Task 1 – Presentation (Criteria A and D)

An individual research presentation in their chosen art discipline using concepts and
subject-specific terminology of:
 art inspired by nature, including research about the artist and the
context at the point of creation
 the critical analysis of one or two artworks.

NATURE IN ART

Art history reveals intriguing details about how people have seen the natural
environment. We've always used art to represent what nature means to us, from the
earliest cave drawings portraying hunting scenes to images that simply appreciate the
beauty of the outdoors. Examining art over the years might help us better understand
our ever-changing relationship with nature. Despite the fact that it is all around us,
until the 17th century, nature was not a particularly popular source of inspiration for
painters in the Western world. Nature is also a source of visual art. Literally. Natural
materials are used by artists to inspire and produce their works. Wood, charcoal,
graphite, clay, mixed colours, and water are all used in this piece. Nature is used by
artists to make their creations. The procedure by which cave people used paint to
chronicle and sketch on their walls is much the same as the one we use today. Without
these natural components, we wouldn't have the means to even consider creating art.
Finally, the patterns and personal experiences that viewers have when gazing at nature
support the use of nature as a direct art medium. While nature may appear to be just a
visually beautiful source of art at times, it is the participatory experience of
contemplation and unique thought that propels nature into the realm of art. More
significantly, using nature as a form of art may encourage society to protect and
rejuvenate our relationship with nature.

Asher B. Durand was a member of the Hudson River School, an American school of
landscape painters who thought that nature has a higher spiritual aspect. This group
of painters intended to depict nature as authentically as possible, not only because
they believed it was created by God, but also because they believed it belonged to
America. They sought to illustrate via their art that America was equally as lovely as
Europe, if not more so, because they had access to unspoilt "magical" territory.
One can see that nature is the main focus in this painting because of its relation to the
Native American on the bottom right. Durand's, "The Indian's Vesper" is depicting
an Indian in an evening prayer, otherwise known as a "vesper". The Native American
can be a stand in for the past as well as a stand in for mankind in general. The fact
that he is facing toward the sun not only highlights the figure, but can also symbolize
the coming progression of man and the world in which they live in. Sunsets usually
represent an end to something, in this case possibly an end to old ways. The light
however can also symbolize hope for the future. Because of these artistic choices, the
art has not only a spiritual quality, but a moral one.

The belief that nature had a spiritual quality was not only present in American art,
but Korean art as well. Nature was believed to not only be connected to human life,
but to spirituality. Korean art not only depicts nature, but more specifically human
experience in nature. Landscape painting became a reflection of the time, which was
a dominance and growth of philosophical ideals, like Confucianism for example.
These ideologies were built on ideals of humility and intellect. They were focused on
being humble individuals in order to understand the world around them in greater
depth, objectively. Art was a way to explore the world, beyond just human life. Their
views of putting themselves aside were expressed in their art

BATHERS AT ASNIÈRES BY GEORGES PIERRE

Bathers at Asnieres is one of

Georges Seurat's large-scale
works. This was Seurat's first
picture to be shown at the
Society of Independent
Artists, which had just been
founded. This was Seurat's
first picture to be shown at
the Society of Independent
Artists, which had just been
founded. Georges Seurat was
a French painter who
dedicated his life to the study of scientifically based painting
processes. In 1859, he was born into an affluent Parisian family.
Seurat studied art at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris from 1878 to
1879. Georges Seurat died at the age of 32, yet in his short life he was
able to bring about a revolution in art history. Seurat pioneered a new
manner of painting as well as a new art style. In, he established the
Neo-Impressionism style in the nineteenth century and he invented
the chromoluminarism and pointillism painting methods. Seurat's
conté crayon drawings have received a considerable degree of critical
acclaim, although being less well-known than his paintings.

Seurat's first big work was Bathers at Asnieres. It is 2 metres high by

3 metres wide and depicts a group of working guys enjoying their day
off. It's unlikely that he was surprised by its rejection when he
presented it to the Salon of 1884. At the period, the only topics
considered fitting for such a huge painting were religious, historical,
or classical subjects. Certainly not members of the lower ranks resting
on the Seine's banks. As a result, Seurat was making an intentional
political statement.

The bridge in Clichy, a Paris neighborhood, and the factories nearby

may be seen in the backdrop. Six large chimneys rise above the
buildings. The one in the center emits smoke that darkens to blue as it
drifts to the right. On that side of the bridge, there are trees and a
stone wall that drops right into the river. To the bridge's left are taller
trees and, somewhat hidden amid them, a couple of white-walled, red-
roofed cottages. The riverbank then slopes down towards and almost
across to the right of the canvas, occupying half of the painting. A pair
of sailing boats can be found just below the bridge on the left side of
the river, while a boat can be found on the right, farther towards us, is
a third sailboat near the shore and, only half his skiff visible, a solitary
sculler.

