Red Canna

I really love and have learned to appreciate O'Keeffe's pieces for their beauty and emphasis on finding beauty in nature or finding beauty in simple things in life (a flower is simple, yet we do not always notice flowers even though they surround us every single day). After reading through a few websites and viewing her work and her statement and understanding what her work is about, I came across a quote from Georgia O'Keeffe herself that I think it pretty relevant regarding why I admire her work. As she talked about her work, O'Keeffe said "I decided that if I could paint that flower in a huge scale, you could not ignore its beauty." -Georgia O'Keeffe The quote itself is not only very powerful. but it correlates with the idea of people not paying attention to the small and beautiful things in life that we encounter daily, yet we do not notice. I admire the conceptual aspect of her work, which is, the idea that O'Keeffe MAKES people notice and appreciate the beauty of nature/smaller things in life by creating these large-scale paintings that cannot possibly go unnoticed. I also admire her work for her color choices she uses, as well as her technique (blending). Through the blending, the piece conveys a more "at-ease" or relaxed mood. There are no harsh lines that make the piece feel like it is popping out at you or screaming for attention. There is no harsh or negative emotion being conveyed through the technique, which is another aspect that I admire. Many modern artists lean towards bright, eccentric color usage combined with harsh contrast as well as more non-traditional techniques. I admire O'Keeffe's work, because she strayed away from the emerging modernistic and non-traditional techniques in her own way (she was around during the era of Warhol, Chuck Close, Oldenburg, etc.) I also really admire her choices of color usage (especially in this piece), because they are hues that work together. Although the lilac is not a warm hue like the red, orange and yellow, it works with those colors because lilac is a calming color, and although a red hue is used in this piece, it conveys more of a loving and calm mood, rather than anger, which I think is great. 

Image derived from: O'Keeffe, Georgia. Red Canna. 1924. Painting. Georgia O'KeeffeWeb. 1 Oct 2013. <http://www.georgiaokeeffe.net/red-canna.jsp>.

Quote derived from: Adkins, Ariel. "Georgia O'Keeffe." Artfully Awear. Blogger, 12 07 2012. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. <http://www.artfullyawear.com/2012/07/georgia-okeeffe.html>.