Analysis of Patrick Schuchards Painting, Hunters Lodge - Essay Example

Teacher Analysis of Patrick Schuchard’s painting, Hunter’s Lodge Patrick Schuchard is a renowned American painter, portrait artist, muralist, sculptor and designer born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1951 (Schuchard 1). He holds a Master degree and bachelor degree in fine arts. Patrick Schuchard has had his art works exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States of America, Europe, and Asia. His skill in art has made him one of the most recognized, talented and sought after portrait artist. Most corporate, private and public art collections exhibit Schuchard’s artworks. Schuchard is a scholar of art with faculty positions at Washington University as well as at FontBonne College. The artist was in 1984 the artist in residence in the Evansville museums from which I visited and came into contact with some of his art pieces. In this paper, his oil on canvas painting, Hunter’s Lodge found in Evansville museum is analysed for formal, contextual and conceptual characteristics. Patrick Schuchard’s Hunter’s Lodge (Fig. 1: Evansville Museum) is a 1982 oil on canvas painting. The painting is of an interior of a hunter’s room and the details of his possession. The viewer is able to experience the uncovered life of a rich class family. In European art, it was common for artists to depict the inside details of wealthy people’s houses as a display of material wealth and power. The contents and the elongation of the available space and the natural feel of the furniture in the house makes Hunter’s Lodge an art piece worth analysing for artistic and social placement of society members of modern times. The formal characteristics of the Hunter’s Lodge can not be ignored. For example, the elements of color, line and value are well established and carefully utilized to give a vivid narration of the scene. For example, lines are used to define the boundaries and details of the house such as the inner door, the carpet under the table and almost all objects in the house. Different types of lines ranging from straight, vertical, horizontal and wavy lines have been used to define objects in the lodge. The color used is also in line with the theme of the room. This is a hunter’s residence and thus; brown, black and grey colors are used to capture the natural feel supposed to be associated with such a scene. Probably, a hunter’s residence is located in a serene forest site where everything is calm and quiet. These colors achieve such an objective in the painting. The painter also utilizes the shades of these colors to achieve value in the artwork. For example, he uses a thin layer of black color shade to bring out the table’s shadow on the carpet. This is a suggestion that the house is naturally lit. The same shading using grey color is used on the upper half of the painting to achieve the probable light glimmering from a natural source into the house, giving it a naturally refined aura. The elements of color, line and value have been combined in a mastery way to achieve distance on a two dimensional work area. For example, the shading and line usage have been used to create a distance reality from the nearest point in the painting to the furthest exit at the far where the viewer gets a sense of the outside world, away from the interior of the house. The Hunter’s Lodge as its name suggests and is an American Revolution artwork in terms of style and context (Bell 496). The society from which this work is taken from was a society in which upper class people lived in affluence and they could pay artists to do the painting of their possessions. This was mainly a show of power and dominance in the society (Mayer 375). As such, Schuchard’s Hunter’s Lodge is a depiction and display of such a class in European world. The history of oil painting goes back to fifth century when it was dominant among the Indian and Chinese artists in Western Afghanistan (Carolyn 1). The technique was later to gain prominence during renaissance due to its effectiveness. Recently, artists like Patrick Schuchard have gotten into oil on canvas painting using water miscible oil paints instead of the traditional oil paints. The current medium enables the paint to dry within one to three days as compared to former ones in which a painting could take up to three weeks to dry. Usage of oil painting on canvas enables Schuchard to attain his goal of creating luminous effects that gives a natural touch on the artwork. Oil painting in modern times is also the best for achieving a more photorealistic quality of a scene (Chase, 15). For example, the Hunter’s Lodge appears photorealistic because of the texture achieved by the use of oil paint. In terms of content, the Hunter’s Lodge is a postmodern art piece. The content of the house are symbolic of the postmodern times. For example, the presence of sofa sets and modern carpet are examples of the content details that define the contemporariness of the theme. In fact, the photorealism achieved by the fine texture of the art piece is a modern style that many artists and contemporaries of Schuchard have explored exhaustively. Were it not for the fact that Schuchard is painting a hunters lodge, where technology should not be much of its content without adulterating his theme, there would have been television sets and computers in the house. However, this is not expected given that a hunter’s residence is supposed to be built in the woods or at the middle of the forest where electrification is not expected. Therefore, the need to give a self illuminating and naturally lit scene was necessary. It is not surprising that Schuchard has explored a colour matching that goes well with the modern time trend of colour knowledge and aesthetic appreciation. The way he combines colors tints of grey, brown, black and jungle green enables him to successfully achieve not only realistic and naturalistic nature of the setting, but also defines its place in time and space. The absence of the owner and the fact that the doors are open gives a sense of security in the place as opposed to modern residents in town where metallic locks are needed and no one would risk leaving his house doors flung open. The hunter’s lodge is a self defining painting, which is created with a master’s hand. Schuchard has succeeded in using elements of art such as line, colour and texture to achieve a goal that eluded many artists in modern times. Although he is doing a painting of a defined setting, he manages to bring out the essence of a wealthy depiction in an unexpected setting. A hunter’s residence is in most cases located in the forest. But with such an expectation, the viewer is drawn into analysing the possessions that the family has and the conclusion is; the hunter owns the forest in which his house is build. It is not cheap for a person to own a range where he can conserve animals of his own. It requires a lot of wealth and love for nature. This is what Schuchard presented in this painting. The love for nature has made the family to live a natural life; calm and tranquil as depicted by the painting. Every viewer of the painting can not help envying the owner, who is not captured in the painting. Schuchard’s work is a classic art piece that brings a sharp juxtaposition of ranger’s life and the contemporary life in urban residence; which is corrupted by insecurity, pollution, and artificial elements. Works Cited Bell, Julian. Mirror of the World: A New History of Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2007. Print. Carolyn, Barry. “Earliest Oil Paintings Found in Famed Afghan Caves.” Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080205-afghan-paintings.html Chase, Linda. Photorealism at the Millennium: The Not-So-Innocent Eye: Photorealism in Context. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2002. Print. Mayer, Ralph. The Artists Handbook of Materials and Techniques. (3rd ed.). New York: Viking, 1970. Print. Schuchard, Patrick. Painting and Sculpture, 2009. Retrieved from http://www.patrickschuchard.com/painting_gallery.html Read More