Lift Painting Analysis

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Lift by Pamela Sienna Lift is a still life oil painting produced by the artist Pamela Sienna. It is displayed on the second floor of the Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences in a gallery called, “The Order of Things”. Every artwork in this gallery is either an American or European still life from the 16th-20th century. Lift is one of the newer additions to the gallery, having been painted in 2004. The gallery is full of different still lives, such as paintings of flowers, fruits, and cloth, like Lift. Lift was painted on panel and stretches 36 inches long and 18 inches wide (Sienna). Lift contains many complementary colors that must have been chosen wisely by Sienna. For example, most of the background of the painting is a deep blue color, …show more content…

This yellow color looks like it is light from the sun bouncing off the cloth. Sienna then uses this strategy along with the red and green colors of the rope to create a focal point, the two ropes in the center of the painting. Behind the two ropes, Sienna placed more of the yellow tint onto the white cloth than on any other part of the cloth. This makes this specific part of the painting seem the brightest. Then, the use of red and green draws the viewer’s eyes, not only because they are complementary, but because this is the only place in the painting where these colors are used. All of the principals used in this painting draw my mind to a very specific idea, Heaven. I have always pictured Heaven being a place, firstly, with a beautiful sky. Sienna depicts this perfectly with the deep blue and warm orange colors that are both very saturated. It almost looks as if it is a beautiful sunset, which happens at the end of the day. To me, this symbolizes the end of a life. The cloth in this painting reminds me of purity, since it is white. To enter Heaven when one dies, they must be pure and forgiven by the

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