Creating Space

      The painting titled “East Hampton Meadows” by George Henry Smillie exemplifies many of the attributes that are used to create shape on a flat 2D surface.  The foreground consists of a tiny pond that seemingly stretches beyond the field of vision of the viewer.  The middleground consists of a makeshift wooden fence that may or may not be used to demonstrate a barrier or fence between two plots of land. The middleground also contains two trees on both sides of that fence.  The background contains a clear sky and trees that veer into the horizon after a sizeable distance between the makeshift fence.  Upon closer inspection, significant details begin to emerge from the painting.  For example, the artist uses different shading and blending techniques to demonstrate which parts of the pond in the foreground are shallow and also which parts contain more depth, which are highlighted through the usage of light and dark respectively.  It perhaps can even be speculated that the sun may be past its zenith due the shadows of the trees in the middleground pointing towards the east.  The artist further applies the use of value to demonstrate the time of day by making the right side of the painting lighter than that of the left, perhaps also indicative of the location of the sun.  This artist also utilizes overlapping by adding ducks and geese of different sizes in the foreground and placing them against one another to portray a sense of depth. Also it is to be noted that the animals are painted in accordance to their relative scale in which they do not appear larger than that of the pond besides them, which further emphasizes their size and relationship within the foreground.  Upon deeper examination, the artist utilizes hatching and cross hatching to add depth and value for the thickets that rest around the pond in the foreground and also around the landscape surrounding the pond.  The details within the leaves of the trees in the middleground also are given shape and form through the use of hatching and crosshatching. An interesting detail appears when focusing on the horizon line, the artist adds a glimpse of different color on the left-hand side behind the canopy of trees that make up the background as if to imply that there is indeed more land that stretches even further behind.  This beautiful painting cumulates into a very satisfying experience for the viewer because there is an abundance of detail in both a general and close-up analysis of said painting.