Luke Wood - Gallery Assignment

I chose “Looking Right/High Noon” by Frank Sawyers. This painting is in Calvin’s art gallery. It is an oil painting on a canvas, depicting an old man in a ten-gallon hat looking to his right, with the blue sky in the background. He is lit up by the sun with most of the light fall down over his face. The shadows of his face are lit up by the reflection of the presumably desert landscape. While most of the background is blue, there are small orange patches spread along the edges. The blue of the background also whitens toward the bottom of the picture, signaling the approaching horizon.

            The old man himself seems disturbed. His right eye is squinted as well as his left, but his left eye is lazy. The shadow of his hat covers most of his face, but it is soft shadow. It does not erase his features, only fading them even more. His skin is wrinkled and worn. There are bags underneath his eyes and his forehead is furrowed. His hair is wiry and gray and it disappears into his skin. There is no defined hairline. His ear is large and protrudes out awkwardly. The old man’s nose is the smoothest feature on his face. It shines from the light caught by the sun. The sun also illuminates his mouth. His expression is somber and terse. The man has a bushy handlebar mustache that is wily. Some of the hairs stick out oddly and are lit up by the sun. Overall, the features of his face are worn and complicated. Nothing seems to fit one way or the other, yet the whole face looks as if it has been through the same tragedy.

            Despite all this, the painting is warm and bright. It uses the light to show the face as is. The color contrast makes everything about the man, who is full of warm colors, feel dignified. It raises him up, as wrinkled and worn as he is, as royal. He is the king odd his own domain, and the vastness and lack of details of the background make his domain large. I like these qualities about the painting. It exalts the man, burdened and all. The artist seems to say that it matters is where the man stands. In the beauty and sheer wonder of the desert, this man can be dignified.

This is why I like the painting and think it to be good.

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       In my picture of Jake I strove to communicate the same type of contrast. While Jake's face is young and barely stubbled, the background is coarse and unfeeling. In a small sense, this picture of Jake could be considered a part 1 to the previous image. Jake here is young and barely worn. Yet, the shadows fall on his face and weigh down his eyes. He is weary of the life ahead. While his surroundings now are uninspiring and potentially hurtful, it cannot stop him from becoming like the old man in the first picture.