Art Analysis: Athens County/Vines By Ron Kroutel

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Ron Kroutel’s painting, Athens County/Vines uses several elements formal art to portray how beauty and the mundane are able to come together. The two most prominent elements used are those of abstractism and naturalism. In addition to types of paintings, Kroutel’s color palette also highlight the difference between the monotone houses towards the bottom of the canvas with the green vines and blue of the sky. This striking comparison forces the viewer to look at each part of the painting separately, as well as a whole.
Athens County/Vines by Ron Kroutel was painted in 2006 using oil and Alkyd on canvas. The painting depicts several homes, power lines with foliage growing up them, and a blue sky with white clouds. The use of oil works to Kroutel’s benefit in his use of it in this painting in particular, due to the both naturalism and abstractism pieces used. For example, the houses at the bottom of the artwork are not detail-oriented per se, but there is a very real sense to them, as if the viewer would be able to see houses similar to these walking down any street in Athens. On the contrary, the sky is painted in a very thick manner, with the brushstrokes left clearly visible. While in some cases, repetition works to create a pattern, in the case of Athens County/Vines, …show more content…

The grandiose proportion of the power lines to the houses at the bottom work to helps to connect the two pieces, both of which are completely different in the their composition, into one solidified painting. Without the implied line from the houses to the sky that the power lines create, the top and bottom halves of the painting do not seem to coincide with each other, but could rather stand alone as two separate paintings; one painting done in a naturalist form, and the other in a much more abstract