Waterfall n. 1 Georgia O'Keefes' painting Waterfall no. 1 was one of three paintings he dedicated to depicting a waterfall near the Lao Valley in Hawaii. This, like all the others, was created on white canvas with oil paints. The canvas was born when O'keefe visited Hawaii in 1939 and, as the name suggests, is a depiction of a beautiful waterfall. This was new territory for O'keefe when she painted it, as she was most famous for depictions of the arid Southwest. The lush tropical views of Hawaii were completely opposite from his previous pieces. The massive nature of the mountains in this painting, the thin white stream of the waterfall, are all set with a sense of design and have a panache that gives us the feeling. The shapes that underlie this composition also suggest female sexuality, which brings out the notion of “Mother Nature”. I went to see this piece at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, where Gift of Art placed it there. The piece is originally located at Georgia O'Keeffe's estate in New York, New York. This waterfall painting is a fresh and virginal version of one of the most natural beauties in the world. Having been born and raised in Mississippi, I know the impact that landscapes can have on human attraction, as this is a mostly rural area, natural landscapes are found almost everywhere. The waterfall, mountains, clouds and greenery in the painting create a strong connection between the person and nature, a connection that is rarely found today in our modern tech-savvy world. In his painting it's as if he could describe exactly what he felt seeing this waterfall in Hawaii and he captured it beautifully. Looking at the painting we can easily identify the lines used, there are many sinuous lines present in the mountains and in the waterfall. There were alsoThis oil painting is an explosion of vibrant, lush colors on a vast canvas, giving it a captivating effect. O' Keefe used rich greens and blues as the main color of the vegetation and sky. “Waterfall No. 1” looks like a close-up photograph of a majestic landscape. The absence of “context” in the painting presents the clouds in a new light as pure abstract. Because this painting has emphasis, it also has scale. The mountains can be seen to take up huge amounts of space in the foreground, which captures the enormous size of the mountains in real life. Now, if we look at the texture, the entire painting, every single piece, looks very smooth compared to other oil paintings, which sometimes have the look of a fresco with the oil paint appearing plastered on the canvas. This painting seems to me to be trying to show that the small waterfall is still as massive, important and significant as the huge mountains in the foreground. This is achieved by having the mountains take up a lot of space but the focal point when you look at the painting is focused on the center on the
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