January 2017 – leonpoh

In Staver’s paintings, he combined various techniques to draw the viewer’s attention to certain subjects and takes you on a visual excursion through the painting and in a sense he is giving you puzzle pieces in chronological order to allow the viewer to make sense of the scene depicted within the painting. He uses colours to emphasize light which immediately draws the viewers to a certain area of the painting and contrasts that with dark, bold colours which allows the subjects ot be defined.

Image result for kyle staver paintings

Kyle Staver, Prometheus, Oil on Canvas

In this painting, my eyes are drawn to the cool colours of the sky and there is a stark contrast as he juxtaposed an almost black figure of the eagle and that sillouette is easily identified as an eagle in motion. With the motion depicted downwards, the eyes are then drawn to the nude figure perched on a rock. What is interesting to me in this painting was that the background and foreground are mostly sillouettes with not much detail but we are able to make out the idea of depth and space and even that the scene is taking place outdoors. The use of light and shadow juxtaposed with the harsh, dark lines not only creates a three dimensional space but also guides the eyes from point to point in the painting, creating a narrative.

Image result for kyle staver paintings

Kyle Staver, Leda, 2015. Oil on canvas

Once again, Staver creates emphasis on the swan with the contrasting light colours to suggest a light source and defines the sillouette of the swan. Our eyes are then guided around the painting which creates a context of the figures being within nature. Again, I noticed that he uses a lot of cool, natural colours to depict nature and the figures being nude also give a natural, almost liberating feel to the painting. Our eyes are then guided to the sleeping lady in the background and then down again to the cool blue mat. In this painting our eyes move in a top-down motion.

Kyle Staver, Adam and Eve and the Goats, 2016, oil

Once again, Staver uses cool natural colours and light colours to highlight a light source, drawing the eyes to the central opening of a dense forest.The eyes are then drawn to the sillouette of the female nude in the foreground, then to the tree and the apples. The eyes then move down to the animals and then right to ‘Adam’. In this painting, I felt that the eyes moved in a circular motion with the male figure on the right being the last to be seen.

In Morandi’s paintings, the lines which stand out from the lightness of the objects seem to not only serve as a outline to emphasise the shape but also creates depth. He uses soft edges with subtle greys to hint at curves and when he partners that with the shadows it creates a soft gradation of colours to create shape, depth and perspectives. What was interesting to me was that object in the forefront were painted with darker, more obvious outlines while the objects behind them had softer lines on the edges and this is very reminiscent of the Linear perspectives used during the Renaissance. Another interesting thing I noticed was that the usage of lines also creates visual repetition and seems to create a sense of claustrophobia when the lines between the objects become one. In this case the thickness of the line affects the amount of visual space created between the objects and the darker/thicker the lines are, the closer the objects are to one another.

Image result for morandi painting

Giorgio Morandi, Still Life, 1951, Oil on canvas, 28,4 x 48,9 cm, Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington

The sense of depth can be seen through the lines segregating the table top from the wall at the back. Not only do the lines suggest the amount of empty spaces on the table top, they also separate colours of the various objects painted, acting almost as a shadow and shape.

All-That-Life-Contains-Contained

All That Life Contains, Contained, Still Life, 1941, Oil on canvas, Met

This is cute. The lines also act as shadows in this painting and I found it interesting how the objects at the back had more faded lines which kind of mimicked brunelleschi’s linear perspective.

Giorgio Morandi, Still Life, 1948/ 1949, Oil on linen, 26 x 35 cm, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

In this painting the lines to me seemed to serve more as to define the objects in the forefront from the objects at the back. Creating a separation from the dark objects and the light.