4/7/21

After studying and researching Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” I learned about the pointillism technique. Seurat and Paul Signac developed pointillism, which is a painting technique “where small, discrete dots are placed together to create a cohesive composition.” Seurat often worked with complementary colors (purple/yellow, blue/orange, red/green), which, once placed down next to each other, gave off a “flickering” kind of look. I was interested in practicing the technique and thought it would be easiest to start off with markers. I worked on creating 4 different fruits (apple, pear, orange, and watermelon). When I started off practicing the technique I only used the accurate set of colors that match whatever fruit I was working with (for example I only used shades of orange for the orange). While the fruits looked like fruits, something seemed boring and a little off with the technique. I referred back to my notes regarding Seurat’s work and decided to start working with complementary colors (this meant I added shades of blue to my orange). After doing so, I was surprised by how much the look of each fruit changed. Despite not being “realistic” in terms of color, working with complementary colors made them much more lively, exciting, and intriguing to look at. I was shocked by how much my artwork can change using complementary colors and the pointalism technique. As I continue my work with pointillism, I will look out to see how else this “flickering” effect can change my art.

4/8/21

This week a moment that was fun and engaging was a field trip that I took downtown. As I was studying Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks,” I found out that there was a cafe in lower Manhattan that “supposedly” a possible inspiration for the painting. Though it is not confirmed, the exterior of the cafe seemed very similar to the one in Hopper’s painting. This location was originally called “Classics Cafe,” but was renamed to a restaurant called “Nighthawks.” Now, however, it is a sushi restaurant called “Jeju Noodle Bar.” I woke up relatively early and enjoyed my trip downtown. I got a drink and walked to the destination. Though the restaurant was turned into a noodle place, it still had the banner with “Nighthawks” on it. For a project that mainly remained indoors, it was nice going out on a field trip. I took photos of the restaurant and plan to use its exterior as inspiration for my own work with the painting. As I continue my project, I hope to continue to get outdoors more and continue to learn about these paintings in unique ways, not just through online research.