Compare And Contrast The Old Homestead And Matte O Kelley

Art is a form of expressing the inner feelings, emotions, and imaginations. Artists such as James McDougal Hart and Mattie Luo O’Kelley delivered strong messages and relived memories of the past through their artworks. Mattie O’Kelley is an American, folk artist who painted the Yardsale in 1979. Much like her other works, it portrays a busy country scene from her early life in rural Georgia. James McDougal Hart is another landscape artist and a Scottish-born American cattle painter. His exceptional work of The Old Homestead presents a dejected scenery of a farm, which was painted during the peak of the Civil War in 1862. Both Yardsale and The Old Homestead were created by the artists with meaningful purposes, and they incorporate contrary feelings

Yardsale by Mattie O'Kelley depicts her personal country life experience at a neighborhood yardsale. There are trees in various sizes with colorful flower buds at the foreground, and plain leafed trees in the background; two narrow streets leading to a house and a barn; local gardens with vegetables, household materials in display outside for sell; and some men, women, boys, and girls communicating with each other, while the other individuals do activities or business of their own. On the contrary, The Old Homestead's subject matter includes a dirty property with worn out farmhouses in the background, branches of trees falling off from their main roots, a creek flowing gently, poor cattle lying on the field, plants breaking through the fences, a cart-drawn horse carrying hays and three children — one driving the horse cart in the front and two sitting on the hays at the back. The situation in Yardsale is much more organized and comfortable with adults and young children accompanying each other. On the other hand, The Old Homestead pictured unsupervised children playing and being incautious of their disintegrating-wretched

While she was living alone in her Maysville home in Georgia, O'Kelley was inspired to paint old blissful memories of her childhood. Meanwhile, Hart made the painting in the merge of the Civil War. In Yardsale, the vivid house is the positive space and main subject because it is the first thing I had spotted at first glance. Mattie was considered to be the girl standing at the front door of the house, spectating the wild commotion of the yardsale. We can infer that she was nostalgic about her blending community. Contrastively, Hart's grieve painting seems rather deceptively jovial and merry because the positive space is the horse and playful children that my eyes landed on at first sight. However, the growth of the jungle trees and the abandoned homestead knocked out the reality of the wartimes — that battles are waged in different fields: children are playing on farms in the absence of adults, neglecting maintenance of the property. If you stare for awhile, however, the vibrant light from the sun is reflecting towards you, rising hope and swelling joy — the same encouragement James Hart might have intended for the nation. Despite the differences existing in the contents of these uniquely constructed arts, there is an important point made by both artists: the wholeness of society is achieved through a complete family. The precious memories and constant jubilation that a family brings is