Untitled

[kendall-arh2000]

After looking at Monet all semester, I have found inspiration from him and his paint, water lilies. Based from this painting, I decided to make my own water lilies paining by using acrylic paint and a white canvas through an abstract style. I would like to title my painting fragments of a lily pond. Overall, I really enjoyed this semester and creating this painting, I hope you have a great summer.

[kendall-arh2000]

1. DESCRIBE THE ARTWORK'S PHYSICAL QUALITIES: 

The art piece I chose from the Ringling Museum is the Plowing in the Nivernais (Labourages Nivernais) by Rosa Bonheur and it was created in 1850. This artwork’s medium included oil on canvas and its dimensions are 134 cm × 260 cm (53 in × 102 in). The Plowing in the Nivernais (Labourages Nivernais) painting primarily has earthy tones, which include shades of brown, green, and blues, throughout the sky, clouds, people (farmers), cattle, and rural landscape with fields.  

Overall, this paint has emphasis, proportion, contrast, and variety. The painting shows emphasis on the cattle in the painting, because they are the focal point of this painting. The cattle are also the biggest subject of the painting, which puts more emphasis on them. Moreover, the cattle and people are proportionate to each other as the people (farmers) are smaller than the cattle they are working with. There is contrast in the painting between light and shadow, as the sunlight brightens the cattle’s bodies, while the shadows add depth and shape to the land/ soil that is being plowed. Finally, variety is shown in the painting through different textures (the animals' fur, clumpy soil, bright sky, etc.) and the different positions and postures that the cattle are in while walking. 

2. SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE OF THE ARTWORK: 

This painting makes me feel at home and peaceful as I work with my show cattle every day, so it brings up memories, even if the work I do with my cattle are different than the work done in the painting. It also reminds me of the summers I spent in Tennessee with my family when I was younger. Those mornings were always quiet and the cabin we stayed in always looked over the mountains. With how life is in 2025, it nice to look at this painting and be reminded of nature and be not so focused on our screens. Moreover, the connection to the land is something many people seek today, as they want mindfulness, sustainable living, and a desire to escape reality. The painting shows the idea of finding peace in the present and in one's own actions. 

3. RESEARCH: 

The Plowing in the Nivernais (Labourages Nivernais) painting is associated with Realism, which was a movement that depicted everyday life with ordinary people with realistic accuracy. The painting was commissioned by the French government for display at the Salon of 1849 and later placed in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The painting also depicts a group of cattle plowing a field/ land in the Nivernais region of France, along with their farmers. The artist is Rosa Bonheur, who was a French painter known for her mastery of animal painting as she worked throughout France in the 19th century. Bonheur also had a deep respect for animals and rural life, which can be reflected in the care and detail she put into this painting, along with her other paintings she created. 

4. YOUR FINAL THOUGHTS: 

Based on my research, the importance of this work is that it captures the essence of rural labor, showing everyday agricultural work. This is important because we live in an era of technology, and Rosa Bonheur’s provides the traditions of farming life and emphasized the relationships between humans, animals, land, and nature throughout this painting. Also, the use of light and earthy tones created a natural and warm atmosphere, that showed the lifestyle of working with livestock under the beating sun in this painting. Finally, this painting also highlighted the contributions of women in art, as Rosa Bonheur paved the way for future female artists in the male-dominated art world. 

SOURCES: 

"Rosa Bonheur: Labourage nivernais". Musée d'Orsay. Archived from the original on 2019-04-04. Retrieved 2015-01-26. 

"Rosa Bonheur: French, 1822–1899; Ploughing in Nivernais, 1850". John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Retrieved 27 January 2015. 

Heather McPherson (2003). "Bonheur, (Marie-)Rosa [Rosalie]". Grove Art Online. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T009871. Typical of the Realist interest in rural society manifested in the contemporary works of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet, Ploughing was inspired by George Sand's rustic novel La Mare au diable (1846).[dead link] 

Waters 197; "Letters and Art: Anna Klumpke". Public Opinion. Vol. 29, no. 11. 1900. p. 340. Retrieved 26 January 2015. 

Muratova, Xenia (1978). "Current and Forthcoming Exhibitions: Paris and China". The Burlington Magazine. 120 (901): 257–60. JSTOR 879183. 

