Sunflower Field
Size: 1ft x 2ft Medium: oil paints Completion August 2022 Exhibition Text
Sunflowers are well-known for being a happy flower and brighten someones day. Using the theme of self expression this oil painting can show that after hard times there is always something bright coming your way. This field of sunflowers was inspired by the Impressionist artist Claude Monet. Painted in the Impressionist style, these sunflowers are representative of the good things to come. |
Inspiration
I was inspired by Claude Monet's Poppy Field Giverny and his Bouquet Of Sunflowers. Monet was a French Impressionist painter known for painting nature in the way he perceived it. Monet stood out from other artists because of the way he would capture the essence of the natural world using strong colors and bold, short brushstrokes. I was inspired by his painting Bouquet Of Sunflowers, because I wanted to paint sunflowers in the Impressionist style. I really liked the way you could see every line in the petals and the bright colors used. I felt like this tied together the idea of happiness around sunflowers. I was also Inspired by his work Poppy Field Giverny. This is because I didn’t want to paint flowers in a vase I wanted a field of them. In this painted I liked the way he painted the sky along with the mountains in the background. Mainly I was inspired by the foreground and the flowers, and because it was an Impressionist style you really can not see the details in the flowers which is what I wanted to mix into mine. |
Top-Bouquet Of Sunflowers by Claude Monet
Bottom- Poppy Field Giverny by Claude Monet |
Planning
I knew for this project I wanted to paint a sunflower field. I always had to keep reminding myself that happiness is coming after my dad had passed. This was the darkest experience of my life so I used these bright happy flowers to keep pushing myself to find happiness in the little things. After doing research I found the painting of Monet’s Bouquet Of Sunflowers. This is where I realized I wanted to paint in the Impressionist style. After looking through more of his work, I found his other flower fields, so I started sketching out how I wanted my painting to look. I knew I wanted a sunset sky with clouds and bright yellow for the sunflower petals.
I knew for this project I wanted to paint a sunflower field. I always had to keep reminding myself that happiness is coming after my dad had passed. This was the darkest experience of my life so I used these bright happy flowers to keep pushing myself to find happiness in the little things. After doing research I found the painting of Monet’s Bouquet Of Sunflowers. This is where I realized I wanted to paint in the Impressionist style. After looking through more of his work, I found his other flower fields, so I started sketching out how I wanted my painting to look. I knew I wanted a sunset sky with clouds and bright yellow for the sunflower petals.
Process
I started by added a light brown wash to my canvas making sure that there was no white peaking out. I then added a 1x1 inch grid to my canvas and sketching out where everything needed to be placed. I started up with the sky with a light blue making sure you could still see my brush strokes to keep that Impressionist style. I then added a muted yellow to give the sunset vibe I was going for using the same technique as before. I then created the muted orange to add to the bottom of the sunset. I liked the idea of the sunset because its going into the darkens and that's where most people head, if they forget about the happiness in life, which I’m using sunflowers for that symbolism. |
I then blended all of them together to create a smooth sunset and added in a few extra brush strokes to really show the Impressionist style I was going for. I then added in the mountains using the same technique for the sky just not blending it with any other color. I then moved on the the sunflower field by painting brown little circles for the middle, I didn’t make them perfect and all the same size and I placed then in different areas. After this I took a black and painted all around them, so later on I wouldn’t miss painting a place. I then took a bright yellow and started with the petals. I did different size brush strokes in a circle to create the petals. I had to repeat the process several times to really make the yellow pop.
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After letting the yellow dry for the sunflowers I went in with an orange color and did small little strokes. Then right away I went in with the same yellow to blend the colors together creating the perfect petal. Once I got them to look how I wanted them to look I went in with a dark brown for the center of the flower and repainted the circle. This was because when painting the petals they got out of shape and just looked like random blobs. This was also because I needed to make the colors pop, like how Monet would when he painted. I then went in at the bottom and started to add leaves around the flowers. This helped add depth and the idea that it was a sunflower field and not just floating sunflowers. I also went in the middle of the cast where the background met the foreground to add the sea of sunflowers. I did this by adding little muted yellow lines with brown lines to add the idea that sunflowers were there. This is very similar to how Monet painted his flower fields.
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I added bright white clouds to the sky using thin long brush strokes to keep up with the Impressionist style. At this point I was basically down, I just needed to add the last details. This included fixing a few flower petals that go covered by the blurred flowers in the foreground. I also added way more leaves and stems because it just felt bare. I also added to the leaves I already painted by lighting them or darkening them. I also mixed green and brown and used the same technique for the blurred flowers in the back with to make blurred leaves in the front.
