Art Analysis: Wanda Koop's Sleeping Giant

Wanda Koop’s Sleeping Giant (2014) is a gray scaled ink and acrylic canvas painting. The contrasted head seems asleep; the eyes, nose and lip shapes are represented by laid down figures, painted in such way the figures appear floating on water rather than sleeping, and all together creating a depressing, cool and somber. The Sleeping Giant painting is made by Wanda Koop is a Canadian artist, who often represents nature scenes in her artwork. This particular art piece was made in 2014 and it is often exhibited with similar themed paintings of Koop’s. This painting is a grey toned canvas painting with a head like shape which appears to be asleep. The grey scale makes the painting cloudy and moody, and the contrasting develops a water like texture

It is interesting how Koop named this piece as the Sleeping Giant, however it appears to be more of a small child’s head. The figures could also be viewed as small rocks in the water or on the water front. The two sides of the face look very similar, if we take a look on the ear shapes they look almost identically copied and rotated in 180 degrees. Some of the figures have downwards lines at their edges, as if the painting was dripping. The floating shapes are repeating, they look very similar, only their sizes differ. The figures are represented accurately, the closer shapes are larger than the more distant ones, and some figures are hard to spot due to their faded color and small size. The head shape is in the middle of the canvas, surrender by nothing else but the light grey colored background. This two dimensional art piece is contrasted in such a way it makes the viewer to look deep in the head, and see further in and think about the distance. The balance in the art is very visible, as the colors melt and combine into each other. The head of the Sleeping Giant is emphasized through the variance of grey colors, it takes a few seconds to clearly see what are the facial features represented as. The grey, moody colors and the floating, almost dead like figures instantly make the viewer interested, and all together suggesting a deadly scene. This depressing, somber feeling could not appear any stronger in this painting. The painting looks very still, motionless, the face is asleep, the floating bodies are stationary, which are also connected to the gloomy, dark