Visual Art by Jacob Mann

Alone on the Top        11/2007

My goal was to build strong composition. It was done using Vue 6 which gave me full freedom in creation of the image. The center of interest is the birch tree. The picture is designed in such way that viewer eyes will return to the birch tree whenever they go. The stone in the right lower corner is the eye stopper, it stops the eye from exiting the picture. From it the eye will go to the dark mass of the foreground  which takes the eye uphill to the birch tree. Also the 3 stones in the foreground create a triangle directed toward the birch tree. The dead tree on the left is also the eye stopper, it takes the eye back into the picture to the sky where the impressionistic   streaks of clouds take the eye back to the birch tree or to the larger stones and then back to the birch tree again.

But the picture is not just exercise in pure technicality. The contrast between the dead tree and green birch tree is supposed to make viewer feel for the little tree surviving in such cruel place. The colors of the picture are cool, the sun is bright, the ground is bare. But the birch tree is green and fighting for life and we feel for it.

I couldn't stop here and had made another version of this picture, more photorealistic.

This picture has some grass on the ground and sunlight is warmer, so the mood of the picture doesn't feel so hopeless. But I believe it takes away from the picture's impact.