Is there an expression in the impression?

Erin Hanson’s painting of birch trees is made in impressionism way. It is really colorful and shows the atmosphere artist been in.

On the artwork, we could see some grass at the bottom, two birch trees on the right side, being really close to us, and some more birches and other kinds of trees at the background. It is also a nice turquoise-colored sky on the picture. It seems like a forest or a park, represented with love for nature, with all its beauty.

It is also interesting to mention, the perspective not only shows us the depth on the picture, but it also comes from bottom to the upstairs, as if you were a mushroom growing under the trees, or something as small, like that. Mostly forest landscapes are made in a simpler way, just as a common photo from a tripod. Here it looks more as it was a photo made from the ground, using the lens with the pincushion distortion effect. It makes you feel like small and helpless comparing to those trees and nature by itself.

If discussing it in an expressionist way, I could say it has a really hard expression of magnificence, strength, and greatness of nature, at the same time making a viewer feel insignificant and scanty. It is something you can’t see as a facial expression, but something you could feel because of the perspective and colors, representing the beauty of what is painted.

Impressionism and expressionism have something in common. Both of them could be named as something unique, the artist felt and represented. We also could say the art could be expressed in any way, the artist feels so, because “There are no general rules for making works of art” (Barret, 2017, p69)). (Of course, there were some rules in impress., but I guess it more about how artists were drawing, not what was required by impressionism itself). It is also true, artworks in both styles have unity of idea and form if by “idea” we could mean the ideas impressionist had while creating their works. But of course, it also has some difference. For example, Benedetto Croce used to think the beauty of nature isn’t actually artistic beauty, what makes a landscape even more interesting choice to understand in an expressionist way.

Knowing Erin Hanson was really in love with American National Parks, I could say this work should cause those feelings. Even though most of shes works are made in a more classic way of landscape perspective, this one is one of the most touching. Maybe she meant it to be so, to make people feel the greatness of nature, and to respect and care about it more.

Reference list:

Barrett, T. (2017) Why Is That Art? Aesthetics and Criticism of Contemporary Art. Third Edition. USA: Oxford University Press.