Creative Assignment: Still Life

Creative Assignment: Still Life
Creative Assignment – Personal Still Life Photograph
Still Life– One of the principal genres (subject types) of Western art – essentially, the subject matter of a still life painting or sculpture is anything that does not move or non (or no longer) living. Still life includes all kinds of man-made or natural objects, cut flowers, fruit, vegetables, fish, game, wine and so on. Still life can be a celebration of material pleasures such as food and wine, or often a warning of the ephemerality of these pleasures and of the brevity of human life.
Refer to pages 600-601 of your textbook & more info on still life here: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/still-life
Instructions:
1. Create a Still Life composition of real objects that emulates one of the classical paintings below (4 to shoose from) and photograph it with your phone camera. Your image should look as similar as possible to your chosen paiting BUT UPDATED with objects of your choosing. The objects and resulting composition should express your personal identity. Think of objects that are important to you, are just part of your daily life, or a combination.
Here are some questions that might help you start choosing objects:
Do the objects have cultural importance to you and your family? What objects have significance in contemporary american culture? What do you eat often? What specific clothes do you wear? What video games, books, movies are important to you? The options are endless, just choose objects that give the viewer a sense of who you are.
Process:
– Choose one and the painted images below and arrange the objects to create an interesting, thoughtful composition that mimics the painting’s composition. Think about how objects based can be arranged by levels of importance. For example, if you really love soccer and include a soccer ball in your composition, make sure it is clearly visible and interacting with the other objects in a manner that reflects this. Consider what the dominant objects are in your reference painting.
– Consider the perspective and angle from which you photograph your still life. Look at your chosen examples below. This is more than just documentation. Mimic the composition in the painting and photograph from the same angle you seen in the image.
– The background and surfaces your objects are placed on are also important. What happens when you replace the white draped fabric in a painting with a baby blanket or patterned fabiric that has meaning to you? What do they convey to a viewer? Everything in the framed image should be considered part of the artwork and should be emulated.
– Look at the lighting used in your chosen reference image. Is it dark, bright, contrasty? Make sure your composition is lit appropriately and photographed well . You can use overhead lighting, table lamps, or natural light to light your photograph. Just make sure the image is not dim (unless that make sense for your composition, content, etc.)
– The final product should clearly resemble your chosen painting, but be updated and contemporary to you.

2. Write a detailed essay about the subject matter and context of your photograph. Next describe the content of the photograph in another paragraph. What are you trying to convey with your image?
Remember:
Subject Matter = the person, object, or space depicted in a work of art.
Content = the meaning, message, or feeling expressed in a work of art
Context = circumstances surrounding the creation of a work of art, including historical events, social conditions, biographical facts about the artist, and their intentions

3. Submit your final photograph and essay. Make sure your name and date are at the top of the document. Image may be embedded in your document (don’t make it too small in size).
Consider this first pair of still life compositions, one a classical painting & one contemporary photograph that emulates the painting:

 
Paul Cezanne “Still Life with Skull”, 1898
-Note the colors, background, fabr ic, composotion, object arrangement

 
Wayne Theibaud, “Makeup”
-Note the spare background and surface, use of reflections, composition, and colors

Pieter Claesz “Still Life with Skull and Writing Quill”, 1628
-Note the lighting, arrangement of objects, suggestion of use, objects extending out of image, overlapping objects