JDSP: The Cliff Chimneys- Georgia O’Keeffe

Junior Docent Student Artwork

Anya Prakash—Richards Elementary School

The Cliff Chimneys is an oil on canvas painting depicting the form of the cliffs using bushes, trees, branches, ponds, and etc. This oil painting also includes the light blue sky filled with clouds, O’Keeffe makes images of space by using value and colors like peaches, oranges, browns, greens, whites, to show the landscape. I think that the texture and form connect throughout the whole painting; the texture looks rough, so it made the cliff chimneys look much more realistic, but on the canvas the entire surface was smooth, this is also some of the many reasons of how she made the cliff chimneys in her artwork look more realistic to observers. I chose and connected with this piece because I love how she put her colors into the forms and shapes of the cliff chimneys, and added such detail, where you would have to look closely to even see it. She made the painting so simple, yet thousands of thoughts come into your head at once. However, these thoughts make you feel more peaceful and calm, as the painting was so realistic, you could imagine what it would be like if you were there in New Mexico where Georgia O’Keeffe painted many of her landscapes.

Creative Response: I wrote a poem about the Cliff Chimneys painting imagining what it makes me see, hear, and feel, inviting all your senses into the picture.

Artist and Artwork