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Passing Storm Painting Descriptions

Decent Essays

Melissa Stroud
5-25-16
Arts 1301-007
Michele Monseau

I attended the San Antonio Muesuem of Art and found a painting I really enjoyed called Passing Storm over the Sierra Nevadas.It was painted by Albert Bierstadt in 1870, using oil on canvas. He created a very dramatic scene of a thunderstorm that moves across a lake with a mountain in the background. There is a stark contrast between light and shadows.
He uses thin, delicate lines to show the craggy mountain. Expressive lines and points give the boulders and pine trees texture. The shapes of the mountains and the branches of the trees rise up to the heavens, giving the piece a feeling of dynamic power and energy uncontrollable by mankind. The horizontal lines of the lake give a sense of space. There is a path with a curve that can imply soft, shallow lines that leads the eye to the forefront of the painting. It’s is also a darker path with light illuminating the top of the path, almost with a come this way feeling.
The colors used in this painting are phenomenal. He paints very dark clouds in the sky blocking the sun, with a reprieve in …show more content…

Under normal circumstances I would have gravitated towards an abstract expression piece (which I almost did) just because I find them fun and exciting. When I came across this painting it stopped me in my tracks a bit. The storm, lighting, and beauty of the landscape represent so much more to me. Years ago my brother used to be my world, one of the biggest priorities that he tried to instill in me was a love for God. Around the time I was in the second year of engineering school he suffered a severe injury from a car bomb in Iraq, he spent his last days in a hospital. He had always claimed that God wouldn’t give you anything that you can’t handle, so I interpreted his situation very negatively and essentially lost my faith. Relatives would make comments like “oh this is just a phase."I never gave their words much

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