Art

I promised to post some pictures of my art, so here I go, even though it seems like I am the only one posting anymore.
I took an oil painting class this last semester and loved it. My teacher was young, very nice, and very contemporary, so I learned a lot, especially about more modern art. We used oil paint on panels.

Very first of all, we all painted a still life in class. I hate them. But it was good practice.
After that, we did an interesting collage of envelopes and paper. It is an interesting idea to paint practically two dimensional items, trying to make them look 3D and real on your board, and make it look real.
Then in class we painted a picture of a sculpture a BYU student made out of wooden boxes and frames, randomly put together into a large abstract shape. I don't have this painting right now, because it is in an art show with the sculpture in the HFAC. I feel kinda cool about that. :)
Then we had to do two paintings on our own, at home. We had to do them after the style of a contemporary artist.
My first painting is the one you have already heard about after the style of Jules de Balincourt.
Here are his paintings I used to inspire mine:
And here is my amateur attempt called Hope Rises With the Sun:
It is obviously flatter, less detailed, and less fun. I really liked it though, and it took forever.
Next I did a painting after the style of Lisa Sanditz. She does a variety of things, but I really liked her painting of this tree.

So I tried to think, what could I do with this style? She takes nature, and makes it industrialized, colorful, and crazy in her paintings. I really liked how her leaves look. So I thought, what are like leaves? Feathers. A bird. I decided to paint a bird colorful after the style of her tree. I found this picture of a bird,
And this was the result (trying the capture the feeling of motion):
Since I had spent so much time on my other painting, I pumped this one out in about 10 hours, which is quite the feat. I really hated it when I was done, especially the shoulder section. I disliked it very much.
Then I went to class, and for our final we had to do a class critique, showing our paintings and explaining why we did what we did. One girl held up her painting, and my teacher immediately said, "Oooooh. That's weird. I like it." He didn't like her not as weird painting as much. Then it was my turn. I started with the bird because I liked it less. I explained where my thinking came from. My teacher acted shocked that I liked the bird less, and said it was more me. He told me it was amazing, gave it full credit, and gave my other painting 9 out of 10. *shrug*
The moral of the story is that you never really know what your art teacher is looking for.
I love to paint, even when it doesn't turn out. Hopefully I can take more art classes here at BYU. :)