By Grace Day
This weeks artist exemplifies the months theme of “Harvest”. Winslow Homer’s works exploded with color and often featured individuals working and relaxing in fields. Homer was an American landscape painter who was best known for his marine subjects. He was mostly self-taught and started his career first as an illustrator for Ballou’s Pictorial and Harper’s Weekly. His works at this time depicted Boston life and rural New England life.
He attended classes at the National Academy of Design where he learned the basics of painting and and started producing excellent oil work. Homer was a plein-air artist, meaning he painted outdoors, and had his own unique and personal style that was unlike others of his time. He devoted many of his works to American subjects, painting rural idyllic scenes of farm life and children playing.
These works by Winslow Homer use so many of the elements that he became famous for. The use of bright, warm colors and shadows give so much depth to the paintings. Hopefully the beautiful fall colors stick around, but if they don’t we can always come back to these!