More significantly, there is a ferry with a tricolor flag dangling limply

from its flagpole, but with the red, white, and blue clearly visible so
we don't misidentify it. A boatman, white-shirted and straw-hatred,
pushes his paddle to transfer his passengers to the far shore. These
are a lady with her back to us and the men on the bank, partially
hidden by a white sunshade, and a dark-suited male in a top hat. The
sunshade and top hat, I believe, indicate that they are a lady and a
gentleman. Does the flag, which is excessively huge for such a small
boat, suggest ironically that its passengers are representatives of
France more valuable than the idling workers whom they are leaving
behind?

A man in a pinky-brown shirt, black trousers, and a straw hat is

spread out on his stomach the furthest away from us. A man dressed
in white and wearing a bowler hat sits next to him, staring at the
ferry. Then there's a cut in the bank, possibly to make room for boats
to land. Because the soil exposed by the excavation is cream, the
earth must be chalky. A man sits barefoot on a brown cushion on our
side of the cutting, his trousers rolled up to his knees, a sleeveless
vest, and a straw hat with a band that matches his cushion. He's
staring at the ocean as well.

A blond adolescent stands practically submerged in the river, her

back to us. He is pale-skinned, like the rest of the males; these are
industrial workers who are rarely exposed to the sun. A adolescent lad
sits on the edge of the bank, his feet dangling in the water, and is the
picture's largest - though not the most prominent - figure. He's
dressed in red bathing trunks and his clothes are beside him: a straw
hat with a band to match the trunks, dark boots, and trousers with a
large white towel thrown over them to bring attention to him. He has
red hair that is improperly trimmed, and his face and neck are a
darker color than his light skin. He is slouched and sluggish. an
unattractive figure with a big nose and a receding chin. You feel he's
lonely, his mind vacant. Or perhaps the girl he likes will have nothing
to do with him and he's enduring the misery of young love.
Behind him, a black-haired man stands with his back to us, his face
resting on his hand. He's wearing a bowler hat, and his shirt has been
yanked from his dark slacks, revealing a long swath of white that
echoes the cream of the cutting behind him. An orange spaniel sits
behind him, staring at the water. Seurat has a knack for animals.

We observe a pile of garments behind him, possibly belonging to the

final figure, a youngster standing in the river, further up the bank. He
is the person closest to us, and although being at the far right-hand
edge of the canvas, he is the painting's focal point because to Seurat's
compositional genius. He's dressed in red trunks and a red hat, a
blaze of colour against the white of his skin, which helps to direct us
to him. Fingers intertwined, he holds his cupped hands to his lips and
his head is slightly raised. He is making some sort of whistling noise -
is he calling to people on the other bank?

The overall impression is of green (the grass), blue (the sky, the
water), cream, and white (the bridge and buildings in the background,
the sails of the boats, the chalk of the cutting, and the white of the
men's shirts). The only activities are the ferryman plying his oar in the
distance and the boy whistling in the foreground, so the atmosphere is
static and unanimated. These are working men - possibly workers at
the factories in the background, as there is only one chimney smoking
- and today is their day off. The isolated figures are given a statuesque
but largely unmodeled treatment, with clean skin and clothes with a
waxy finish. With the possible exception of the boy in the bottom
right, they appear unconcerned, at ease in their surroundings, and
engrossed in a pensive and solitary reverie. Horizontal and vertical
lines in the middle and far distance contrast with the foreground
figures' arched backs and relaxed postures. The figures' postures,
head angles, gaze directions, and limb positions are all repeated,
giving the group a rhythmic unity. Distinctively colored forms in close
proximity, such as the horse-chestnut colors of the clothes on the
bank and the oranges of the boys in the water, contribute to the
work's stability—an effect reinforced by the cluster of shadows to the
left on the bank and the atypical play of light around the bathing
figures.

The composition of the painting, the way Seurat directs our gaze, is
thrilling. The image is divided into diagonals that slant from left to
right, and Seurat's use of brown to red draws our attention
unavoidably to the focal point - the boy in the red hat standing in the
water. The adolescent's red trunks are parallel and behind him, as is
the brown cushion, which is the same auburn as the young man's hair.
The interruption in the green of the grass caused by the cutting also
draws our gaze downward, away from the pale-blue sky and the white
and cream bridge and factories. Below the cutting, the two piles of
clothes and the long white shirt of the man with the bowler hat and
the spaniel also move us diagonally down and right. And, of course,
the three young men in and close to the water all have pale skins.

