Hans Fredrik Gude
"To live the world of a painting and not try to be something it's not."
BY ANTHONY ROSS
When I looked at this picture the first time I was stunned. It arrested me. It looks realistic, but at the same time I can see through the artist's eyes the necessary placement to make this more than just a photograph, to capture the details of life in a way that transcends reality and that connects us to it at the same time.
It's a painting that has a few focal points in which I gravitate to. One is the boat which is far out in the water and on the other side is where you see the man's head standing in the boat, located on another third of the image. I'm also quite drawn to the little kid, more than the lady who's hand he's holding. (He or she...?) It looks like the 'child' is wanting to pull the woman towards the steps, down to where the boat is. There's a triangulation of where the viewer's eye goes with this piece from those three objects, and there's a nice resting spot on the rock which is in front of the boat, near the shore. There's quite a bit of contrast in that area with the whites of the waves being the highest point of brightness in the picture. Yet, it feels as though it's a secondary focal point. There's also some noticeable white placed around the boy/child and the mother. The white behind them really silhouettes the dresses or the clothing they're wearing.
The background is just placed there for comfort, in a way. It really brings the mood of the piece. It's really important to have there, but it's definitely not that much of an attention grabber. It's meant to be in the background. I like how it's very realistic and how it makes me think of places that look like this that I've been to. It makes me understand what it's like to be there and to look at that, because I'm just seeing it, in the painting. Yet, at the same time, I'm only seeing it so positively because all the other things it could be is set aside and it's been, I believe, composed of the various elements of composition and color and light and everything that makes up a painting, to stand out as a painting. To live the world of a painting and not try to be something it's not.
I love the way the wood guides us. It's almost another triangulation. It's almost as if the first post moves your eye up through the posts that make up the rail of the dock right to where the boat is. It's centered straight up the dock, and it brings you straight down the dock as you look at that back to where the post is. It's a nice area of interest you can just look into. The water over the dock is very nice too. It adds more of a dangerous feel. I think if that wasn't there, even the waters as they are would look a little calmer, less like a stormy day that has a bit of unease to it. It's calm and peaceful, but you know that's the ocean and that it's a raging, wild, natural phenomena. I think the large boat in the distance adds to that too. It says, there's vastness beyond...
Maybe that's what the child doesn't know. The mother doesn't want to go closer to that danger, but the child is unaware of it. And these men in shadows in the boat. I don't know who they are. Where do they come from in that long vast stretch of water? Maybe they've been gone for a while, but I don't think so. Just a short amount of time. Just a day trip, a short trip, but still they have to be careful. It's a very captivating piece. I believe it's by Hans Fredrik Gude.
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