Painting is one of the most popular forms of traditional art, which has fascinated people by the variability of genres and the uniqueness of ideas hidden behind each creation. My favorite kinds of painting are landscape and still life. In the present paper, I would like to present my own art piece inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe’s Rust Red Hills (see Figure 1). I find this work rather impressive since it both contains the realistic representation of nature and offers food for thought and imagination.
Georgia O’Keeffe created her painting Rust Red Hills in 1930, and the piece became a part of the Brauer Museum of Art’s collection in 1962 (Hertzlieb, n.d.). The work of art is the depiction of a landscape in New Mexico that the artist was too fascinated by not to paint. O’Keeffe lived a long life, during which she created many works that were highly valued by her contemporaries and are loved by present-day museum and art gallery visitors. The desire to explore natural forms in their multitude was what formulated the artist’s professional direction (Hertzlieb, n.d.). At the same time, O’Keeffe added expressive colors to her paintings, as well as utilized innovative stylization approaches. The artist’s husband, a famous photographer Alfred Stieglitz, promoted and supported her work, encouraging her to pursue pioneering techniques and not to be afraid of being not understood (Hertzlieb, n.d.). That is why O’Keeffe’s works are so interesting to observe and analyze.
Although she received much support from her husband, the momentous 1929 trip to New Mexico and the American Southwest was taken without him. It was during that journey that the artist created Rust Red Hills. The landscapes of the American Southwest made such a formidable impression of the artist that its reflection in paintings could not but be noticed by numerous fans of her talent. The painting offers a realistic view of the hills along with the artist’s own stylization techniques.
The art piece I created is titled White Hills since it was made with a pencil and contains no colorful details (see Figure 2). However, I did my best to reflect the shapes and the general style of O’Keeffe’s painting. Personally, I was fascinated with the simplicity of the artist’s style. However, that simplicity borders on such a unique and talented mastery of lines that not everyone can reproduce. I love both the colors and shapes in O’Keeffe’s Rust Red Hills. In fact, if to look at the painting for a long time, one can start noticing some shapes other than hills. To me, the image resembles a human brain with a variety of areas and shapes.
Despite some secondary thoughts, there is a strong thematic connection between the two pieces. I tried to copy the shapes of the hills from O’Keeffe’s painting. The two images are similar in shapes and proportions, but they are rather different in color and, of course, level of talent. The mediums employed in the two cases are different: the original was made with oil on canvas, whereas mine was made with a pencil on paper. I believe the medium has a considerable effect on the viewers since colors and structures can create a specific sense. The formal elements common in both pieces are the line, shape, and form. Meanwhile, texture, pattern, color, and composition are not the same.
References
Hertzlieb, G. (n.d.). Georgia O’Keeffe: Rust red hills. Valparaiso Poetry Review: Contemporary Poetry and Poetics.
O’Keeffe, G. (1930). Rust red hills [painting].