Fine Art Critique [Arts Explorer Numéro 3!]

          As I walked through each of the galleries around the AGO, I found myself drawn to many pieces of artwork that was displayed. It was difficult to choose one piece of fine art to critique. However, as I ventured through the Maharaj Exhibition one particular piece of painting caught my attention. At first glance this painting elicited feelings of peace, ease, comfort and relaxation. I was captivated by this painting simply because when I look at it, I see concentration, patience, determination, friendship, and support. It is the emotions that this picture delivers and its fine details that make it so appealing.



Three Nayar Girls of Travancore
By: Ramaswami Naidu

       This piece of oil canvas painted by Ramaswami Naidu in 1872 is entitled "Three Nayar Girls of Travancore". It is a medium sized square painting that is measured 82.55 cm by 96.52 cm.The painting was hand painted in Kerala during the time when Indian rulers began to follow and adopt the Western traditions. Naidu was a court artist of Travancore, specifically trained in Indian painting styles and popular techniques of Western realism. The woman sitting in the middle is showing much concentration as she carefully writes on a dried palm leaf. This reminded me of a personal experience when I was younger where I had to practice writing chinese symbols in squares - one symbol per square. As I got older, the boxes got smaller, forcing us to write complicated strokes in a square that was no bigger than a centimetre.

        The element of colour drew my attention. As you can see for yourself, the dominant color in this painting is mostly of a pale olive green, and very dark, dull colours. However, at the same time, there's a pop of bold, vivid and rich colours (of gold, yellow, red & orange) depicted through the jewellery worn by the people in the painting. This contrast really accentuates the accessories in the canvas. Colour can really elicit and transfer many emotions from the painter to the audience. In addition, the big, round gold earrings really caught my eye - they were definitely one of the first things that I zoomed in on when I first saw the picture.

         This brings me to believe that the artist was trying to place emphasis on all  the jewellery in the painting. Afterall, this work of art was painted while India was starting to imitate Western customs. Thus, it is of no surprise if the artist wanted to bring out that one particular aspect of change. As I stood before the painting, I could hear silence - the sense of peace and tranquility surfaced. It created a very serene feeling.

         What I found most interesting about this painting and the other works situated near by was that they were all painted in the late 1800s when Indian rulers began to follow Western custom (as I had previously mentioned). The European lifestyle as symbols of luxury and status was manifested in many aspects of their life, such as dress (clothing), dining habits, to social life and recreation. It was a time when influence of the west was evident in India.

ART WORD OF THE WEEK:

Col·our [kuhl-er]:

• based othe passage of light. 
• comes from the sun. We see colors because of the way certain objects reflect color rays to our eyes.
• makes each of us respond with feeling.

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. E. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning.

Instant Sculpture [Art Explorer #2]

ART WORD OF THE WEEK:

Bal·ance [bal-uhns]:



Balance is the state of equilibrium, or harmony. It can be achieved in two ways:
1) Symmetrical (formal) - shapes are evenly or equally balanced around some point, eg., up or down, right or left, horizontally, vertically, radially, or diagonally (p.144)
2) Asymmetrical (informal) - objects are not evenly or equally balanced from a point (p.144)

        When we were first assigned this task I thought of all the unique supplies I could possibly use to build my sculpture and was prepared to go all out. But, I was blank; I didn't know where to start. After some thinking, I reevaluated what a sculpture means to me. Is it something that has to have a definite outcome? Does it have to portray something that people can recognize? While I was still contemplating what materials to use, I noticed a whole stash of pencil crayons sitting right infront of me. That sparked an idea; to use pencil crayons to construct my sculpture! As if coming up with what/how to make my scuplture wasn't difficult enough, I decided to complicate things by choosing to balance something that rolls.

        You could imagine how long this took me; no glue, no tape, just... stacking. It collapsed several times just when it started to take shape, thus testing my own patience, and fighting against my frustrations. I've rebuilt this so many times, I think I've mastered the art of...well, balancing rolling objects. haha

Coloured pencil sculpture

         When I first started constructing this abstract sculpture, I had no predetermined plan as to where I was going with it. I had no idea what I was going to do with the pencil crayons, or how I was going to utilize them. I didn't even know what I wanted to make, let alone what I wanted the finished product to look like. As a result, I just started playing with the pencil crayons rearranging them in different ways and ultimately, letting my creativity take over. In the end, this was the result. It doesn't matter that I didn't know how my sculpture was going to turn out; the product isn't what matters the most. The whole process of this construction was a learning experience in and of itself. Not only did it test my patience, but my determination to successfully build it as high as I could before it collapse gave me perseverance.


