The Marcus Harvey piece titled Myra is one of the most controversial paintings of its time. The Myra was created in 1995 after a women named Myra Hindley was convicted of murdering children. The painting is a recreated black and white picture of her from a British new paper. This 9 by 11 foot piece is an Acrylic painting done on a canvas that is entirely made up of children’s hand prints. The colors used in the artwork, the materials used, and the expression or the face in the artwork help to make the artwork recognizable and a successful piece of work.
The Myra use of color give the painting a dark mysterious effect about the painting. The colors in the painting are very cool dark colors that range from light grey to black. Harvey used …show more content…
Unity is the sense of oneness. That all the different parts of a painting come together to make up of the whole painting. In the case of the Myra all the hand prints of the children and the different colors used on the hand prints come together to make up the whole picture. The Myra also has symmetrical balance and some visual weight to it. The painting is very symmetrical. If you were to cut a vertical line down the center of the face the two halves would match up with each other. However, the visual weight of one eye is much more than the other eye. Visual weight refers to how intense a piece of the picture is drawn (Getlein 119). If you look at the right eye of the Myra you will see that the right eye has a more intense effect compared to the left eye. But the painting as a whole the eyes also have a lot of visual weight to …show more content…
The dark color used in the artwork help to give the audience an emotional response. Harvey did a good job by using color to describe what kind of person Myra was when she was alive. The intensity of the eyes and the facial expression make the painting look as though she is really there in person looking at you. The materials used is really the most successful part about the painting. If the painting was used with just normal paint of just sketch of her face I don’t think it would have the same affect. Since, the materials used were hand prints of young children I think this is why it is so successful, and one of the most controversial paintings still
The Myra use of color give the painting a dark mysterious effect about the painting. The colors in the painting are very cool dark colors that range from light grey to black. Harvey used …show more content…
Unity is the sense of oneness. That all the different parts of a painting come together to make up of the whole painting. In the case of the Myra all the hand prints of the children and the different colors used on the hand prints come together to make up the whole picture. The Myra also has symmetrical balance and some visual weight to it. The painting is very symmetrical. If you were to cut a vertical line down the center of the face the two halves would match up with each other. However, the visual weight of one eye is much more than the other eye. Visual weight refers to how intense a piece of the picture is drawn (Getlein 119). If you look at the right eye of the Myra you will see that the right eye has a more intense effect compared to the left eye. But the painting as a whole the eyes also have a lot of visual weight to …show more content…
The dark color used in the artwork help to give the audience an emotional response. Harvey did a good job by using color to describe what kind of person Myra was when she was alive. The intensity of the eyes and the facial expression make the painting look as though she is really there in person looking at you. The materials used is really the most successful part about the painting. If the painting was used with just normal paint of just sketch of her face I don’t think it would have the same affect. Since, the materials used were hand prints of young children I think this is why it is so successful, and one of the most controversial paintings still