Summer Poppies by Heddy Kun

The work of art I selected to analyze for the midterm is called Summer Poppies. It was created in 2005 by an artist named Heddy Kun. I found this piece of work in my dorm building, North Living Center C. I found many art terms that are used throughout the painting.

The art piece is representational because I can distinctly see a landscape with many flowers in it. In Summer Poppies, the landscape is separated into three different depths, including, foreground, middle ground, and background.

In this art piece, I found the foreground ranging from the bottom of the flower stems to the last row of red flowers. The flowers are very close and clear to me in the foreground. Kun used a technique called, overlapping, by painting clear-cut lines of red flowers to create depth in the piece. This allowed me to see how far the red flowers trailed back into the landscape. I found the middle ground ranging from the last row of flowers to the white house.

Lastly, the background ranges from the white house to the hills and the sky. The hills in the background appear lighter in value, than the flowers in the foreground. I can distinctly tell the difference between the foreground and background, because in the foreground the flowers have visual texture, while the hills in the background are very faint and do not portray much detail. This makes it seem as if the hills are far away. One important term I found in the background of the painting is the horizon line.

Get quality help now

KarrieWrites

Verified

Proficient in: Flowers

5 (339)

“ KarrieWrites did such a phenomenal job on this assignment! He completed it prior to its deadline and was thorough and informative. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

It is where the hills connect with the sky. The location of the horizon line is significant in a painting because it shows the viewer whether we should be looking at the artwork from a high place or the ground (South). In this painting, I imagined myself lying on the flower bed and looking up and out at the view.

In Summer Poppies, on the right sidaree, there is a house located in the middle ground, which I consider to be the focal point of the piece. Diagonal lines reveal the house by making our eyes travel along the road, eventually leading us to the house. Not only does the road point us in the direction of the house, but the house is noticeable because it is the only white object in the painting. Not to mention the sunlight is also beaming directly on the house. On the right side, Kun draws our attention to the house, because she wants to make her viewers feel safe. By doing so, she makes the landscape have a calming vibe that allows people to imagine coming here and letting all their worries go away. The landscape in this piece is similar to a vacation spot. While looking at this landscape she wants her viewers to feel relaxed.

Since the main focus of the piece is on the right side, I would consider this side to have more positive space. However, on the left side, there is mostly negative space. On this side, the tree is the only object that maybe stood out to me. The left side is mainly all greenery. Since one side contains more positive space than the other, the painting is known to be asymmetrical. Asymmetrical balance means that there are two sides to a piece of art that do not match (Swoboda). Even though the painting is asymmetrical, green is continually used throughout the landscape. While the color green brings the piece together, the red flower bed in the foreground also brings the artwork together. I can find an equal amount of red flowers on both the right and left sides of the painting. Green and red are commonly used in Summer Poppies, creating a sense of unity.

The piece also has an atmospheric perspective, because as I mentioned previously, the hills in the background lack visual texture and are lighter in value, than the rest of the painting. The background is very blurry; however, this makes it seem like the hills are far in the distance. While the colors in the background are dull, the colors used in the foreground are very saturated. Red is one of the first colors I see in the painting because it is very bright compared to the rest of the colors being used. I think the use of red in the foreground is very noticeable because it is surrounded by its complementary color, which is green. In addition, red is considered to be a warm color. Yellow is another warm color I found in the painting. These warm colors make me feel happy, and almost make me want to run outside and play as if I were a kid again. I also saw some cool colors being used in the painting, Summer Poppies. I found purple and blue flowers in the middle ground. Usually, when I think of the color blue, it reminds me of being sad. However, I think the use of cool colors in this piece is very important. Imagine if the painting only used red and yellow, people would think it is way too bright. The variety of colors balances out the painting.