Activity 2 - Elements of Design REWRITE

February 25, 2007

“Ambulance on the Go” by William H. Johnson, a Harlem Renaissance painter, was created around 1942. The medium used is tempera, pen, and ink with pencil on linen adhered to paper. The art piece is located at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
The painting depicts a directional line of ambulances moving farther out towards the horizon. Directional lines guide our eyes in the painting and suggest movement. As we follow the trail of ambulances we can notice there is a linear perspective, where the farthest left-most ambulance is approaching a vanishing point. The term linear perspective means that objects seem to diminish in size as they recede from us and corresponding parallel lines converge into a distant point on the horizon (vanishing point). The farthest ambulance also appears to be foreshortened as it turns a slight curve in the road. Foreshortening occurs when objects appear shorter than normal, because they are shown at an angle in a two dimensional image.
In addition to linear movement, we can see many horizontal and vertical lines. More specifically, there are several cross-like shapes. Crosses can be seen in the red wheel spokes of the ambulances, red crosses contrasting against the white vehicle sides & blue backs, and brown crossed telephone poles contrasting against green fields.
Johnson also appears to use analogous color harmonies. An analogous color harmony is an arrangement of colors that are also adjacent to one another in the visible spectrum of colors. The most notable color harmony is the green fields against yellow flowers, yellow ambulance wheels and yellow houses.
Finally, the shadows underneath the wheels and body of the closer ambulances indicate there is an implied light source (perhaps the sun).


“Dinner Horn”, an oil painting on canvas, was created by Winslow Homer around 1870. The painting is located at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.
Similar to William Johnson’s “Ambulance on the Go”, this painting also uses directional lines and movement. This direction and movement is seen through the woman standing in the center of the painting. In one direction the woman is facing and blowing a dinner horn at workers in the field. However, her blowing dress implies wind movement in the opposing direction.
We can also see vertical lines in the edge of the house and window seal and diagonal lines in the house’s side boards & tree limbs. Unlike “Ambulance on the Go”, this painting contains a contour line which outlines the shape of the hillside closest to the house.
In terms of color, there are several analogous autumn earth tone colors. These colors can be seen in the brown, yellow, and red leaves blown at the woman’s feet (including the brown color of the house).
From an atmospheric perspective, we can see a receding landscape, where the field workers, animals, and trees are less distinct. Atmospheric perspective is an optical effect where a receding pale blue sky causes other intervening distant objects to be less distinct and take on a bluish tinge. As in Johnson’s “Ambulance on the Go”, the landscape also recedes into a blue sky.

Finally, the shadow underneath the blown dress and the shadow along the nearby hillside, indicates there is implied sun light, similar to the implied light in “Ambulance on the Go”

Activity 4 - Principles of Design

February 13, 2006


William H. Johnson’s painting, “Ambulance on the Go”, uses several principles of design. These design principles include unity, variety, rhythm, and asymmetrical balance.
The most obvious principles are the unity and rhythm of the ambulances. The ambulances are all similar in shape, color and direction of movement. They have a tight formation marching along the road as if they are part a single of linked chain. This repetitive chain of ambulances reinforces the concept of rhythm in the painting. We also see a rhythmic line of yellow houses along the horizon. Again, there is even more repetition as we follow the line of telephone poles along the road. There are some unifying colors in the painting. The green fields seem to dominate the lower half of the painting and shades of blue dominate the upper half of the painting. Yet there still seems to be some colors of variety, with the yellow and red flowers speckled in the green field and yellow and red wheel spokes.
Finally, the painting appears to be asymmetrically balanced. Looking along the road in the direction of movement, on the right side of the road we see telephone poles, houses, and trees. On the left side we only see small flowers.


Winslow Homer’s, oil painting, “Dinner Horn”, displays the design principles of emphasis, subordination, asymmetrical balance, unity, and variety.
The main point of emphasis is the lone female standing in the center of the painting. She stands out because her bright dress and skin tone sharply contrasts with the darker hues in the background. The house, trees, shadowy hillside, and distant field are all subordinate to the lone female.
Also, the painting seems to be asymmetrical, primarily because the visual weight of the house draws some attention away from the female. The scene would appear more symmetrically balanced without the house and if a tree trunk on right balanced the left tree trunk as the woman stood in the center.
The entire painting implies a seasonal change to autumn. The wind blowing red, brown, and yellow leaves unifies the autumn scene of the painting. The dark earth tone color of the house (brown) further unifies this autumn scene. Although these colors give some unity, we can also see a lone patch of dirt that the female stands in, providing some variety. There also seems to be some strange variety of color in the blue leaves to the right of the woman.

Activity 2 - Artwork Essay Comparisons

February 11, 2007

Artwork #1 - "Ambulance On The Go"
by William H. Johnson

“Ambulance on the Go” by William H. Johnson, a Harlem Renaissance painter, was created around 1942. The medium used is tempera, pen, and ink with pencil on linen adhered to paper. The art piece is located at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
The painting depicts a directional line of ambulances moving farther out towards the horizon. As we follow the trail of ambulances we can notice there is a linear perspective, where the farthest left-most ambulance is approaching a vanishing point. The farthest ambulance also appears to be foreshortened as it turns a slight curve in the road. In addition to linear movement, we can see many horizontal and vertical lines. More specifically, there are several cross-like shapes. Crosses can be seen in the red wheel spokes of the ambulances, red crosses contrasting against the white vehicle sides & blue backs, and brown crossed telephone poles contrasting against green fields.
Johnson also appears to use analogous color harmonies. The most notably color harmony is the green fields against yellow flowers, yellow ambulance wheels and yellow houses.
Finally, the shadows underneath the wheels and body of the closer ambulances indicate there is an implied light source (perhaps the sun).



Artwork #2 - "Dinner Horn" by Winsolw Homer

“Dinner Horn”, an oil painting on canvas, was created by Winslow Homer around 1870. The painting is located at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

This painting depicts direction and movement through the woman standing in the center of the painting. In one direction the woman is facing and blowing a dinner horn at workers in the field. However, her blowing dress implies wind movement in the opposing direction.

We can also see vertical lines in the edge of the house and window seal and diagonal lines in the houses side boards & tree limbs. A contour line also outlines the shape of the hillside closest to the house.

In terms of color, there are several analogous autumn earth tone colors. These colors can be seen in the brown, yellow, and red leaves blown at the woman’s feet (including the brown color of the house).

From an atmospheric perspective, we can see a receding landscape, where the field workers, animals, and trees are less distinct. Eventually, the landscape recedes into a blue sky.

Finally, the shadow underneath the blown dress and the shadow along the nearby hillside, indicates there is implied sun light.

Activity 1 - Online Museum Visit

Februrary 11, 2007

Artist: William H. Johnson
Title: “Ambulance on the Go”
Date: ca. 1942
Medium: tempera and pen and ink with pencil on linen adhered to paper
Size: 14 x 18 1/4 in.
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.

Artist: Winslow Homer
Title: “The Dinner Horn (Blowing the Horn at Seaside)”
Date: 1870
Medium: Oil On Canvas

Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

First Day of Art Class - Februrary 5, 2007

Today we covered different line types (contour, direction, movement, implied,etc.), Implied Shapes, Implied Light and Pointillism.