Adroit Apiarist Analysis

Charles Bertram Rees, Jr’s oil paining Adroit Apiarist (1959) is currently on display at The Museum of Texas Tech University (fig. 1). This oil painting shows an adroit apiarist, which simply means skilled beekeeper, getting ready to use a bee smoker on a hive of bees. The smoke is filled with chemicals that render the bees incapable of defending their honey. The passiveness of the bees is echoed in the rest of the elements of nature in the photo. These other elements of nature are receiving the same treatment by humans, yet they remain submissive. In the background you can see crops and trees killed and depleted of their resources completely. Adroit Apiarist uses lines, shapes, color schemes, and conceptual unity to communicate the idea that nature remains passive as man drains it of its life for personal gain. One of the most noticeable elements of art used in this painting are lines. Adroit Apiarist uses an abundance of horizontal lines. There are two very noticeable examples of horizontal lines in this painting. One example, as seen in figure 2, is the line at the base of the mountain (fig. 2). The mountain is symbolic for the potential power that nature could unleash upon us, but the horizontal line emphasized at the base of …show more content…
Adroit Apiarist displays an impressive use of colors with dark shades and low saturation, which help contribute to the low energy that the painting radiates. This painting also uses a lot of colors that are directly next to each other on the color wheel, also known as analogous colors (fig. 5). Red often blends into orange, orange blends into yellow, yellow blends into green and green blends into blue. These colors are so similar in wavelength, that when they are placed together, it creates very little impact thus contributing to the idea that man has drained the life out of