December 16, 2009
Writing Assignment DHR#2 Art 7a Beginning Drawing & Composition
Kathleen Youngquist, Upstage
This narrative painting has a lot of eye-catching movement. Though the overall tones of the composition are on the darker side, the triadic color scheme and liberal use of rich primaries add to the energetic feeling. It has movement implied by both the subject and the action-simulating long brush strokes. The figures’ clothes are flowing, arms and legs moving. The woman’s foot lifted in the background subtly takes on the shape of a bird flying. The feet they stand on seem barely grounded.
Since the female figure is facing away from the viewer and the male figure’s head is completely out of the composition, I’m made to look at their bodies for expression, the body language of their dance. They each have a hand that is blurred or partially out of the frame, as well as a hand reaching for each other, or barely touching, in what seems like the focal point, where there is open space and the brush strokes around the hands are more circular.
The dancers, with their individually different colored clothing, have a feeling of independence, though also dressed in stereotypical male/female outfits. Faceless, it’s as if they are loosing themselves. Their hands reaching and bodies turning toward each other suggest togetherness, but they don’t seem to make any real connection.
Tags
art (21), essay (2), painting (10), srjc (3)
Arianna Helen