist artist. He says that his paintings invoke mystery and have viewers of it question what is going on in it. One of his earliest pieces made in 1926 is when he started leaning into surrealism. He also made paintings in the cubist style before that. I Chose Magritte as inspiration because I wanted to make something in the range of a cubist or surrealist artworks with aspects of both, and because I want people to be able to question my artwork like he is questioned. I specifically am using his pieces The Gradation of Fire and The Son of Man. I wanted to use his The Gradation of Fire piece so that I can have a reference of his style with fire, but also to see how he goes about doing fire. In his piece, it seems as though the fire has layered colors so I would like to try that out on my fire as well to give it a smooth look. This piece also inspires some of my composition choices in my piece, however his other piece I am inspired by, is his painting The Son of Man. In this piece, he places a man right in the center, with minimal objects around him causing the focus to be directly on him. His composition in this piece with the person directly in the middle with little distractions around him is similar to what I would like to do with my piece. I want to have my main image in the middle surrounded by little objects that add onto the painting slightly to make it seem fuller without taking the attention away from the main point I am making in the middle. His work is also seen as extremely desirable, so being able to take influence from extremely desirable work is nice so that I can get interest or desire in my piece to hopefully have the theme and message be shared easier.
Rene Magritte is a very popular surrealist artist. He says that his paintings invoke mystery and have viewers of it question what is going on in it. One of his earliest pieces made in 1926 is when he started leaning into surrealism. He also made paintings in the cubist style before that. I Chose Magritte as inspiration because I wanted to make something in the range of a cubist or surrealist artworks with aspects of both, and because I want people to be able to question my artwork like he is questioned. I specifically am using his pieces The Gradation of Fire and The Son of Man. I wanted to use his The Gradation of Fire piece so that I can have a reference of his style with fire, but also to see how he goes about doing fire. In his piece, it seems as though the fire has layered colors so I would like to try that out on my fire as well to give it a smooth look. This piece also inspires some of my composition choices in my piece, however his other piece I am inspired by, is his painting The Son of Man. In this piece, he places a man right in the center, with minimal objects around him causing the focus to be directly on him. His composition in this piece with the person directly in the middle with little distractions around him is similar to what I would like to do with my piece. I want to have my main image in the middle surrounded by little objects that add onto the painting slightly to make it seem fuller without taking the attention away from the main point I am making in the middle. His work is also seen as extremely desirable, so being able to take influence from extremely desirable work is nice so that I can get interest or desire in my piece to hopefully have the theme and message be shared easier.
Planning:
When planning for this piece, I knew I wanted to help show beauty in some kind of specific environment. I came up with three little sketches that I could portray beauty in. I looked through my phone for pictures that I can use as a reference. I had a picture of a random can, one of my friends sitting by a tree with a vhs tv they were looking at, and then a picture of flowers behind a fire. I immediately thought of making the fire with the flowers behind it into something. Having a symbol of destruction being next to the beauty of flowers helps send a good contrast that can help portray my message. I then messed around with the composition a little bit but wasn’t a fan of how it looked so I decided to not do that, and then instead make it the literal center of attention. I then started to mess around with how I wanted to have it look. I experimented with possible colors for the background as well as the fire. I also messed around with how the flower buds could look and the stems for the flowers. From there I was ready to start my piece.
Process:
When starting my piece, I wanted to make sure I was laying out everything correctly. I decided to do a big grid on my paper and align up that grid on my image using my camera app. I was able to separate my reference to look like my canvas and its grid. I then took those smaller rectangles and made them into small grids to help get my image transferred easier. After some time, I finally had the image transferred onto my canvas.
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The next step I took was getting my paint on my canvas. I started out with the fire area. I worked on the fire in layers starting from the lightest color to the darkest. I got the yellow I needed and painted the entire fire area. I also used it to color in the light on the left since they were similar colors. Then I got the orange and painted less of the fire, and then even less with the red. Once I had the fire all done, I then worked on the smoke. I painted it in random shapes to try and match the unpredictableness of smoke itself and give it the feeling that it was moving.
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I then started making my browns for the sticks that were in the fire. I painted all of the sticks that color, and waited for it to dry before I added on the lighter color. I then added on the green for the flower stems. I made sure to paint it in a way that it was heavier on the edges to make it have a little outline that I thought looked nice.
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I lastly started working on more of the background starting with the bricks. I colored the dark part first and then the lighter part. Once I had each of those done and once they dried, I added on the darkest color for all the outlines, overlapping on the colors I had put down. The last thing I added was the official background colors. I split it up into three sections, getting darker the further away it got to hopefully emulate the fire, lighting up the sky. I got the three colors down and added some finishing touches on the wood, and brick areas, and then I was done.