When he painted this picture in 1883-84, Seurat had not yet perfected
his pointillism technique. But the great adventure has begun: he
combines several colors to create an overall hue. The grass is green,
yellow, and grey; the teenager's swimming trunks are orange, pink,
blue, with an occasional streak of black - but the paint is dabbed on.
The tiny dots, which he must have made with a fine brush, do not
appear pointillist until two years later, and he would continue to use
this technique for the rest of his brief life. The balayé technique,
which was one of the brush-stroke techniques he developed on this
canvas uses a flat brush to apply matte colors in a crisscrossing
formation, is one of the brush-stroke techniques he developed on this
canvas. As they get closer to the horizon, the strokes get smaller. The
balayé technique is not used consistently throughout the painting, but
rather where Seurat thought it was appropriate. The foreground, for
example, is composed of a balayé network of strokes atop a more solid
layer of underpaint, evoking the flickering play of sunlight over grass
blades. This chunky, cross-hatched brushstroke pattern is in contrast
with the nearly horizontal, much thinner strokes that are used to
depict the water, and is in even greater contrast with the smoothly
rendered skin of the figures.

When viewed alongside 'La Jatte,' the meaning of Bathers at Asnieres

becomes clearer. It is no coincidence that the former depicts the
working class sunbathing on the left bank of the Seine, while the
latter depicts the more affluent middle classes enjoying a day out on
the opposite bank of the river. In other words, it's the story of two
classes, both of which are frozen in time and imbued with timeless
monumentality. Except that Seurat portrays the 'La Jatte' crowd as
materialistic and immoral, whereas the working men on the left (as it
were) appear to have a superior sense of straightforward simplicity.
Indeed, the working class boy in the red hat appears to be calling out
to the people on the opposite bank, as if to say "Come and join us! We
are the future!". He was influenced by Chevreul, the Chemist
concerning color contrasts and James Maxwell, the physicist on the
nature of light. He also experienced with different lines and used
them to express different types of emotions.

I've gotten a lot of suggestions for things I can accommodate into my

painting which will help me to develop my painting. To begin with,
color can be an effective tool for conveying drama and emotion.
Consider your big idea for your painting and try to steer your colors in
that direction. Consider making your colors even more warm and
intense than they are if you're painting a vibrant sunset. It can be
more effective to distort the form of your subject in favor of your
overall idea than to paint the subject realistically at times. In art,
contrast is everything. Munch used contrasting colors, lines, shapes,
and forms in this painting. If you want to experiment with a specific
composition, further, try using different mediums as Munch did with
his pastel, lithograph and tempera versions. You may find that
different mediums allow you to capture different aspects or
characteristics of a subject.

THE SCREAM PAINTING BY EDVARD MUNCH

The Scream is a popular name for a

composition created in 1893 by
Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. The
agonized face in the painting has
become one of the most iconic images
of art, symbolizing the human
condition's anxiety. Munch's work,
including The Scream, would have a
lasting impact on the Expressionist
movement. His childhood was marred
by illness, bereavement, and the fear
of inheriting a mental disorder that ran
in his family. Munch began to live a
bohemian life while studying at the
Royal School of Art and Design in
Kristiania (today's Oslo) under the
influence of the nihilist Hans Jger, who
encouraged him to paint his own
emotional and psychological state
('soul painting'). This resulted in his
distinctive style.
On January 22, 1882, Munch was walking with two friends when he
was inspired to paint The Scream. "I was walking along the road with
two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red
– I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was
blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjörd and the city – my
friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I
sensed an infinite scream passing through nature," Munch writes in a
diary entry from that day. Munch would later elaborate, saying, "I felt
a scream pass through nature, and it appeared to me that I heard the
scream." I painted the clouds to look like real blood. The color
screamed at me.” The scream evolved from this. Munch created four
versions of The Scream: one in oil, tempera, and pastels on cardboard,
two pastel renditions, and one tempera painting. Munch's willingness
to experiment with different mediums is evident in the various
renditions.

The Scream's execution is relatively simple for an artwork with such a

strong emotional impact. It is comprised of three main areas: the
bridge, a distant landscape, and the blood red sky, The components all
blend together.
The Scream conveys a sense of despair, as well as a variety of other
powerful and unsettling emotions that an onlooker is forced to
witness. Munch's brush strokes direct the audience's attention
directly to the distressed figure through the intentional use of strong
lines that also create a sense of movement. The sky's bold curved lines
flow directly into the figure and continue to form the individual's
body. This element may represent feelings of confusion and insanity.
Not only do the chaotic lines shape the individual's body, but they also
shape the landscape, which literally weighs down on the individual's
shoulders, as if the force of the figure's surroundings create immense
pressure on the subject. Similarly, the straight lines of the road pass
beneath the figure, whereas the straight lines of the railing almost
pierce and continue through the figure. The orderly, straight lines, in
contrast to the twisting lines, appear to stand apart from the figure
and the landscape. While these lines command order, they fade away
from the focal point, eventually disappearing in the distance.
Furthermore, the lines that form the sky and landscape create strong
movement that appears to carry the figure's piercing scream directly
into the figure from the hellish surroundings. Furthermore, the strong
curved lines give the impression that the painting itself transmits
sound—almost as if Munch intended his audience to not only see but
also hear or experience nature's scream.

