The Life of the "Dead Nature"

Do you know that Still Life as a genre of painting was created in Holland in the beginning of the XVII century. The ideological features of that epoch divided the art into «high» and «low» genres. «High» genre painting included historical painting, while portrait, landscape and still life belonged to «low|subzero|» genre. But due to democracy in Dutch society the distinction between «high» and «low» genres was eliminated, and the art to portray inanimate nature rose to an extraordinary height.

Still life (also French - nature morte - "dead nature") represents inanimate objects (fruit, bouquets, game, plates and dishes, articles of life). All living natural forms destined to become a still life painting are transformed into inanimate objects and are equated with things. Animals and birds in still life are killed, flowers are cut, and fruits are picked. That’s why many people call still life painting not the "still life" but the "stopped life".

It may seem that still life painting is little expressive and boring. But this opinion is erroneous. One could say still life represents the life of objects around us, the way of life of certain historical epoch.

When you look at still life paintings of different artists, you can see how different they are. And not only by their subject or represented objects, but also by individual technique of an artist.The technique of still life painting is very rich: these are oil paintings, watercolours, gouache, pastel, fresco, mosaic, acryl. Still life depicts ordinary things, but depicts them in a beautiful and poetic manner. Objects in still life are grouped deliberately, instead of being painted «from nature» in their inherent environment. Still life painting is an «artificial» reality, created by man according with his artistic task. In such conditions it is very a important for an artist to achieve the correct disposition of objects, in order to give to the spectator the feeling of naturalness of composition. That’s why the objects for still life painting are selected not by chance – they should contrast with each other and be mutually complementary. Artists use various methods in order to create the illusion of space depth and perspective: light, colour and saturation of paints, contrast of large and small forms, choice and composition of the objects.

Objects in still life, being main heroes of the picture, are displayed close up and fill the painting. A beautiful butterfly or a bird can add liveliness to still life painting.

Still life is a very organic genre and is a good way for self-expression.

Correctly chosen still life painting can vivify the interior, create the feeling of comfort and for a long time will delight spectator’s eyes.(c)Yana Strelbizkaya