Image Essay 10

This ink and acrylic painting was made by artist Jeff Schlanger. Many of his pieces are influenced by jazz music. The color scheme that is apparent in this painting is a triadic color scheme. Schlanger uses the three primary colors: red, blue, and yellow. Blue can be seen on the musicians, red on the instrument, and a touch of yellow in the faces and background. This composition is very asymmetrical. The manner in which Schlanger splattered and unevenly distributed the paint gives the image a lot of visual texture. Also, the splattered paint might make the viewer feel the chaos of this painting. it is as if you can hear the music playing just by looking at the arrangement of the colors. This composition appears to be a gesture painting because the musicians and their instruments are not made of smooth, crisp lines. I feel that the area of focus is the viola and the musician’s face because the red pops out and is at its highest intensity which makes it very chromatic. This musician also has the most detail out of the entire composition which can also catch the viewer’s attention. In this painting, Schlanger experiments with line thickness and thinness. The thick lines that make up the piano and chair contrast the thin lines of the viola and the bow.