Last Friday we went to Tate Britain to see the large array of paintings they have for our Art Fundamentals Essay. We went around the paintings gallery for an hour and a half, picking three pieces of art to draw a section of.
The first painting I chose was Peter Monamy's 'Ships in Distress in a Storm', painted in 1720-1730. It first struck me as a messy, chaotic painting, but when I stopped to look at it, it had a strangely calming effect. I also jumped to the conclusion that it was a painting about a tragedy, however, there is a beautiful blue sky breaking through the clouds, and illuminating the most noticeable and central ship.
The second painting I chose was Francis Hayman's painting of 'Samuel Richardson, the Novelist (1684-1761), seated, surrounded by his second family'. It is a vibrant painting of a family. All the family members are cheery, yet calm, but their clothes are a very bright in saturation. The background, however, is the opposite. Whereas the family is crisp and bold, the background is dull and undefined. The forest they are in seams grey in comparison to them, maybe a way to showing the world how much they meant each other.
The final painting I chose was Arthur Hacker's 'The Annunciation', painted in 1892. It depicts a young woman standing in a serene garden, covered in a white headscarf, with a floating figure behind her. The first thing that struck me about this painting was the face of the woman. Whereas the whole painting seems to be rather soft and gentle, her face is bold and her gaze is almost terrifying. As if she is judging or being judged.
In conclusion, I loved the visit we took to Tate Britain, and would love to go again to see some of the sculptures instead. I did take a brief detour into a few of the sculpture galleries, to get a better understanding of how 3D things look (I mostly draw on a 2D scale).