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Osceola Center for the Arts

March 9th, 2018 at 12:13pm

Marium Rana – “Descent”

Summary: The painting I have selected for my Humanities project is an abstract painting created

by Marium Rana called, “Descent”. This painting, that some may say resembles a landscape, has

many different, beautiful qualities that truly bring it to life.

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Abstract Paintings: Color within this piece is used to distinguish certain parts of the painting

from other parts (the sky from the land, the moon from the clouds, etc.), while also creating one,

large, united piece. This work of art gives me a feeling of peace, and expression. There is plenty

of balance and harmony in the painting. The artist creates the effect by using one shade of two to

three compatible colors. The details that make this abstract are probably the pops of color where

you least expect it. Like the flowers hanging from the clouds and the intricate designs within the

patches of land. This painting actually reminds me of chapter

Line: Rana uses a plethora of lines in her painting. She uses both thick and thin lines, as well as

straight and curved lines. We see thick, curved lines in her graphite roses. Not only to give the

roses their shape, but also to create some shading within them. However, we see thin, curved

lines in the mountains to distinguish one mountain from the other. There are also thin, straight

lines. We see those represented in the landscape portion of the painting. Thick straight lines are

seen along the border of the painting.

Texture: Because of the abstract feature of this painting, it is hard to distinguish the texture the

author was aiming for in this painting. The main usage of texture are the graphite roses. They

look soft, and smooth as rose petals normally do. I also imagine that the landscape, and the hills

also have a smooth texture because of grass.

Color: Primary colors were mainly used in this painting. We see blue hills, and yellow

landscaping. But Secondary colors were also used within the landscaping there are pieces of
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green and orange. Tertiary colors are mainly used though, because we see many splotches of

purple, or brown all sorts of mixes of both primary, and secondary.

Color Value : color value in this painting is very easily noticeable. We see pretty pastel tints in

the sky, and dark shades within the mountains/the landscape. We see a tinted pink for the

background of the sky, as well as a stunning tint of teal used on the “clouds” and a variety of

appealing tints of flowers are seen coming out of the clouds. Now the mountains, in contrast to

the sky, are full of dark shades of blue, purple, and black. This beautifully brings the painting

together. The author uses dark shades in the landscape as well, she mixes dark shades of yellows,

and greens to resemble an actual landscape while still creating an abstract painting.

Shapes: There are shapes everywhere in this painting. Most noticeable are the 2D squares and

rectangles used to create a beautiful landscape in the front of the picture. Upon detailed

inspection of the painting, we see distinct details within the squares/rectangles that are

absolutely breath taking. We also see the organic shapes of the roses that resemble deformed

circles and the perfect circle that the moon is in.

Space: We see space used both positively and negatively in this piece to her advantage by

keeping alike shapes together and forming unity. But also filling in blank spaces with different

elements to really “spice up” her painting. She has nearly no blank space besides the sky, and

even there, the painting has a soothing pastel color. For example, the clouds, it is unnecessary to
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add the flowers hanging from the clouds. But in order to make the sky more appealing, she adds

in the flowers to add more color and more positive space.

Unity & Variety: This work of art shows very little variety. The artist groups alike things with

alike things, squares with squares, dark blue with dark purple, hills with hills, dark brown with a

rustic yellow, etc. But variety does come in the roses. Instead of the traditional approach of small

roses growing on a bush or within the landscape - the roses are on the landscape in extreme

proportions. Instead of using color, like she has everywhere else, she uses a different material

completely and throws them in there. It is the only thing that truly stands out, and it gives the

painting and interesting touch.

Motion: This painting has a very small, but impactful bit of motion. We see the roses falling out

of the moon and landing on the landscape. However, other than that, nothing else in this painting

really moves.

Symmetrical Balance: Rana’s piece gives off the feeling of an unbalanced proportion from the

roses. However, the roses share beautiful symmetry between each others as well as the hills and

landscape.

Proportion: There is an extreme lack of proportion in this painting because of the roses. We see

the hills look good, the clouds, the moon, the landscaping, and then there are these ginormous
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roses that just destroy all thought of proportion. The hills are pretty small, and then there’s

monstrous sized roses. When, in reality, it’s the other way around.

Perspective: I believe this painting has a one point perspective. The patches of landscape begin

large, yet get increasingly smaller in order to create that “illusion” that perspective forms. In this

painting, the foreground is the landscape, the middle ground are the roses, and the background

are the hills with the beautiful sky and light teal clouds.