I chose to write my paper in the first floor Starr Building.

The artwork I looked at is the

Flowering Bank and Waterlilies serigraph. It is actually 2 pieces of artwork by Mark King
and was from the Canadian Collection. My first impression of these two pieces of art is !ery
bright and colorful." Both paintings are under the impressionism style# asI can see the brush
strokes when I walk up close. It$s a !ery curious sight to learn what steps Mark King took to
draw out these !arious forms. I can tell it$s impressionism because it$s also not !ery precise
about detail# but rather it used the stroke of the brush to create these forms that feels so lifelike
from a distance.
I started with the Flowering Bank painting. %t first I didn$t seem to recogni&e a focal
point# but what always drew my eye in was the pond in the low center of the painting. It felt you
saw e!erything there# but it was restricted as a reflection seen at a particular angle. The sky was
only reflected at a small spot# which was une'pected# but I felt o!erall it helped keep the color
balance. (rom there I get pulled to the sides of the picture and greeted with many brightly
colored plants. King was smart with using complimentary colors with the !arious shades of red
and pink. The red bush sits at the right side of the !iewer# and then the pink lea!es of a tree
abo!e directs the eyes to the upper left. The small wooden structure at the front that$s surrounded
by purple and white flowers helps push the eye path towards the red bush too.
The ne't painting is the Waterlilies painting. Immediately the focal point is the light
colors of the water and the waterlilies at the bottom of the painting. (rom there my eye mo!es
up this small stream to the small waterfall and to the bridge. Because this painting is more
!ertically oriented# it feel more stable and calm. The edges of the lower half of the painting aren$t
as detailed as the top or center# but that allows the contrast to direct the eye path better. The
!arious flowers are complementaries as to let the !iewer )uickly look around an larger area as
they mo!e up.
Both paintings ha!e asymmetrical symmetry and do a fantastic *ob keeping !iewers$
attention. They feature a nice range of !alues +lights and darks, with !arying amounts of
saturation +bright# pure colors standing out as water and flowers, and a good amount of tint +the
sky and waterfall are great e'amples. The waterlilies painting has no ob!ious way to determine if
there$s perspecti!e# but the flowering bank has that bridge which has sides leading to a single
point to the right. %s such# I can determine that the latter is a one point perspecti!e drawing.