Hoa Sen
Exhibition Text
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PLANNING SKETCHES
As always, first step to making "Hoa Sen" was to create 3 planning sketches based on the theme of my journey to where I am. All based on the theme of who I was and how do I play a part in society. The first panel is drawn with the idea of who I am as an artist. The second panel will be the city in which I live in. Finally in the third panel will be based on the idea of role in society. The inspiration for "Hoa Sen" will be from Claude Monet and impressionism, especially "Water Lilies" by Monet as the background is similar to my vision of a lotus pond.
INSPIRATION
Auricchio, Laura. "Claude Monet (1840–1926)." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oct. 2004. Web. 8 Jan. 2017.
For my tryptic project, the inspiration came from Claude Monet and Impressionism. Monet is a french artist from late 19th century and early 20th century. He had a significant influence on the impressionist movement. Most of Monet’s works revolves around landscape and nature. He usually find subjects in the surrounding environment such as people and places . His first wife, Camille, and his second, Alice, often models for his painting. Light and shadow are the cornerstones of his series as he often paint at the same site many times to capture its appearance throughout the day. One of my inspiration from Monet’s masterpieces is “Water Lilies”, it features the lilies in the back of his garden where he resided in the early 20th century. On his first series of painting lilies, he painted bridges and a clear horizon line. But by the time he painted “Water Lilies”, he came to focus more on the surface of the pond and lilies. “Water Lilies” inspired my tryptic project as I plan to incorporate painting technique that focus more on light and shadow rather than space. I want to use the technique to have viewers to take a step back and to rather focus on the whole picturing and to ponder upon its meaning than to have a detailed painting that says it all. The cornerstone of my inspiration is from impressionism. It dismisses composition and space which will allow me to have more freedom to express my style and emotions. The painting style of applying daubs of paint side by side will be incorporated into my painting to represent my evanescent past, ambiguous present and uncertain future.
PROCESS
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After making three canvas from scratch with the size of 2ft by 1ft , I began to gesso them. Based on the planned sketches, I decided to paint the background light sky blue so that it would just blend right in under other colors. Then I used the projector to draw an outline onto my canvas using pencil. For this painting, I used a small amount of paste white paint to create more texture in impressionism style. I began painting the first thin layer of background onto the three panels. The first layer on canvas was not detailed and only cover general idea of objects under light. For the road on the first panel, I decided to combine a new technique. which was to use a palette knife to paint. Using the palette knife, I mixed black and white just enough so that both hues are still visible in mixture. Taking little amounts of this grayish paint, I scrape it onto the canvas to give it a translucent and abstract image. After the first layer, I went back in to add more layers to spots where the light hit. For most of the painting process, I spent a majority of the time on adding layers onto each other.
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CRITIQUE |
REFLECTION |
My piece "Hoa Sen" shares some similarities with my inspiration from Claude Monet pieces as my piece was created based on the idea of capturing light and color. "Hoa Sen" and impressionism both share the idea of emotion expression through colors and style. My inspiration, Claude Monet, and my piece both rely mostly on the subject of nature. However, there are also differences between my piece and my inspiration. Impressionists such as Claude Monet mostly used short brushstrokes with different colors to capture the light from the scene. Whereas in my painting, I incorporated the technique of palette knife painting into my piece. As a result, my painting has a pasty texture from many layers of painting being scraped on by palette knife. Claude Monet's paintings are more harmonious as the brushstrokes were able to blend nicely together. My piece, "Hoa Sen", has more abrupt edges created by longer brushstrokes comparing to Monet's. Overall, I was able to successfully create a piece that reflect on my inspiration of impressionism with a little bit of my own taste.
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Throughout the process making my tryptic, I've learned many things by overcoming numerous challenges. In the beginning of the process, I struggled with sketching my planning sketches onto the canvas since they aren't photo but my own sketches. But I was able to get access to the dome to take a photo for my second canvas. For the first and third canvas, I had to draw on a paper and project it onto the canvas. My ideas changed throughout the project which only affected the composition of my painting and not the meaning. One new technique that I tried to incorporate was the use of palette knife in painting. As it turned out, I really like this technique because it could make a painting more abstract and sometimes the random mixing of colors turn out to be quite beautiful. One other challenge during painting is how fast acrylic paint dries, which can makes adding layers more difficult. The three panels are not harmonious, as the first panel is to a little extent represent the impressionism style, while the second and third resemble more with impressionism. From this project, I've learned that impressionism requires patient because it takes time to capture light onto the piece and the first couple layers might not look that great. However, the painting process was enjoyable because there was freedom and space for me to express my own style instead of following a certain model. Overall, I am really happy with my painting as it does have an abstract feeling to it.
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MEANING
The tryptic piece "Hoa Sen" revolves around the story of my life from where I was born and my journey to where I am. "Hoa Sen" means lotus in vietnamese. This piece tryptic explores my vietnamese culture idea on the value of lotus. There was this famous poem about lotus when I was Vietnam, it can be roughly translated into how lotus grows in muddy environment but it does not smell like mud at all. Lotus represent purity and innocent beauty as it grows in muddy/mucky environment but blossoms into beautiful and alluring flower that stands out from its environment. As I was taught by my mother that no matter how bad my situations were, they are no excuses for stopping from accomplishing my goals. The first panel depicts on the vision of my home-country, Vietnam. The background of where I cam from will always be a part of my identity because it has a great influence on how I see the world. The first panel painting of Vietnam does represent the place in which I came from, but it does not accurately represent the town in which I grew up in. I chose a generic depiction of Vietnam because as I am growing up in America, I began to see Vietnam in a different way; the way which other foreigners would see Vietnam. However, I will never forget the fact that Vietnam is my birthplace. Growing up in Vietnam, education was not my first priority because I was taught that no matter how hard I work, in the end the family background is what will get me a future. My family was not rich but they tried their best to offer me the best things. The second panel is the sequel to my journey as I literally on the painting open a door to where I am now, America. The image is taken inside the domes, which are among the icons of my city, Milwaukee. This is the community that I am growing up in, a place with its own culture that I've learned to appreciate through the years. Milwaukee plays a big part in shaping the person I am today as the people I've met here have taught me a great deal. Onto the final panel is a pond of lotus, which represent my role in my community. I am aspired to be like a lotus, to raise above and have value to society. I will not let the past and the environment that I grew up in influence who I will become. However, the past will always be a part of my picture. I want to be someone who is helpful, beneficial and valuable to society just like how a lotus is being appreciated by people even though its environment can be described as dull, dirty, or unappealing.
ACT CONNECTION
- My inspiration of impressionism clearly have a great influence on my artwork. Taken the idea of capturing light and color from impressionism, my piece was created by using impressionist painting style.
- The overall approach Claude Monet has in regard of impressionism is that the capture of light and color is crucial. Light and shadow are important.
- After I've researched about my inspiration, I've came to a generalization about the idea of impressionism. It is a movement where artists focus more on light and color instead of space. Painting this way also allow artists to express their style of painting in different ways.
- The central theme around my inspirational research was nature impressionism. I research mostly on impressionist artists that work with nature.
- From my research, I've made inferences that it is people and nature are the two important subjects to Monet as most of his works revolve around painting flower field or water lilies.
Citation
Auricchio, Laura. "Claude Monet (1840–1926)." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museu
The essential guide. Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009. Print.
The essential guide. Chicago, IL: Art Institute of Chicago, 2009. Print.