Yvonne Jaquette: Rockport Harbor

When viewing art, allow a few minutes just to observe. Careful observation allows time to use all the senses, become engaged, and notice things missed at first glance. Take your time! Make a list of everything observed: objects, colors, shapes, patterns, areas of light and dark, and textures to name a few. Also, take note of the feelings that the work conveys to you. And finally, examine the work for details that make its meaning to you important.

Work of Art

Yvonne Jacquette, Rockport Harbor, 2001, oil on canvas, museum purchase with support from the Friends of the Farnsworth Collection, 2002.16

Guiding Questions:

• What is going on in this picture?
• Why would an artist choose this point of view or perspective?
• What feelings does this image convey?
• Were the colors important in creating this artwork?

Create a Place Painting: 

Materials: Pencil, eraser and paper. If you have crayons, oil pastels, watercolors or colored pencils, these might be helpful as well. Also, a paper atlas or an internet map will be useful.

First Step

A landscape subject! Perhaps, your place of birth? The place you currently live?  Or an imagined place?

Second Step

Determine your point of view. What is your perspective? Are you at sea level? Are you above your place? If so, what height? If you really want to stretch your imagination, think about how your landscape might look from a vantage point of being underground! Or…is this an imaginary place? Perhaps made up of a couple different places all overlaid?

Third Step

Refer to your book or internet atlas, and begin to draw the landscape shapes you see or imagine. Work from the large to the small shapes searching for the details that make this place unique. Maybe add some details that you remember about your place that might not be visible in your maps, like your favorite tree or an interesting bridge, street light or manhole cover. 

Fourth Step

Use tones or shading to add dimension and form to your drawing. And / or use your paints, crayons or colored pencils to add color to your place shapes to build an original painting. Hint: In nature, colors don’t always stay within the lines! They blend and diffuse around edges or just melt into each other with no edges at all! You can do this, too, as you add color to your image! 

Fifth Step

Share your creations with us by uploading your finished work here:

Reflection

Did you discover anything new about your place? How did looking from a different perspective change your thinking about it?

For more information on this artwork, visit the Farnsworth Art Museum Collection website: 

https://collection.farnsworthmuseum.org/objects/4169