Paintings 2011Naturalistic Pictorial Space To Formalistic Reconstructions: A Search For Direction And Growth As A Painter
Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship 2011 Faculty Mentor: Professor Lin Xia Jiang During the Summer of 2011 I embarked on a painting tour of New York State as part of the Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship. I created plein air paintings in a naturalistic, pictorial style using the unique features of New York State Parks, in areas including Niagara Falls, Allegany, the Finger Lakes, the Hudson River Valley, the Adirondacks, and Thousand Islands. Afterwards, I broke these paintings down and created new, abstracted, formalistic compositions from their elements focusing on line, shape, value, and color. I drew inspiration from traditional painters such as George Inness and Albert Bierstadt, and formalistic artists like Piet Mondrian and Richard Diebenkorn, viewing their original works displayed at local galleries including the Albright Knox in Buffalo. Through this project I gained great insight into the creative process, as well as growth in my direction as an artist, my personal style, and my abilities as a landscape painter. |