While the use of straight and curved distorted lines appears to be the
most important element contributing to the painting's mood, Munch's
color choices and placement of light and shadow appear to have
significance and add to the emotional appeal of the scene. Munch
used color to convey emotion and drama in this painting. Rather than
painting realistically, he pushed the colors in the direction of his idea.
The exaggerated reds and oranges used for the sunset in the
background contrast sharply with the dull blues, greens, purples, and
grays used for everything else. Munch wrote about the painting and
the sky as follows, which explains his use of color:

"One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and
the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the
fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed
a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the
scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The
color shrieked. This became The Scream."

The use of color contrast in this painting works two ways: to show the
intensity of the "blood red" sunset in the background and the drama of
the ghoulish figure on the bridge. Both of these extremes need each
other to work effectively in the painting; they complement each other
like red complements green.

The ghoulish figure was painted in sickly colors, including dull

yellows, blues, and purples. Dark and light accents painted over the
top allude to the figure's "screaming" expression. Munch paid no
attention to painting this figure with any sense of realism. This was
most likely a figure from Munch's own troubled mind. Likewise, the
figure appears to be surrounded by darkness, with the landscape
below cast in shadow. Light only appears in the distance, where the
two figures in the background are moving. The figure, on the other
hand, appears to be frozen in the darkness, unable to move with the
others.

While the painting appears straightforward, there is a clever contrast

between two complementary color pairs: red and green and orange
and blue. This adds a subtle level of complexity to the painting as well
as some interesting color relationships. The "blood" red in the sky
appears to be the strongest color, in contrast to the land's very weak
green. The orange is also intense, but it competes with the blue for
the attention of the land and water (which is much stronger than the
green).

The simplified, distorted form is another element that contributes to

the mood of The Scream. The human figures and landscape do not
appear to be overly detailed. Munch is able to force his audience to
focus on the emotions that the scene and subject elicit rather than just
seeing an exact representation of one scene by using simple forms.
That is to say, sadness, panic, fear, and other similar emotions are
feelings that everyone has felt at some point in their lives, making The
Scream's subject matter universal. The muddled, unsteady state of
mind alluded to in this painting is heightened by the distortion of the
images. The isolation is heightened by the vast, almost empty
background space that represents the landscape.

HOW EDVARD MUNCH INSPIRED BY NATURE?

During the Expressionism period, Edvard Munch made his mark. Munch creates an
everlasting impact by using textures and movements inspired by nature. The artwork on
display here is a collection of paintings he completed between 1889 and 1925.

This painting was done for a friend and

depicts Munch's own home. Munch used
quick brush strokes to add movement
and texture to the painting. Munch
employs proper proportions in this
painting, providing viewers with a more
realistic view. The ocean dominates the
background, as if it were in his backyard.
Munch's home, as seen here, served as
the inspiration for many of his works of
art.

Munch demonstrates Monet's techniques

in this painting. He creates symmetry and
texture by using parallel lines and rough
dots. Munch also uses short, quick brush
strokes in this painting, giving it a
continuous, moving feel.
This is the Seine River, which Munch painted from winter to
spring, allowing him to incorporate a variety of design
elements.elements.

Munch manipulates our perspective by

allowing the trees and smoke to sway
in the wind. The strong curvy lines in
the trees, smoke, and land in the
background all contribute to the
simple moment captured. Munch's use
of colors in this painting creates a
flowing harmony until the end. He
uses linear perspective flawlessly in
this piece, creating a relaxing work of
art.

REFERENCES

https://www.thurmanovich.com/gallery-collections-blog//nature-in-art-part-1
https://blog.eaglesnestoutfittersinc.com/why-nature-inspires-art/
https://artsandculture.google.com/usergallery/nature-in-art/uwJidv1SCRiXLw
https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Scream-by-Edvard-Munch-a-critical-analysis
https://blog.singulart.com/en/2019/09/10/the-scream-the-story-behind-edvard-munchs-
haunting-masterpiece/
https://screamforcoke.wordpress.com/scream/