Name of piece: The Geometry of Man

Artist: Aidan Rosenberg

In the beginning of the year (2019), I took a weekly three-hour drawing and painting pre-college class at Pratt Institute’s Manhattan campus. One of the things that we did in the class was paint a still life using oil paint. This is the first observational piece I made, featuring a plastic geometric bust, a plastic vase, a spotlight and a yellow sheet. I was drawn to the plastic bust when I initially saw it in the prop box, so I made sure to make it the focal point of the painting. All of the other objects featured in the painting were the props the other students chose to use as the focal points in their paintings. During the process of painting the still life, I learned how to plan paintings using different shades of one color, mix colors properly and use different tools and materials to change the thickness of the paint.

Size: 16” x 20”

Media: oil on canvas

Time taken: Nine hours in total (Three three-hour class periods)

Fun fact: The still life was taken down after each class because other classes used the room as well, so the setup was slightly different each week, making consistency a little more difficult to maintain.