Homework #4

Critical Analysis

As I was researching images of the various visual art I came across an

award winning painting by Cathy Locke entitled Their Falling Landscape,

Which mesmerized me immediately. It is a simple painting but forced the

Viewer to feel such strong emotions such as love, strength and safety.

Cathy Locke is a creative professional with over 25 years of experience.

Her resume includes experience in Portraiture, fine art, art illustration and

teach. She has received numerous awards such as Pastel 100, Pastel

Journal 2009. The artist paints with the intention of the viewer to feel

emotion rather than focus on a particular individual. The artist tends to

paint in a 2-D format. She uses a combination of oil and cold wax, or pastel

and acrylic washes to create the surface. Their Falling Landscape is a mixed

media 40” X 40” painting. This painting leads me to question, does this

painting allow you to see the individuals with emotion rather then just seeing

the individuals.

The painting is a simple painting with no landscaping but only a man

holding a women on his shoulder surrounded by a variety of colors ranging in

the family of the orange and blue colors. The bottom of the painting is

mainly in a navy blue with a lighter blue mixed in with no clear stroke

pattern of the paint brush. The blues wrap around the man and women up to

his mid back. The top of the painting is a variety of the oranges with a

minimal amount of reds, light blue and tan, also with no particular brush

stroke pattern. The man is holding the women on his shoulder with his hands

wrapped at the top of her legs just benethe her buttocks. His head is tilted

away from her. Her hair is hanging down and her arms are on his shoulder.

Her face is looking towards him. The surface of the paining appears to be

rough instead of smooth.

As I gazed at this picute I only seen the individuals in the painting. The

colors in the painting came after when I was deciding what the colors meant

in respect to the emotions I was feeling. Seeing the man hold the women I

felt the emotion of love, strength, safety and security. I viewed that the

blues represented the time of individuality. The man lifting the women on

his shoulder as if to carry her represents to me love, the strength of the

unity, and also the safety and security of the unity. The lighter colors of

oranges signify a brighter time with the unity. The rough surface and no

definition to the brush stroke represents to me uniqueness as each unity

has.

In my opinion this is an excellent painting. The artist had a goal of the

on looker to view the painting with emotion rather than fixate on an

individual. The art world has many was to view art and this artist has

successfully captured in this painting human emotions.