Composition

This picture of a boat uses the rule of thirds compositional guideline used by photographers. You can see that the Sun is using the top left corner and the reflection is in the box below. That the pebbled beach makes up the bottom third and that the boat takes pride of place in the middle thirds. It is a rule that establishes how uncluttered a good photo should be and this photo shows how it is done.

 In this painting the viewpoint of the viewer isn't focused on the view and is in fact located inside the mouth of a cave giving the painting a very claustrophobic feel. The use of oranges and other warm colours also give a feeling of heat to the picture. The brushstrokes in the sky give off the effect of immense heatwaves or smoke and with the sky turning into a hotter colour as it gets closer to the ground, gives the impression of the ground itself being unbearably hot.
 The golden colour of the ground suggests that it is also evening, as the sun gets closer to the horizon and its light gets redder. Of the two men in the foreground one of them is relaxing, lying on the stone wall giving the impression that he is tired and strengthening the assumption that it is getting nearer the end of the day.

This is Van Gogh's Starry Night. The amount of curving lines in the sky give the strong impression of movement. That stars and moon are dancing. It looks like there is a lot more motion in the air than on the ground. It is interesting that the picture is set at night. Is it an attempt by the artist to show the stillness of night time by making the sky look so active and alive that by comparison the land is dead? There is a lot of the colour blue being used. This is because night time light is a dark blue and Van Gogh is showing that it is night time despite the bright lights in the sky of this painting. The blue makes the orange of the stars, moon and lit windows in the houses pop out and catch the eye of the viewer thanks to the contrasting nature of those colours.

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I was not aware that Starry Night was already included in the lecture as I missed it. So I will do an additional look at Salvidor Dali's Elephant Legs.

This painting is made incredibly surreal through the use of the long limbs of the elephants. With their huge bodies and tiny unsupportative legs the viewer knows that this place is strange and alien. The animals tower over a man in the foreground. Naked save for a cross and looking like he is pleading for his life. The viewer feels like this man has nothing and is begging for his life as he is on one bent knee, bent backwards away from the terrifying beasts. The barren plain that appears impossible flat on the straight line of the horizon seems to suggest an infinitely sprawling world. This is definitely a surreal place and not a pleasant one. Despite the cheery blue sky, the top corners of the picture shows a black sky hidden just out of site of the viewer.