[kendall-arh2000]

1. JOURNALING: 

Unity & variety: unity means that all the elements in an artwork together to give consistency, while variety means the opposite, so there are different colors, shapes, and textures within one artwork. Example: a decorated living room that has a complementing color palette but also has different textures for the rug, coffee table, and couch. 

Balance: when different parts of an artwork come together, despite there being different elements that make up the whole piece to create stability. Example: a charcuterie board at a restaurant because a chef can arrange the food symmetrically to give an aesthetic appearance to the customer. 

Emphasis & subordination: emphasis allows for a specific area of an artwork to become the center of attention or the focal point, while subordination allows for the other elements to be less noticeable, meaning that it supports the focal point/ emphasis of the artwork. Example: a movie poster having the main character in the center of the poster while the other characters are in the background/ further back. For instance, the poster for Mean Girls is a good example of this.  

Directional forces: the lines, shapes, and/or patterns that create a pathway for the viewer’s eye to follow throughout the artwork. Example: a spiral staircase that leads to the next story of the house to show an upward movement. 

Repetition & rhythm: repetition shows the elements in an artwork being repeated, while rhythm shows the movements and flow of an artwork. Example: a row of streetlights that are along the road as you are driving down a highway as this shows a repeating pattern that is consistent. 

Scale & proportion: scale shows the size of an object and how it compares to the size of other objects in its surroundings, while proportion shows how the different object parts correlate to the other parts in the artwork. Example: A skyscraper next to a taxicab in New York which shows the intense scale of the skyscraper while the taxicab is the small subject in comparison to the proportions between the two. 

2. CONNECTING ART TO YOUR WORLD: 

Color has affected my style and emotions in various ways. For instance, I wear a lot of blues because this color makes me feel at peace, which is a similar feeling I have when I go fishing on open water or watch the sunset at the beach. Since I feel comfortable in this color, I also feel my most confident when I wear different hues of blue and my favorite blue is royal blue due to its saturation. Moreover, I also like earthy tones, like greens and browns, as these colors remind me of nature and animals. For instance, I show and raise livestock, so these earthy tones remind me when I walk on the bright and intense green shavings with my animals in the show ring, so this color of green reminds me to stay grounded and humble. Due to all these reasons, I would say that the color scheme for my life would be a mix of earthy greens, warm browns, and intense blues to give a color palette of balance and peace of mind. 

3. ART PROJECT: 

This painting is supposed to show my steer in his pasture on a beautiful day with his rope halter on. This is something I’m passionate about because I have spent countless hours in pastures that look like this to work on walking my steer so we can improve on my showmanship. It was days like this that I miss the most with my steer. Like the steer in the painting, my steer was a black angus, and his rope halter colors were blue and teal. This is also an acrylic painting that I made on a white canvas. I used the colors: white, black, blue, teal, green, and yellow. 

[kendall-arh2000]

1. ART AND WRITING: 

The work of art that I chose (the first picture) is a painting I have in my bedroom, right across from my bed. This is a painting of an up-close daisy field, along with some daisies flying in the wind in the distance. I’ve had this painting for about 7 years. This is a canvas acrylic painting, and it serves as an art piece to help tie in my aesthetic theme of plants with cool undertones. I think this painting is beautiful because it captures the calm and coolness that nature can be and how there can be peace even under a grey sky.  

2. WRITING A SELF-PORTRAIT: 

I’m 18 years old and Hispanic. I identify as female with she/her pronouns. I’m a born and raised fourth generation Floridian. For fun I raise and show livestock (cows and pigs) and travel around Florida to compete in livestock competitions. I’m a member of FFA and Manatee County Young Farmers and Ranchers. I work as a part-time babysitter as I’m still in high school. What makes me unique is that I can find a connection with the majority of people because when you raise livestock, people come from various backgrounds and experiences. Also, I come from a mix background, a Hispanic dad and white mom, so I have a mix cultural lifestyle.      

3. ART PROJECT (SELF-PORTRAIT):  

For my self-portrait (the second picture), I did a scrap book type design to represent the memories I had with my past/ current livestock animals. These pictures of myself and my animals show a time when I was happy sending time with them. However, the middle picture of the collage shows a representation of what it is like raising a terminal market animal. While you will always have the memories of bonding and caring for these animals, once they go to the market, all you are left with is their halter and empty stalls.