Bird Watching
William Chase Johnson (2017)
This is an abstract painting I did for my Art Appreciation class. It is inspired by the painting Gouache by William Baumeister.
I wanted to use lots of geometric shapes and curves when creating this in spirit of Baumeister's piece. I tried to pull specific parts from his painting such as the circle shape used for the left eye, the offset quadrilateral used for the birds beak, and the long hook shape that frames the left side of the face. There are other parts but these were the more prominent ones. I used solid primary colors, because I wanted the face and the bird to jump out at the viewer. I felt that by keeping the colors simple, and only using a few, it would allow the viewer to focus on the painting as a whole. My original idea was just to paint a face, when I looked at Gouache I saw a face with a mustache created out of the shapes, so I wanted to try something similar. It wasn't until the painting was taking shape that I thought about creating something that could be rotated around to create a new image. I chose a bird because it seemed the simplest thing to make with the parts of the face I had already done.
I chose to title the painting Bird Watching to help guide viewers as to the subjects of the painting. But I encourage viewers to find other images hidden within the shapes. As far as interpretation goes, I didn't put a lot of hidden meaning behind the painting. I just wanted to pay homage to Baumeister's Gouache while still creating my own piece. Part of the reason I chose a bird was because I do enjoy nature and watching birds. When I look at the painting it makes me feel happy, but also a little disjointed. It has almost a mechanical feel to it. Like if you were to climb inside you would find yourself in a world of confused robots.
I tried to use the elements of space, color, shapes, and lines in conjunction with the principles of balance and emphasis to help make the images leap from the canvas. I feel that I accomplished my main goal of creating a piece that was representative of Baumeisters while making something original. I had thought about using rhythm and movement to create an image that had a sense of motion to it, but when I look at Gouache I don't see motion, it appears to sit still, and I wanted to try and capture that.
I don't necessarily think that other people should see my work, but I am proud of it as one of my first paintings I've ever done. It is something that I would hang up just to see where my artwork started at. As far as anything memorable about it, to me it's memorable in that it represents my first step as an artist.
