Marching Stilettos by Jennifer Bagnick 20"x16" Oil on canvas "Painting II - Broome Community College"

For this painting I was to create a large- scale personal still life with three to five objects. The objects were supposed to be three of these five elements: transparent, organic, geometric, have contrasting visual textures, and elliptical quality. After much debating I decided upon a pair of boots my mother bought me for my birthday and a wooden stand I found in the classroom. I close the boots because I thought they had an interesting shape and would make for a dynamic composition. The boots also have a lot of contrast within themselves because of the buttons on the sides that are shiny, the brown leather and the suede fabric of the boots. The wooden stand was added as an afterthought to the composition to prop up one of the boots. I chose this item because of it's antique quality. I wanted the painting to have a vintage look to it. I titled the work "Marching Stilettos" because I feel that the piece looks slightly militaristic while also holding on to the idea of vanity because it is about hing heels. The idea of military high heels is an abstract idea in itself and the abstract painting style lends to this. I think that one could speak a lot of the possibility that what going on in society and the idea of the war and our growing economic porblems may have a large impact on our fashion trends.

The painting was supposed to include nine formal elements: (1)High to Low-key value range, with light and dark contrasts (2)Negative space and cast shadows must be painted in low chroma (3)High, low and medium chroma/saturation areas (4)A sense of volume and visual weight to all of the depicted forms (5)A sense of depth –foreground, middle ground and background (6)Variation in brushstroke scale and shape (7)Scumbled areas that appear diffused contrasted with defined forms (8)Fresh, clean, painterly passages which are not overworked (9)Sense of atmospheric space

I used a lot of orange and yellows to create high key values and mixed in a bluish grey and raw umber to create low key values. The contrast between the warm yellows and oranges and the cool blues really made the lights and shadows pop out from one another creating a sense volume to the objects and make a three dimensional effect. I painted the negative space in the background with a blue that i mixed with a neutral greyish color to create a low chroma. I later added some highlights with a touch of yellow and some more vibrant blue color accents to make a sense of atmospheric space. I accented areas with a very high key blue grey to make the illusion that they were shining in the light as can be seen in the buttons of the boots, the zippers, and on the dark brown leather accents. I also used this effect on the wood stand in the bottom right corner to make the object look round and create volume. I used many different chroma/saturation areas in this object to make it look wooden and to create the illusion that there are grooves around the top of the object. The mixture of multiple chromas in the boots that I scumbled together successfully created a sense of a soft fabric that the shoes are made out of. I wanted to show bothe the hard and soft sided of the boots in an abstract sort of way. The placement of the one boot on the right on top of the wooden object creates a better sense of depth than having them both on the same level. This placing allows for a foreground, middle ground, and background to emerge. The right boot is in the foreground and the left one seems to be in the middle, while the negative space behind the shoes lends itself to the background. Overall I think this piece was successful in many ways. I learned something new with the use of bold brush strokes and took chances with brighter color choices creating a well rounded work.