I decided to visit the Art Lab at Snug Harbor with my friends, as they were hosting an open house free of charge. We chose to enter an oil painting exhibit, where we were introduced to an oil painting artist. She shared several facts about these paintings, one of them being how the illusion of 3-dimensional objects in a 2-dimensional painting are created. Farther objects are usually colored darker and closer objects are colored more vibrantly because that’s how humans perceive things. Some of her paintings scattered around the room clearly displayed the illusion she described. 

          She then set up a hands-on activity for us to paint one of the references out of several that were present. Our options were to paint tomatoes in a basket, two pears, two pumpkins, or a fennel. I chose the pear, because it was nice and simple and I could focus more on the color details rather than the shape, as it was mostly circular and smooth. We had several different colors to choose from, and we were allowed to mix them in order to make the painting as best as possible. I wanted the canvas to be positioned vertically, so I only painted one pear and half of the other pear. The artist gave us the color blue at first to make an outline because it was her favorite color to start with. I found it weird because I always assume that people would use the color black to make outlines. After finishing the outline, we added colors to the painting. In my painting, I colored the middle and top of the pear with a lighter color, and the sides and bottom with a darker one, in order to take into account the light and shadows and to try to accomplish the 3 dimensional effect. Then for the color of the table cloth, the artist seamlessly mixed the colors for me to make it as close as possible to the real one, which I found very impressive. To make the shadows on the cloth, I made the color slightly darker. After completing the drawing, in my opinion, I didn’t successfully pull off the 3 dimensional illusion. However, I did a lot better than I thought, therefore I am satisfied with my painting. 

          Overall, I really enjoyed this experience. Although I only visited one exhibit, there were many others, so I could only imagine what else I could’ve learned or seen. I would definitely go again with my friends to see what else they would have to offer.

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