Gallery critique “On earth as it is in heaven”

 The painting “on earth as it is in heaven” was created by artist Chester Arnold in 1997. It is a beautiful contemporary artwork, which is exhibit at the Nevada Museum of Art. It required for the museum by Mr. William Abernathy in memory of Janet L. Abernathy. The painting attracted me because of the peaceful landscape. I saw that cottages harmonize well with the environment, so I abandoned myself to the serene landscape. I did some research and learned that the artist hopes to remind people have to reflect on the relationship between human activities and natural environment. I think this painting was intended to caution people should be pay attention to the protection of the environment where we live and be considering about control pollution.

“On earth as it is in heaven” looks like many trees are sawn wood in the picture. After I did some research I know that the Gothic cathedral is a factory on the mountains. Furthermore, The mountains are the richest in the world that includes mine and an industrial city. There are a lot of conifers stand tall and upright on the mine’s mountains and some emits clouds of gray smoke from factory is spreading out in the sky. The painting was made out of oil that was oil on canvas. Chester Arnold’s painting is a weirdly interesting combination of lush classical painting techniques and biting social criticism. Oil painting is a creation way with pigment. It’s becoming one of the most popular painting techniques. First of all, it has a strong expression. For instance, it can be covering for many times and painting over and over again. Second, it has the bright color and high saturation, so the color is difficult to change. Third, it can be repeatedly revised that has a strong plasticity. Unlike watercolor, gouache are dry very quickly, it is not easy to modify if people does not draw it well. Palette and palette knife can save the waste of color and adjust the color more even. Artists usually express theirs opinion through painting. There are several types of techniques that artist use them to create this work, such as impasto, alla prima, and sgraffito. For impasto painting, painter use brush with thick color to keep the shape of painting surface. Alla prima painting not only makes the color fresh, but also delays the dry time to remain the painting wet on the canvas. Therefore, the painter can continue to manipulate the work before it become dry. Sgraffito is a traditional technique of oil paint. It also can make painting dry slowly so that the artists have enough time to create their work.