Experimentation:
For my experimentation, I was mainly experimenting with making colors. I first experimented with making the colors for the fire. I needed a yellow, orange, and red color, to add in all of the layers of the fire. I had a lot of trouble trying to get the colors right. When making the right yellow, I wanted it to be more white and pale compared to a primary yellow. I tended to get into a repetition of adding too little white too often that I added more than I needed eventually and had to add more yellow. Eventually I was able to get the correct color. For the orange I just added red in small amounts into the yellow I made to get the orange and was messing around with what kind of orange I should go with. After I figured that out, the red wasn’t too difficult to make and then I had the fire all done.
With the fire done I had to paint the smoke. I was unsure on how I should have tackled the smoke, since it is usually more see-through and just like a fog. Due to that, I had trouble figuring out how I could do it. I originally wanted to get the background down first but I was unsure on how that would look in the end. So I decided to just get it on there. I thought about doing some gray’s as the smoke which could have worked, but I wanted to make it more colorful and alive. So I then tried to make it a gray, but with a gentle red in it because of the fire reflecting on it. To make this I had some trouble. I started off with a light blue color and then added in red to make it more purple colored with some red to give it the look I was going for.
Critique:
Similarities:
There are some similarities between my inspiration and my art piece. For one, the art pieces are both types of paintings. Another similarity is the composition of the paintings. In all of the pieces, there is a focus on the center of the pieces. Magritte emphasize that specific area in the center and I am emphasizing it as well. Our pieces also have a sense of space around the main focus found in the middle. There is also some similarity between the fire in his piece and mine as they both seem to be layered in some ways.
There are some similarities between my inspiration and my art piece. For one, the art pieces are both types of paintings. Another similarity is the composition of the paintings. In all of the pieces, there is a focus on the center of the pieces. Magritte emphasize that specific area in the center and I am emphasizing it as well. Our pieces also have a sense of space around the main focus found in the middle. There is also some similarity between the fire in his piece and mine as they both seem to be layered in some ways.
Differences:
There are also some differences between my inspiration and my art piece. For example, they are both paintings, but mine is acrylic which allowed me to add layers sooner, while Magritte’s are oils. There is also a difference in the art principle of balance. I feel that in his works, he tends to keep things more balanced while in my piece, things seem kind of all over the place in odd amounts. Everything is more weighing towards the bottom in mine.
There are also some differences between my inspiration and my art piece. For example, they are both paintings, but mine is acrylic which allowed me to add layers sooner, while Magritte’s are oils. There is also a difference in the art principle of balance. I feel that in his works, he tends to keep things more balanced while in my piece, things seem kind of all over the place in odd amounts. Everything is more weighing towards the bottom in mine.
Reflection:
Overall, I feel like I was able to improve more with my painting skills here. I was able to try out some new processes and techniques like layering that were very helpful. I developed as an artist by gaining more painting abilities. My inspiration was paintings by Rene Magritte and I feel as though I do connect my artwork to my inspirations especially with the composition of our pieces. The biggest challenge for me on this project was having to do the background with the three colors fading so that it flowed well into each other. This project ties in with previous projects because it also relates to the world around us and its beauty. It also is referencing the fact that beauty can be everywhere as well. My favorite part of the project was seeing the finished product of the fire since I think seeing the finished version of it with all the layered colors look nice. My least favorite was all of the color mixing I had to do. I hope people are able to see my piece and see my message about beauty and also help expand their view of what can be considered beautiful.
Connecting to the ACT:
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
There is a great cause and effect relationship in my artwork compared to my inspiration pieces because it can be seen how I took inspiration in composition.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
We have some different approaches and topics. However, it seems important to keep that one center point.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Generalizations and conclusions I made while researching are that People want to show off the things that are directly related and important to them.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea or theme around my research was to find some ways to mess around with the composition of a painting to help give across the point of the piece of art.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Inferences I made while reading my research were that putting something in the center and creating little distractions around it cause a great way to get the viewer to focus on the main center point.
There is a great cause and effect relationship in my artwork compared to my inspiration pieces because it can be seen how I took inspiration in composition.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
We have some different approaches and topics. However, it seems important to keep that one center point.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Generalizations and conclusions I made while researching are that People want to show off the things that are directly related and important to them.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea or theme around my research was to find some ways to mess around with the composition of a painting to help give across the point of the piece of art.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Inferences I made while reading my research were that putting something in the center and creating little distractions around it cause a great way to get the viewer to focus on the main center point.
Citations (MLA):
The Gradation of Fire, 1939 by Rene Magritte, www.renemagritte.org/the-gradation-of-fire.jsp. Accessed 15 Aug. 2023.
“Rene Magritte and His Paintings.” Rene Magritte: 100 Famous Paintings Analysis, Complete Works, & Bio, www.renemagritte.org/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2023.
The Son of Man, 1946 by Rene Magritte, www.renemagritte.org/the-son-of-man.jsp. Accessed 15 Aug. 2023.
“Rene Magritte and His Paintings.” Rene Magritte: 100 Famous Paintings Analysis, Complete Works, & Bio, www.renemagritte.org/. Accessed 15 Aug. 2023.
The Son of Man, 1946 by Rene Magritte, www.renemagritte.org/the-son-of-man.jsp. Accessed 15 Aug. 2023.