Miranda: English II, Section F

1. Course Website, Art Gallery, “Kindred Spirits” and “Early Morning”
2.On your blog:
(Yes, this can count as an entry for this week or next week)
How do these paintings convey the individual’s relationship to nature? Use specifics…

Kindred Spirits

Summary:
2 men in the painting, the rest of the painting is a beautiful landscape that includes cliffs, a waterfall, and birds within it. In addition to many plants, and a flowing river or creek.

Initial Reactions:

The painting displays a beautiful landscape, and two men, one, at least, or whom, seems to be a scientist, or a knowledgeable researcher, who is most likely not only appreciating the landscape for its beauty, but also for its scientific value, probably containing several different types of birds, and other animals, as well as plants, and specimens in the water.

How does this painting convey the individual’s relationship to nature? :
In this painting, there are two individuals. One of which, who seems like more of a scholarly fellow—or maybe he is an artist!!! At first I thought he might be a scientist, judging by the folder that he is carrying, which I originally interpreted as a notebook, or a compilation of papers, with which he could take notes about his discoveries and observations. However, looking at the painting with a new light, it seems that the man is not carrying enough equipment to take evidence back to wherever he works, all he seems to be carrying is a brown folder or notebook, and some indiscernible long stick, which he is using, at the moment, as a pointing stick, showing the other man something off in the distance. The relationship of these men to nature is shown, not only through the fact that they have taken the time to go to a jungle to see nature, even though they seem to be wealthy men, who may live in the city. Their hats and clothing seem to show that they belong there, not that they are out of place, but that they have made an expedition to go out and see the wilderness. The man who is pointing to something off into the distance, is probably one of three things: an artist, who has come to paint this beautiful landscape, a scientist who has come to make observations about nature and different specimens, or an explorer, who has come to chart the lands and the wilderness. The most likely of these seems to me to be the artist. The man carries few materials, and the most needed to do artwork are a pencil and paper, both of which the man potentially has, and the way he is pointing seems to me to be pointing at a point in the landscape for him to paint, perhaps. Also, if he is a scientist or an explorer, he seems to have too little equipment or stuff with him to be either of those things. If the man is in fact an artist, his relationship to nature is that he shares it with the world through his paintings, and inspires a love for nature in people all around him. In this painting, it seems that he is trying to excite the man he is with, with a love for nature by pointing out a beautiful part of the landscape.

However, in a broader sense, the real answer to the question is that the individuals’ in the painting relationship to nature is conveyed in this way: they are tiny in comparison with all that is out there. In the huge landscape, the ratio of the unknown wilderness and the two men is almost scary. They are so small compared to the vast beauty of the landscape and the wilderness, which continues through the rolling hills of in the distance of this painting.

Early Morning

My first reaction to this painting, even though at first it was difficult to make out the details, was how astonishingly beautiful it is. The calm scene with a single solitary person in it is so peaceful and beautiful, and it is so sad that there are only a few places left like this in the world now, compared to what there used to be. If you think about it, every place was wilderness a long, long time ago.

This painting is just beautiful, and it is somewhat blurry in the version that I am looking at, but the simplicity and beauty of the nature is still very clear. The thing about nature is that, even though it seems so simple in comparison with computers and complicated technology, because it is just there, in comparison with the machines that have been invented, but then again, it is also so complicated, the shape of leaves, the shadows, the color tones of the water, the smooth ripples and rocks, the grass and the dirt, the huge trees in all of their fullness. I mean, this might be the first painting that I would actually want to own, because it is so beautiful. I feel that I understand nature more than other people might, because I have stayed in a cabin on a lake for, basically every year since I was born, with my family, but, then again, every year there are more and more motor boats, and (I can’t remember what these are called) but, little one person motor boats, I think they are called water skis. One side of the lake is settled, but the other side is really not settled at all going there. Also, for probably about the last five years, I have gone to a place called Mono Hot Springs with my family, where there are natural hot springs, and my dad likes to get up early in the morning and watch the sun rise between his toes, it is unbelievably beautiful, and we hike to two different lakes, and the San Joaquin River flows through the entire campground, and I have already mentioned the natural hot springs. When I am in these places, I feel really in touch with nature, and it is an unbelievable experience to go every year, we always have a blast. Anyway, these paintings really remind me of these places, and it makes me so happy to think about them.

The Individual in this painting’s relationship is shown through “its” proportion to the beauty of the nature and the big trees, and the vast body of water, and how small it is in comparison to the rest of the painting. I think that the fact that this painting doesn’t show the person’s face, or anything about them, except for their silhouette on the rest of the picture, shows, not only that nature kind of takes away your identity, and when you are really in touch with nature, you almost forget who you really are, and you can be someone else if you want, but also, the fact that it really doesn’t matter who the individual in this painting is, the fact that they are simply a silhouette shows that they could be anyone, which displays to me that anyone and everyone can appreciate nature, no matter who they are.

These paintings conveyed two main things to me:
1. That nature is so much bigger than people, and vast landscapes of wilderness can be so much bigger than a few small people.
2. That anyone, and everyone can appreciate nature, no matter who they are.

These paintings are so unbelievably beautiful!!!!!!!!

[ This blog (which is actually two blogs in one) was actually supposed to be posted yesterday (Saturday), but am posting it today, Sunday...I am so sorry about this...but it was a really fun blog because it made me think about the Adirondacks, and Mono Hot Springs, and nature, which is something that I love, and I thought that the paintings were just absolutely beautiful]