Comparison of a Work of Art - Essay Example

Though the place portrayed is in shadow, it is not dark, on the contrary, it is light enough to see elegant detail, and it is the sunlight splashing on the water outside of the secluded shadow that is overly bright and impossible to make out.  This all combines to show a place in nature as protective, walling you in, making you feel comfortable and safe from the outside world. The second painting has nearly the opposite effect.  The painting, rather than being in the position of someone who is in a secluded, shaded space, takes the perspective of one out in the beating sun.

  Here extremely bright light is shown to be the norm, with everything in the bright sun being visible and detailed, and things in the shadows being somewhat less.  The ratio of shadow to the sun is also inverted, as this painting portrays a minuscule amount of seclusion and protection in an open sea of defenselessness.  The trees being the only point of the shade of shelter in the entire field of view gives the viewer the impression that they are in an unimaginably vast place, and completely exposed.

These two paintings both use light and shadow to give a sense of protection or exposure, respectively, and in doing so give two completely different interpretations of nature, one as a secluded place that protects from the outside world, and the second that shows how exposed and vulnerable one can be in nature.