Winter Spring Summer & Fall
Cedar Lee January 11th, 2010
I was looking through some of my photo archives of older artwork on my computer and wanted to share these paintings with you. I did them as a “4 seasons” project for a college art class years ago. I’ve since painted over the originals with gesso (which is a kind of primer, for you non-art-geeks) and given the canvases away for a friend to paint on, so the originals no longer exist.
When I painted them, I thought they were brilliant–my very best work! Now, they seem so crudely done. I clearly had little understanding of the proportions of the human figure (note the glaring lack of torso in “Summer”–yeesh!) but even so, I think they were successful on some level. I conveyed the emotions that I attach to each of the 4 seasons. Am I a cold-weather girl or a hot-weather girl? Bet you can guess!
In doing this project, I also taught myself some important lessons about color palettes and how to choose colors that embody the mood I’m going for.
Spring
Summer
Fall
Winter
Whenever I look back at my crude older work, I’m thankful at how far I have come in improving my skills, and I’m also reminded of how far I still have to go. So I get a dose of self-confidence alongside a dose of humility, and I firmly believe both are necessary to the development of any artistic pursuit.
