Long Island Hotel Analysis

I am visiting Long Island City in Queens, New York...and am writing to tell you about an amazing oil on canvas, precisionist cityscape painting from 1928, "East River from the Shelton Hotel", by Georgia O'Keefe. I traveled to Long Island City, to get a glimpse of the location of this breathtaking and detailed piece of O'Keefe's. I believe the message the artist is relying through this piece is that, the factories emit dirty smoke into the atmosphere, which is harsh, and the artist is displeased with this modern city way of life. The $277.20 I spent on the roundtrip ticket to come to this location of where the art was created, is definitely well worth it. I am staying at Four Points by Sheraton, which is $189; that's not too bad compared to …show more content…
The process used to put the materials/media together is: first, set up the surface using a large brush with 2 thin layers of gesso paint, so the oil paint can be immersed into the surface. Second, choose the mediums; once the gesso is fully dried out, start preparing the paint. Then, mix it all up. To make a shiny finish, a ratio of paint, thinner, and oil medium must be blended to thin out the paint. To mix all three, place paint on a palette, take an permeable brush, dip it in turpentine, and trickle the turpentine onto the paint until pleased with the quantity. Next, pour a little oil next to the paint and mix with a palette knife! Finally, it is time to apply it onto the canvas! The dimensions of East River from the Shelton Hotel are, 12x32 inches. There is an implied texture in the painting, which is very smooth and has a ease to it. The scale and distance seem to have been a major component. In the painting, there seems to be no middle-ground. This affects my sense of sight by giving a soothing landscape with the water providing a sense of peace to the painting. O'Keefe used light in the painting to show emphasis on the water and the gloominess of the factories which were basically polluting the city. The elements or principles of art used in the piece are: line, which is represented throughout the artwork with the buildings and factories; shape/form, because of the 2-D details in the artwork; value, because there is relative highness and darkness in contrast of the different buildings; texture, which is implied because it is a visual representation of the smooth surface; space, because the painting shows a particular area in which the art was made; and proportion/scale, because the buildings have a size relationship to one