Coming from the Brooklyn Museum is a picture of nature in its darkest element. Darkness shadows the land, forest, and mountains, with the black thunderclouds helping in its endeavor. However, a blinding white light in the center shines down upon the land and counteracts the darkness that threatens to consume it. This light may descend from the heavens, casting an overwhelming ray of hope in the epicenter of despair and misery. This painting really speaks to me because of the sharp contrast between the light and the darkness. This is a nature painting reminiscent of the ones that I have seen in my previous dwellings and my grandparents’ home. You know, the ones depicting a clear, blue lake with a waterfall and is surrounded on either side by plains and forest. These kinds of paintings strike me as something that Bob Ross would paint on his show, The Joy of Painting, on PBS. I used to watch that show whenever I went to visit my grandparents. This show, complemented with other similar nature paintings, really led me to enjoy paintings that depict nature in a plethora of ways. This painting of “dark nature” is no exception.
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