Hello there and welcome back! Now that this 24/25 school year is over, I have had some time to reflect on my art that I created over the course of the year. It is because of this that I have been able to see the influences that art history has had on my art. I figured this was a great topic for today’s post because I think as artists we can sometimes overlook the influence art history has on us. Hopefully my realizations can inspire you to look deeper into your work as well!

I completed Painting II this past year and I really expanded my skill in this class. When I look back on some of my paintings now I see that I really pulled inspiration from Expressionism and Fauvism which have always been two of my favorite styles. In my one painting, I painted another student’s sculpture that was being displayed in our art building and I tried to paint more intuitively and according to my feelings rather than reality. This resulted in me using bright, highlighting colors and more noticeable brush strokes. While my painting reflected the sculpture I was depicting, it also showed the feelings I had about the sculpture through the colors I added. Looking back I realize this reflects the style of fauvism which used unnatural and bold colors along with rough brush strokes to display emotion. 

Another one of my paintings is an abstract colorscape which I believe pulls inspiration from Expressionism, particularly Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” I wanted to continue painting using a more intuitive approach and decided to start painting with no plan and I ended up using most of the colors in my palette. Each stroke of paint I put on the canvas has a path and is in harmony with the other colors. The swirling lines and colors form a beautiful and emotional abstract piece. To me, it reminds me a lot of “The Scream” by Edvard Munch because of the same kind of swirling sky with bright colors that stirs emotions in the viewer.

I really enjoyed finding these similarities in my work and the things I have learned about in art history months after making these pieces. It continues to remind me how important art history is to artists and how endless the creative possibilities can be the more you learn.

Let me know in the comments below what you think about these connections and if you find something like this in your work as well!

~Marissa