Title : Eden
Size : 1ft by 2ft medium : Acrylic paint on canvas completion : september 2022 Exhibition text : I have been fascinated by religion for a while despite not actively practicing a faith myself. I had also been enamored by stained glass windows as well. This led me to attempt to portray this through my straightened painting techniques. Using previously made pieces and my interpretation, I wanted to recreate the garden of Eden mentioned in the Bible as it’s the religion I am most familiar with and that is currently practiced. |
Inspiration:
Religious stained glass windows. During the Renaissance, When Christianity was at its most popular, Churches were (and still are) adorned with a plethora of stained glass windows depicting many events of the Bible because "they were ways of delivering religious messages to all viewers, even those who could not read the Bible for themselves." since most of the church goers were illiterate. Another inspiration is the Renaissance period itself. This was when interest in the arts, literacy & the sciences was renewed. As such there was a large number of religious artworks that originated from the time. |
Experimentation: since I had this idea from my last project, I had a good idea of where to start. I started by figuring out the main focus, that being the Tree of Knowledge from the Bible however I did not know what there be just the tree as my quick concept feels quite barren. I also was trying to figure out the medium I wanted to use. While trying a new medium was appealing it just wasn't practical.
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I then try to figure out what I use for the outline since it would likely need to have straight lines. I also somewhat experimented with how colors with different brightnesses would look next to each other however my method was rudimentary and looked quite poor. I also tried to focus more on the single tree aspect for the planning despite knowing I wasn't going to do that.
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Process:
To start, I made a grid on the canvas marking the 6' in, 12' in, and 18' in lines respectively so that I can make it look like multiple panes of glass together. I also outline the perimeter to create the window's edge. I then make a very terrible tree without a reference as to how trees tend to look in stained glass. I then decided that it looked terrible and to use a reference (which I should have done in the first place) and it looked way better. I also outlined the perimeter and the three lines down the middle. |
I began to paint the leaves with two shades of green. I tried my best to keep the paint opaque and thick since my sketch lines were quite dark and I wanted to somewhat emulate the glass despite most of the glass not being a totally flat color in my inspiration but I thought it would be better that way.
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I then moved on to the browns as I wanted a bit to see how it would look with more than just the colored leaves. I tried mimicking the primary inspiration/reference with the main tree being very fragmented while the rest were less so. I also got a bit of the ground with some brown as I thought that was what I would do for the whole thing at varying brightnesses.
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I then moved on to getting the rest of what I needed, filling the leaves with some brighter greens and getting the tree line near the bottom with a single color except for the top of the canopy. I also painted the sky with nearly 1 shade beside a darker blue to break it up. The ground was a brown/green mix at various brightnesses to somewhat simulate grass under shade and light. which is not how my inspiration did it.
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Reflection/critique: Despite constantly saying this, I am genuinely happy with how the piece turned out. the whole time I was making it I thought that it would turn out weird somehow. Despite that, it is still not as good as it could be. Parts of the paint do not cover as much as I wanted, mainly around the edges where the outlines are. The outlines were meant to be done cleanly with tape bordering them while I painted them however I never ended up doing this as I justified it as "it would have been a waste of tape and time" and "I wouldn't see where most of the main parts would be." and other excuses much to quality's dismay. The outlines suffered because of my laziness.
Compare / contrast :
Compare: Both are focused on a forest with one central tree. Both are representations of the garden of Eden. Both are surrounded by a black border
Contrast: One is a real stained glass window, another is simply inspired by one. One uses lighter and less opaque colors while the other uses dark and opaque colors.
Compare: Both are focused on a forest with one central tree. Both are representations of the garden of Eden. Both are surrounded by a black border
Contrast: One is a real stained glass window, another is simply inspired by one. One uses lighter and less opaque colors while the other uses dark and opaque colors.
Connection To ACT
1.) The cause-and-effect relation my inspiration had on my artwork is the stained-glass look of the piece. there's also a highly detailed main focus as well. Most of what I made was heavily inspired by these two aspects more than the rest.
2.) The overall approach is to allow everybody to see the stories in the Bible even those who could not read.
3.) I concluded that the churches created visuals so that everyone can hear their message. Since most commoners were illiterate during the time period that stained glass windows were being made, these windows allowed for even more visuals to be created.
4.) The central idea was to find out why stained glass windows existed so prevalrently in churches and in general.
5.) The inference that I made is: that I wanted to spread their message to everybody in any way they could.
1.) The cause-and-effect relation my inspiration had on my artwork is the stained-glass look of the piece. there's also a highly detailed main focus as well. Most of what I made was heavily inspired by these two aspects more than the rest.
2.) The overall approach is to allow everybody to see the stories in the Bible even those who could not read.
3.) I concluded that the churches created visuals so that everyone can hear their message. Since most commoners were illiterate during the time period that stained glass windows were being made, these windows allowed for even more visuals to be created.
4.) The central idea was to find out why stained glass windows existed so prevalrently in churches and in general.
5.) The inference that I made is: that I wanted to spread their message to everybody in any way they could.
Citation:
https://classroom.synonym.com/why-do-churches-have-stained-glass-windows-12079246.html
https://www.cumberlandstainedglass.com/why-stained-glass-windows-are-omnipresent-in-churches/
https://classroom.synonym.com/why-do-churches-have-stained-glass-windows-12079246.html
https://www.cumberlandstainedglass.com/why-stained-glass-windows-are-omnipresent-in-churches/