Peace

Water Lilies 1908 - Claude Monet

Context

Peace is generally the opposite of war, a state of harmony or the absence of hostility. It is a position of quiet and tranquility with the feeling of calm and serenity. It is often portrayed using pastel colours and light tones as well as curved brush strokes and thus affects the choice of media appropriate to use.

Actual Meaning

Claude Monet was born in Paris on the 14th of November 1840 and was the founder of the French impressionist movement especially with his work on landscape paintings. I picked the image from a series of compositions incorporating lilies. They were inspired by the many flowers in Monet’s gardens and ponds from his house, situated outside of Paris, where he lived in his later years. During the time in which the series was created Monet was suffering from cataracts he was treated for this by having a lens removed. Ultimately this allowed him to see ultraviolet lights hence why many of his paintings used such vivid blues.

What the piece means to me

The colours blue and green are often used to symbolize calm and tranquility and so when used in this situation makes the image very calming and peaceful. I feel the light pastel tones portray a warm summers day with flowers in full bloom. The vivid blue in contrast to the shades of the lilies and reflection in the water creates an un-natural composition and together enhances the mood of the piece.

Materials used and how they compliment the meaning

This image was created using oil on canvas and this is how he created such vivid colours and strong brush strokes to build up textures.

Overall Judgement

I feel that overall this image is quite striking because of the contrasts of colours and the thick lines of the brush strokes used to build up layers. All these factors produce a good composition with a peaceful quality which is still recognised to date.

My Response

Below is my response to the image “water lilies 1908” by Claude Monet, I created it using my own photography plus computer manipulation using Photoshop. The original photo is my own work and to me the solitary crisp, white lily symbolises peace and tranquillity. White and blue are two colours often used to portray calmness and that is why I believe this composition works well. Just as Monet used ultraviolet colours in his work I have used a very vivid blue overlay to try and create the same sort of effect digitally I then added a hard mix to the new fill layer and lowered the opacity. Overall this made the white lily in the centre stand out from the bright blues in the water and created a more striking image.

Ram's Head White Hollyhock Hills by Georgia O'Keeffe

This is an image by the artist Georgia O'Keeffe I included in
the concept of Peace because I feel this painting has a great tranquil atmosphere. It takes all the elements from nature which emphasizes the idea of peace, this is also helped by the choice of pastels shades used