Visceral Response

I can look at a thousand pictures of any type of landscape and become completely stupefied by its beauty.  Those frozen in time moments of reality that my eye's wish to keep, can, by these talented professionals, that I hope to one day be.  So why did I pick this one in particular? As hard as it was to only chose one image, this image was able to sum up every personal and design aspect I adore that elicits that visceral response in my body.  This beautiful oil painting was created by Albert Bierstadt, called, "Among the Sierra Nevada, California."  My first response to the piece was the painting's depth.  I felt this painting was never ending, as if the artist was able to create a living world with paint and one could travel forever in this painting.  The realism and structure help give this feeling of depth.  I can see subtle perspective lines drawing me into the center of the piece from the trees, shoreline, mountains, etc.  The light color value also plays a big part in pulling me through the piece.  It gradually becomes very bright towards the middle of the scene and takes me to the top where depth is taken further by the fading mountains.  What intrigued me most was the dark value on the outer scenery that created a circular frame around the brightly lit middle scenery.   Or maybe it was the form of the clouds, or the placement of the landforms.  Uniqueness is what I feel he created while framing depth.  Whatever it was, I am drawn towards the illusion of a tunnel that stops by each meticulous detail I pass.  I feel a sense of unity by how everything points to the middle of the painting, colors that seem to flow together instead of jump from one exotic color to another, and the illusionary circle which usually signifies unity and completeness.  Not only do the design aspects make me 'feel' the beauty, but it also has much meaning personally to me.  Its artists like Albert and all the other many talented people that can capture stupefying moments that can't be kept in one's eye forever that amazes me.  Being an artist in training, this talent speaks a lot to me to help further my own skills to create pieces that can communicate to other people like this did to me.