        As I take a step back to look at my sculpture, I realize that as a whole the structure can represent the difficulties of balancing all the big and small things in life (represented through the long & short pencil crayons). It's hard, but we must establish our foundation first because at any moment it can all come crashing down. The fall would represent the unequal balance of the things in our lives as people, and events become to take pecedent over more important things, thereby, causing imbalance. Once we've formed our foundation, we can then slowly try to balance and add in the momentary distractions and troubles in our daily life. If we lose sight of our focus and start mixing big and small together we become unstable.

        Children are always making and building structures of all shapes and sizes using anything they can find that is stackable. Even when materials are not stackable, some children will attempt to balance it ontop of another object. I've seen young children who continue to try balancing objects over and over again despite many failed attempts. Their perseverance is really inspiring and encouraging.

Schirrmacher, R., & Fox, J. E. (2009). Art & creative development for young children (6th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Thomson/Delmar Learning.

My Creative Inspiration.
"To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong."

 The word creativity is too often linked directly to arts and crafts.  However, creativity is a very abstract word that can only be defined by individuals themselves as it differs geatly from one person to another. Everyone is creative to varying degrees in their own ways – they just have to recognize where their creativity lies. Once their imagination and inspiration have been sparked they can allow their creative ideas to take over. Unfortunately many people tend to underestimate their own creativity due to the traditional belief instilled in them that creativity is limited to visual art, music, dance, theatre and drama. That is not true; common activities such as cooking, playing with children, planning an event or fundraiser, or something as simple as thinking and problem solving are all ways of being creative that many people tend to take for granted and overlook. When I think of the word creativity, I think of expression of oneself which alone can take many forms.

During my childhood my expression of self was mostly depicted through the traditional forms of art with black and white sketches, paints, pencil crayons, clay and water colors. I was the kind of girl who spent way too much time on the not-so-important designing component of an assignment – erasing, redrawing, restarting until I was completely satisfied with the final product - rather than focusing on the key element. Come to think of it, as a child whenever I was asked to be ‘creative’, I was just given a whole selection of art supplies. But as we all know, creativity extends far beyond what a pencil and a piece of paper can do. As a child not only did I have the opportunity to express myself through the traditional arts, but also through play. Chairs, blankets, pillows were rearranged to create a fort, stuffed animals sat neatly in a row before me while I took attendance and took on the role of a teacher, construction papers were turned into crowns and paper towel tubes were transformed into rainsticks. I even remember handmaking 20+ penguin Christmas cards for all my friends in grade.6.  Needless to say, creativity was part of the way I lived as a child; simply everything I did was, well, creative. The way children portray creativity is different from the way adults do simply because they're not afraid to do something unique, outrageous, or outside the norm. They`re not afraid of being wrong, or being different. As I grew older I began to explore various outlets of creativity in which I could use to express myself whether through journaling, photography, designing/organizing my own space, tweaking DIY projects to fit my liking, and completing things that I find value, fun, and joy in doing.  Recently I found a growing interest in photography - it's one of my biggest inspiration. What I find most captivating about photography though is not the array of effects or lenses to choose from, not the camera itself, nor is it the object of the photo. In fact, to me, the most striking thing about photography lies in the process and aftermath of the shoot. Let's take traveling for example (something I love) and place that side by side with photo taking. The places we go, the places we visit had been, and continues to be visited by people of all different backgrounds and walks of life. There's bound to be the same landscapes, monuments and buildings that ends up in someone else's photo, but interestingly, no two pictures are alike. The outcome of the photograph is a result of the creativity that lies within the person behind the camera. Photographers all look at life through completely different lenses – they appreciate and notice the smallest details that others view as plain, dull or ugly.

Every individual possess an infinite amount of creativity within them. It’s time we all find where each of our own creativity lies.  Be spontaneous; that's creative.

**All 3 photographs were taken by me**