Trillium Lake At Sunset Analysis

Trillium Lake at Sunset by Eryn Tehan
The sunset show is the show of the month at the Alberta Street Gallery featuring some of Eryn Tehan's incredible pieces. Hanging behind a window overlooking Alberta Street, Tehan's piece Trillium Lake at Sunset stuns all those who look at it with it's vibrant colors. Through using oil paints as well as professional, non-toxic pigments as her medium Tehan vividly captures the beauty of the places she paints (Alberta Street gallery, n.d.). A majority of her paintings are done using only a pallet knife, which gives her the ability to create tactile texture within her works. In addition, using a pallet knife allows her to paint freely, and allows to imitate textures that appear in nature (Urban network, n.d.).
Growing up in the Pacific Northwest Tehan was fascinated by the multiple dimensions of color, and that is clearly evident in this piece.
The prime focus of this piece is Mt.Hood, which is centered in the middle of the picture plane halfway up the canvas. The mountain in the piece is opaque as there are no t-intersections within it. Behind the mountain various tones of orange, red, purple, and yellow are used to create a stunning sunset. Underneath the mountain, short straight strokes of numerous shades of green, blue, orange, and purple were used to create an image of thousands and thousands of trees. Close to halfway on the canvas, the image of Mt.Hood, the sunset, and the rows of trees is reflected on the water of Trillium Lake. Tehan utilizes the same colors she used in the top half of the canvas to create the reflection on the water. Centered on the bottom of the canvas towards the left side of the piece is a railing painted using various tones of brown, black, purple, yellow, pink, and orange. Tehan's delicate use of her pallet knife allowed her to create straight geometric lines for the railing. It also allowed her to give the railing an illusory texture.
From the majority of art work I have seen of Mt. Hood, the mountain is typically represented using two or three colors. Whereas, Tehan uses various shades of yellow, orange, purple, and blue to paint the magnificent mountain. Throughout the piece her colors vary in hue and value. However, the intensity of the colors
in the piece remain relatively the same. Tehan used these bright and intense colors in hopes of mimicking nature by overwhelming, shocking and surprising her viewers (Urban network). Tehan was able to give Mt. Hood and the sky behind it tactile texture by using her pallet knife to layer the paint.