Katherine Hernandez

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Katherine Hernandez
Ms. Tillery
British Literature
21 October 2011
The World of Art
Dictionaries define art as the use of skill and creativity especially in the making of things
that are beautiful to look at, listen to, or read (Merriam-Webster). But someone cannot
understand, feel, or create art with just the definition. Some people say that art cannot be defined
and that becoming an artist is more than actually having the ability to draw or paint (Silberman).
Art is about expression, and the emotions that are triggered when a person is looking at a
painting. Someone with an artistically untrained eye may look at a painting and just see what it
is, for example a flower or a tree. But artists and patrons of the arts will attempt to view the
painting how the artist views it, no matter how abstract. Many people dislike abstract paintings,
and don’t even consider them art (Aureus).
There are many forms art and many different painting styles, such as; abstract, landscape,
portraits, and still-life paintings. There are also different types of paint that produce different
effects. A painting painted with watercolors would be very light, and painted using very soft
brush strokes. A painting painted with oil paint or acrylic paint would be brighter, more lustrous,
and would have a visible use of texture. Many artists prefer acrylic or oil paint, like Simon Bull
(Bull). But other artists, like Georgia O’Keefe and Alma Thomas, use a lot of watercolors
(Thomas).

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Acrylic paint and oil paint are also some of the most expensive paint, but when learning to
paint, you learn oil and acrylic before you learn watercolor painting. Watercolor paintings are
often painted on thick paper rather than on canvas like acrylic and oil paintings.
All artists are not necessarily painters. There are different types of visual artists, such as;
photographers, graphic designers, and fashion designers. These jobs can pay extremely well, or
leave you “down and out”. If you are an artist who has work in galleries then, you probably do
very well. But getting artwork shown in a gallery is not an easy task, but it pays off in the long
run (Dunbar). It’s the same in the fashion world, if you don’t own a boutique, or work for a
large store, it is very difficult to be successful as a designer. Few designers out there actually
make it to the “big time”, but the designers that do are legendary and remembered forever.
Unfortunately, not all artists are as successful as artist like Claude Monet, a French
impressionist painter. Monet has paintings all over the world and he has been dead for nearly 86
years. He made his mark on history because he founded a whole new style of painting called
impressionism. Many artists followed his footsteps and became impressionist painters (Chang).
In order for a painter to “make a splash” in the art world, they have to be unique and unafraid to
break the rules (Dunbar).

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Multitalented artist, Andy Warhol was one of the artists who were not afraid to break the
rules. He had his signature style that is constantly mimicked today. His hard life only drove his
passion for painting avant-garde paintings. He will go down in history for creating an artistic
movement called pop art (Graw). But good things do not always happen to those who break the
rules. Many artists are ridiculed and unappreciated through out there artistic careers.
It is not uncommon for an artist to discover their talent as children. Many artists start out
in the art world as early as 13 years of age. Amanda Dunbar, female artist, had her very first art
show in a gallery at 16. Many considered her a child protégé. She is often compared to female
artist, Mary Cassatt. Just like Cassatt, Dunbar often paints pictures of mothers and their babies.
Even though Dunbar has no children, she seems to understand the bond between mother and
child (Dunbar).
Another artist who started young was Vincent Van Gogh. The fact that he started so
young accounted for the amount of works produced in his 37 years of living. He got inspired by
what he dreamt. He was very passionate about painting and art in general. He had many mental
problems that caused him to do many acts that some would call unnatural. But Van Gogh was
not unintelligent. In fact, research has been done to see if Van Gogh had any prior knowledge in
astronomy. Some venture to believe this because of how intricate his interpretation was of the
night sky. The pattern and position of the stars leave reason to believe that Van Gogh did know
something about astronomy (Whitney).

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Artists are very different from regular people. It is said that no two people are exactly
alike, but that only comes to play with physical features, two people can be surprisingly similar,
but every artist is different. An artist expresses their true feelings, thoughts, and emotions in a
painting, lowering the chances of painting the same picture (Bull).
Another painter whose sui generis style made her world renowned is Georgia O’Keeffe.
She painted mostly floral paintings, but not “normal” flowers, they more like magnified
blossoms of flowers. They are clearly flowers but all painted in such a way that could mean so
much more. She changed what people thought of when they think of a flower painting. She
painted most commonly with watercolor paint. She used very vivid colors. Her style is called
abstract imagery. At one point in her life she was considered to be one of the most important
modern artists, and the fact that she was female in a field that was predominantly ruled by men,
made her all the more famous. She pioneered a road for all future female artists, and she became
an icon for pursuing her dream of becoming an artist (O’Keeffe).
Aside for actual artistic ability, studies have shown that there is a correlation between
mathematics and art. Some people will flat out reject this theory, but it explains otherwise. When
a painter mixes different colors together they use proportions, know just how much of one color
is needed to make another color. Adding water to paint changes the consistency, which has to do
with formulas, incorporating aspects of math and science. Math is also used when deciding the
proportion of the painting surface. Also math is used for scaling something to fit on a canvas, or
for painting people which uses measurements and dimension (McKay).

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Artists often say paint what is in the heart. But there was once a time where painting
whatever you wanted was not really an option. Artists mostly painted exactly what was in front
of them, that style is more commonly known as still-life painting. Still-life painting does not
work with all artists, like one such Alma Thomas. She started painting what was in front of her,
and she never truly liked doing that. She soon found out that she was not built for still-life, but
she was made for painting abstract. She became very successful, and created paintings that are
still remembered today. Her style can be compared to mosaic, because she painted small dabs,
and drew things using those dabs. She is an Expressionist painter who created Color Field
painting (Thomas).
There are so many forms of art, whether or not they are still practiced today. When
discussing art, a person could talk for years. It may be difficult to imagine how many struggling
artists there are when there are more struggling then there are famous artists. It is not exactly the
steadiest paying profession in the world; it all depends on how many paintings are sold. Being an
artist is also very expensive, all the paint and canvases can really add up. For someone to be an
artist they have to be extremely patient, and tolerant. In order to be an artist, it is crucial to be
passionate, to have that spirit that ignites the flame of ambition (Silberman).

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