Activity #10

Martin Johnson Heade
Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth, c. 1890
Gift of The Circle of the National Gallery of Art in Commemoration of its 10th Anniversary
1996.14.1



Martin Johnson Heade
Rio de Janeiro Bay, 1864
Gift of the Avalon Foundation
1965.2.1

Both of my chosen paintings by the same artist use oil on canvas. Oil is a medium which can be used or mixed with spirits, turpentine and other liquids such as glaze and other (168).Oil paint on canvas can create a smooth, error free glaze(175), a thin translucent layer of color, applied usually over another color.This glaze also allows colors to blend to create the finished effect. Oil paint itself is created with a pigment(172), a coloring material made from various organic or chemical substances. When mixed with a binder(172),a substance in paint that causes particle of pigment to adhere to one another and to be a support, it creates a drawing/ painting medium. One of the benefits of oil paint is that it dries slowly which allows the paint to blended with each other. More than one layer of paint can be applied on the top of other layers without the worry of cracking or detectability and the the artist can redo the painting until he gets it the way he wants it without destroying his work(173). These two works of arts uses these techniques to their advantage creating two well blended, perfect works of art.Heade made Giant Magnolias by getting rid of all visible brushstrokes and creating a polished surface and by using aerial perspective, allows the sky and sea to be the focus of the canvas. In Rio,the paint was thin, instead of impasto, which would be paint applied in thick layers. You can see the noticeable brushstrokes in the hills, but not in the water.In the water except for the waves , Heade again removes the visible brushstrokes to give the water unity. Mediums are used as a way of painting not a way of expressing art, though they do make each work of art unique and one of a kind even if one was to copy a work or art perfectly, it will never be the same as the original.