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Reflection
Overall I am happy with how this painting turned out. I think this is one of my best pieces and I’m really proud of it. I feel like I used the style Monet used when he painted flowers all throughout my piece. I also used extremely bright colors thought my painting. I think the best part was my main flowers, I really like how bright they are. I also felt like with the technique I used the thin lines for the petals really help sell that it was an Impressionist piece. I also loved the way the sky blend together, it makes the painting feel so warm and bubbly. I feel like my least favorite part was the blurred sunflowers in the back, one because I didn’t know how to paint them the way I wanted them to look, and was just hard to paint around the big sunflowers.
Compare and Contrast
Similarities
Critique
I felt like this painting turned out extremely well. I loved all the bright colors mixed together along with the whole meaning behind the piece. I am surprised about how well the main sunflowers turned out along with the leaves. I was scared that the flowers would look like blobs and it just mess up the whole painting but in the end they really tied the whole piece together. I sky was another part I loved working one because the colors just mixed so well together along with the way it popped. I also feel like the sunset really help sell the meaning of this piece. If I could change things it would be the blurred flowers in the background, I would just add more actual sunflowers just extremely tiny ones.
Overall I am happy with how this painting turned out. I think this is one of my best pieces and I’m really proud of it. I feel like I used the style Monet used when he painted flowers all throughout my piece. I also used extremely bright colors thought my painting. I think the best part was my main flowers, I really like how bright they are. I also felt like with the technique I used the thin lines for the petals really help sell that it was an Impressionist piece. I also loved the way the sky blend together, it makes the painting feel so warm and bubbly. I feel like my least favorite part was the blurred sunflowers in the back, one because I didn’t know how to paint them the way I wanted them to look, and was just hard to paint around the big sunflowers.
Compare and Contrast
Similarities
- The impression style- This was similar because throughout my piece I made sure to use small brush strokes to keep mine similar to the way Monet would paint his paintings. This was shown very clear in my sky and big sunflowers.
- The bright colors- Monet was known for painting with bright colors so I wanted to make sure my painting would pop with brightness. I felt like this helped tie in my theme and my inspiration with Claude Monet.
- Not being in a vase- I was inspired by Claude Monet’s Bouquet Of Sunflowers, which was of sunflowers in a vase. Where I used used his sunflowers for inspiration, I painted mine in a field.
- Mixing the types of flowers- I used huge sunflowers and the main point in my painting, where in Claude Monet’s Poppy Field Giverny there was no main point, all the flowers were the same and blurred together. So I mixed the two techniques in my painting together.
Critique
I felt like this painting turned out extremely well. I loved all the bright colors mixed together along with the whole meaning behind the piece. I am surprised about how well the main sunflowers turned out along with the leaves. I was scared that the flowers would look like blobs and it just mess up the whole painting but in the end they really tied the whole piece together. I sky was another part I loved working one because the colors just mixed so well together along with the way it popped. I also feel like the sunset really help sell the meaning of this piece. If I could change things it would be the blurred flowers in the background, I would just add more actual sunflowers just extremely tiny ones.
ACT Questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
The cause and affect relationship is that the way Monet painted his flowers were similar to how I wanted my sunflowers to look.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach was how Claude Monet wanted to use his painting to use nature from his own eyes.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
A generalization I came across was how sunflowers have been known to being happiness, which is a worldwide generilzation.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
The theme that I I wanted to show was how happiness always comes after the dark times in our lives.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
An inference that I made was how Monet always aimed to show the reality of nature in different ways.
Bibliography
Claude Monet | Biography, Art, Water Lilies, Haystacks, Impression: Sunrise, & Facts. (2022). Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claude-Monet
Claude Monet - The Complete Works - claudemonetgallery.org. (2022). Claude Monet. https://www.claudemonetgallery.org/the-complete-works.html?ps=96
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
The cause and affect relationship is that the way Monet painted his flowers were similar to how I wanted my sunflowers to look.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach was how Claude Monet wanted to use his painting to use nature from his own eyes.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
A generalization I came across was how sunflowers have been known to being happiness, which is a worldwide generilzation.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
The theme that I I wanted to show was how happiness always comes after the dark times in our lives.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
An inference that I made was how Monet always aimed to show the reality of nature in different ways.
Bibliography
Claude Monet | Biography, Art, Water Lilies, Haystacks, Impression: Sunrise, & Facts. (2022). Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Claude-Monet
Claude Monet - The Complete Works - claudemonetgallery.org. (2022). Claude Monet. https://www.claudemonetgallery.org/the-complete-works.html?ps=96