Dona Josefa Analysis

While I was at the El Paso Art Museum a piece of artwork caught my eye. The piece is called Dona Josefa by Manuel Acosta. I find Manuel Acosta’s painting very interesting because it was made out of oil paint. In my opinion I feel like oil paint is a very beautiful technique to use. I feel the paint makes the painting pop out to the audience and makes it have a shine. Dona Josefa painting has a lot of visual elements that helps the audience understand the piece of artwork. Lastly the artwork of Manuel Acosta brings back a lot of memories about my family. The visual element, line is present in Dona Josefa. There is a diagonal line, which is the shape of the trail behind the old lady. There are also a couple of other diagonal lines, which are the fence posts that are …show more content…
All these diagonal lines are all pointing towards the face of the old lady, which causes our eyes to move towards the old lady. I also see in the painting a horizontal line that is created through the table and mountain. These lines are considered hard and implied. Also there are contour lines in the painting. For example, the table to the book, the pot to the table, and the plate to the peaches are contour lines. We also have some curve lines, which are the peaches and the plate. There are two different types of shapes in Dona Josefa. The two different shapes are geometric and organic. For geometric we have the book and the pages of the book. All these create an implied rectangle. Also the table creates a long implied rectangle and the peaches and plate create an implied circle too. For organic shapes, the shape of the old lady’s body, the trail, and the mountain in the back ground. Another visual element in Dona Josefa is color. There are lots of more cool colors than warm colors therefore creating a sense of cool colors. There are some primary colors, which are yellow, green, and blue. Also there are some secondary colors, which are orange and violet. Finally, in the painting their