Assignment one: Compare and Contrast

The first painting I chose to study was by Scott Bertram and is displayed on the third floor of the University Center. The majority of this painting is black white and grey, with a large salmon blotch in the bottom right corner. The painting is a diptych, made up of two panels. Each panel is 60” wide by 52” high. It is split through the horizon almost evenly at the centre. The grey-white background gives contrast to the black lines that appear to depict mountain-like designs. There are four mountainous shapes in the background: two are overlapping on the right panel, a large mountain spreads across the centre of both panels, and a small mountain is placed in the far left side. The overlapping, differentiation of size, and spacing all influence the perspective of the viewer, and cause the mountains to appear on different planes. All of the mountains have a misty white inconsistently painted over them. This also helps the viewer see these shapes as mountains because the white looks like snow that has fallen on the rough surface of the inconsistent rock face. The foreground appears to be layered or painted over top the mountains in the background, helping to create the idea of distance. The foreground has a base of white and grey paint. The division between the back and foreground is not a clear-cut line; it is also mountain like, with pointed edges. The mountain look of the white and grey foreground is achieved by having the grey act as contrast in small streams, creating rock texture. Also, black graffiti-like lines cover a lot of the bottom of the foreground, as well as above of the mountains in the background. Some of these

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black lines seem less arbitrary and more helpful to the eye to emphasize the shape of the mountains. Nevertheless , in contrast to the more helpful black lines, there are also graffiti-like black lines painted randomly throughout the panels. Finally, there is a salmon colored blotch painted in the bottom right corner. To me, this salmon blotch does not appear to have a specific, meaningful shape. This painting produces an impression of a dream or fantasy like thought because of the misty paint.

I also chose to look at the painting Leaf From An Album of Landscapes by Shitao from the 17th century. This Shitao painting is neutral in its color scheme. This painting has sepia tones, blacks and light blue ink. It is a Chinese painting done by Shitao while living as a refugee in a Buddhist temple when the Manchu took over the Ming. There is a monk painted nearly at the centre of this painting, and he is seated in a hut. This painting is 9.5” wide by 11” high. The monk and the hut seem to be situated in a mountain. There are mountains behind the main mountain to create depth in the otherwise minimalistic painting. The mountains rocky surface is created through vein like lines within the chunked, larger rocks in the mountain. The ‘veins’