Red Hills with Flowers, 1937 by Georgia O'Keeffe

Red Hills With Flowers, drawn in 1937, is one of the best paintings that Georgia O'Keeffe ever drew as the most popular and famous artist in American history. Now, here are the seven elements of art describing and analyzing the painting:

Lines & Shapes

One can easily detect lines in this painting; there are many curvy lines to draw the flower's petals and the mountains. There were also slightly straight lines on the mountain, in order to show the slope of it. Along with the lines, the circular and oval shapes on the flowers are clearly visible. Also, if one looks at the painting thoroughly, there seems to be a long rectangle on the horizon in the background, though it is just slightly covered by the mountains.

Colour, Value, & Form

If one takes a quick glance at the painting, he or she can simply notice that 95% of it is red. There are only slight bits of orange, yellow, and green for the flowers, and small bit of white for the horizon in the background. Other than this, it is completely filled with red. However, there are different values in red, such as the mountains. Looking closely, the mountain between the two mountains on the left is brighter than others, which proves that it is receiving more sunlight than others. There is also different values of red in the shadows of the flowers. Now, these colours and values contribute to creating form. One can easily detect form in the mountains and the flowers. (For the flowers, the petals seems to be closer to the viewer's point than the black center of the flower.)

Space & Texture

Since this painting has form, it also takes up space. (In order to have form and to take up space, the object has to be three-dimensional.) One can see that the mountains take up huge amounts of space in the background. Now looking at the texture, the whole painting, every single bit of it, seems like it is smooth as a bird's feather; even the canvas itself must be smooth!