Emily Carr's Big Raven

In Emily Carr’s oil on canvas painting, Big Raven, the painter designs a breathtaking image of a raven sitting on a hill. Although it is wrong to compare this piece to an Italian or Northern Renaissance painting as they have completely different styles, the lighting and composition used in Big Raven resemble the artwork of that period in respect to having a sense of three-dimensionality and realism. To accomplish such rendering, the use of a consistent light source in the scene is crucial to creating the illusion of space and depth.
Carr’s masterpiece is incredibly balanced in both composition and colour. The colour palette used is mainly composed of cool colours. The painter cleverly chose these hues to juxtapose the colour of the totem raven,