Wednesday, September 15, 2010

A study on Emily Carr


Emily Carr is one of my favourite artists. Her expressionist paintings of the British Columbian rain forests captivate and inspire me. I feel that her paintings capture the contrasting stillness and motion that can be felt deep in a forest. I also get a deep sense of spirituality in her work.



I therefore have tried to study some of the techniques that she used in my own art making.



This painting is my attempt to replicate Emily Carr’s oil painting, In the Forest.



Unfortunately, I was not successful in my endeavour. The trunk of the tree is out of proportion and the leaves look out of place. I also felt restricted by trying to copy someone else’s work and was not satisfied with the process or the product.


I then set out to try to apply my own style in developing my unique interpretation of Emily Carr’s work.



In this drawing, I applied Emily Carr’s technique of only using part of a tree in the foreground. I also mixed colours to create the appearance of depth and movement. I think that this drawing has some elements of depth but that it is still very static and falls short of what I wanted to achieve. I believe, however, that if I continue to practice and experiment with these techniques that I will eventually be able to create forests with some feeling like Emily Carr.


Finally, in this drawing, I tried to simply create the essence of a forest from the ground up. Although this picture looks the least like a forest, it's the only one that I feel conveys the spirit of a living forest.


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