(no subject)
Ella's latest work:
The painting is roughly 2 feet by 3 feet, swathed in the characteristic darkness of Ella's work. In about the middle of the painting Julianna Heartstrong sits on a low wooden stool in a cavernous castle hall. A dim fireplace behind her provides the only light of the place, and at the outside edges of the canvas the room fades into blackness. The dark castle hall provides only the upper half of the painting, however, at the center point, Julianna is embroidering a soft blue sash that spills down off of her lap and onto the floor, pooling out into enormity until it occupies the entire lower half of the painting. Julianna appears to be most of the way through embroidering the Dougal crest on the sash, but as it continues down into the painting the embroidery is filled with every imaginable sight of Spring, flowers at bloom, lambs playing through clover, all throughout the embroidery are images of Spring shaking off the bonds of Winter and coming to life. In certain spots, pieces of collage are worked in, real dried flowers and bird feathers give the painting a strange depth and reality. The contrast between the two halves of the painting is breathtakingly strong, it seems almost like two separate pieces brought together, and nothing is done to rescue the viewer from the jarring strangeness of it. Still, it seems in places as though the blue is creeping upwards into the darkness, slowly triumphing. The jarring quality of it is like a call to arms, to action, rather than something dark and woeful.
The painting is roughly 2 feet by 3 feet, swathed in the characteristic darkness of Ella's work. In about the middle of the painting Julianna Heartstrong sits on a low wooden stool in a cavernous castle hall. A dim fireplace behind her provides the only light of the place, and at the outside edges of the canvas the room fades into blackness. The dark castle hall provides only the upper half of the painting, however, at the center point, Julianna is embroidering a soft blue sash that spills down off of her lap and onto the floor, pooling out into enormity until it occupies the entire lower half of the painting. Julianna appears to be most of the way through embroidering the Dougal crest on the sash, but as it continues down into the painting the embroidery is filled with every imaginable sight of Spring, flowers at bloom, lambs playing through clover, all throughout the embroidery are images of Spring shaking off the bonds of Winter and coming to life. In certain spots, pieces of collage are worked in, real dried flowers and bird feathers give the painting a strange depth and reality. The contrast between the two halves of the painting is breathtakingly strong, it seems almost like two separate pieces brought together, and nothing is done to rescue the viewer from the jarring strangeness of it. Still, it seems in places as though the blue is creeping upwards into the darkness, slowly triumphing. The jarring quality of it is like a call to arms, to action, rather than something dark and woeful.