Matthew Ritchie

Matthew Ritchie was born in London, England in 1964. He now lives and works in New York City. “Five of a Kind” is graphite and ink on Denril. Color is one of the major elements of artwork that Ritchie uses in his paintings. There are three major colors that are used in this particular artwork; green, blue, and brown. Each color is acquainted with a certain meaning. For example, green is a secondary hue, and in the artwork it has the meaning of life; blue is a primary hue, and its meaning is peace and tranquilit

The shape of the artwork is also a major element of art that is used. There are posotive or figure shapes, organic shapes, and underlying structures are used in the artwork. The artwork is on a large rectangle of Denril. There are three underlying structures; one is a large oval that starts at the human goes down the calm stream leads the viewer back up the bright blue light to the clouds, over the top of the artwork and down another bright blue light back to the human. The other two underlying structures are right triangles the first is on the far right side of the artwork it starts at the top of the picture leads the viewer down a ray of bright blue light to the calm stream up the three-headed monster back to the ray of light. The right triangle o the left is started the same way, with a ray of light, it also leads the viewer to the calm stream and then it heads up the dead tree instead of a three-headed monster and then back to the ray of light. The posotive or figure shapes are the organic shapes and the organic shapes in the artwork are present in every character. For example, the dead tree is a well rounded semi circle the same is for the calm stream, clouds, and the three-headed monster. The human figure, naked skeletons and rotting carcus are also organic shapes because they are irregular shapes, not like geometric shapes that are well defined and nearly perfect.

y; and finally, brown is a shade of red that has black added to it and its meaning is death. The three colors are all earthy tones that resemble some activity that happens here or has an emotion that goes along with it. In the artwork there is a clothed human figure to the far left side that is covered in a green jacket or cloth, the human is standing which gives the impression that it is alive. There is also green grass t

Some topics in this essay:
Play Yourself”, Denril Color, Matthew Ritchie, calm stream, blue light, York City, bright blue light, dead tree, bright blue, three-headed monster, directional forces, human figure, London England, naked skeletons, organic shapes, matthew ritchie, shapes organic shapes, saying “the place”, understand meaning paintings, shape iconography viewer,