IB Extended Essay FINAL

To what extent should Scott Lloyd Anderson be considered a contemporary scene painter in comparison to Edward Hopper?

IB DIPLOMA EXTENDED ESSAY !!To what extent should Scott Lloyd Anderson be considered a contemporary scene painter when compared to Edward Hopper? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AMBER WESTLUND CHAMPLIN PARK HIGH SCHOOL SESSION: MAY 2015 002815-0019 WORD COUNT: 3,875

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ABSTRACT ! The aim of this essay was to investigate the composition of Scott Lloyd Anderson and

Edward Hopper’s work. The topic belongs in the Visual Arts as the main focus and research

question of the essay is on the aesthetics of the paintings of Anderson and Hopper.

To attempt to answer the title and essay question: to what extent should Scott Lloyd

Anderson be considered a contemporary scene painter in comparison to Edward Hopper? I

had to first define why Hopper is the American scene standard and what plein air art painting is.

I also established the similarities in ways of life between the two artists, and analyzed a few of

their paintings. Then I had to apply these principles to show to what extent Scott Anderson is a

contemporary scene painter in comparison to Hopper.

Through visiting one of Scott Anderson’s current exhibits, analyst of high quality images

of Hopper’s work, and a personal interview with Anderson I was able to design an argument

that concluded that Scott Anderson could definitely be classified as an contemporary scene

painter in comparison to Hopper.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS !Page 1- Title Page

Page 2- Abstract

Page 3- Contents Page

Page 4- List of Images

Page 5- Essay

Page 6- Introduction

Page 27- Conclusion

Page 28- Bibliography

Page 30- Table of Images

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LIST OF IMAGES: !Image 1- On Ramp

Image 2- Cobb’s Barn and Distant Houses

Image 3- Festival, Spoonbridge and Cherry

Image 4- Gotta Move

Image 5- Jobs & Career, Free

Image 6- 59 Cent Soft Drinks, 2010, Scott Anderson

Image 7- Neighbor's Garage

Image 8- Chop Suey

Image 9- Nighthawks

Image 10- Gas

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!ESSAY

!Image 1 !

! !!“TO WHAT EXTENT SHOULD SCOTT LLOYD ANDERSON BE CONSIDERED A

CONTEMPORARY SCENE PAINTER IN COMPARISON TO EDWARD HOPPER?” !

!

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INTRODUCTION Scott Anderson sets up his French easel on the side of highway I-494, vehicles speed

past as his expeditious brush strokes hit the white canvas. Capturing the curved on ramp with

the natural landscape around it juxtaposing the obnoxiously man made green sign in the right

of the painting, see Image 1. Scott Anderson paints plein air to display the beauty in many as-

pects of our everyday world. To what extent should Scott Lloyd Anderson be considered a con-

temporary scene painter in comparison to Edward Hopper?

Anderson uses plein air painting to build awareness and promote the beauty in the cur-

rent, everyday Minnesotan culture. Minnesota culture has a unique and different perspective

based on the seasons, and the diverse midwestern people. From the Twin Cities and the sub-

urbs, to the rural countryside with undisturbed scenes of birch and pine trees, farmland, and

lakeside cabins. Anderson uses his paintings of contemporary Minnesotan scenes to reflect the

diversity of Minnesotan culture.

Investigating how immense, extensive, and distinctive contemporary scene artists

across the United States are and how artists analyze the successfulness and validity of them,

shows to other art communities around the United States of America, and the world, how con-

temporary scene art greatly varies depending on region, culture, time in space, and through in-

dividual painter’s unique perspective of the world. It also recognizes that contemporary scene

art has similar themes and techniques used to create them.

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The art community frequently views Edward Hopper as one of the most prominent fig-

ures in American art history. In his book, Lives of the Great 20th Century Artists, Edward Lucie-

Smith refers to Hopper as “the best know American realist painter of the interwar period”(Lucie-

Smith). We rarely look to the current painters in the twenty first century to recognize the pro-

gression of how and why the painting styles have evolved in present day circumstances.

!INVESTIGATION Hopper lived until 1967, and spent most of his life in New York, Massachusetts, with

summers in Maine, and four trips to Europe, specifically Paris, France. He was trained as an

illustrator at the New York Institute of Art and Design. Most of Edward Hopper’s works held

common themes, “the tensions between individuals (particularly men and women), the conflict

between tradition and progress in both rural and urban settings, and the moods evoked by var-

ious times of day”(Murphy).

Hopper made ordinary scenes dazzling and fascinating by using “unusual viewpoints

and division of subject matter”(Berkow). Hopper’s paintings can be considered in the realm of

realism, but not to the extent of photo realism, and are usually put in the category of American

Scene Paintings but Hopper disliked being classified in a group, he preferred just focusing on

his painting not others opinions. Yellows, greens, blues, and reds were the colors Hopper ex-

plored most in his work, as seen in my analysis. They were the dominate and the most impor-

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tant colors used in his limited palette, the same goes for Anderson. The Abstract Expressionism

Movement was also coming about in this time but Hopper wasn’t sueded by the new style.

During the beginning of his career, America was calling out for the need of their own art,

uninfluenced by European standards. Edward Hopper, influenced by his professor Robert Henri

and The Eight as they pushed for more ‘native art’, met the call (Levin). His paintings were

based off of american surroundings using the themes and subjects including solitary figures,

cities, theaters, and times of day (Levin).

!

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Hopper’s dominant themes and content in his work were greatly influenced by where,

and when he lived. He painted what he was surrounded by. During this time the United States

and the world were undergoing large changes industrially, economically, and politically and

these events were portrayed in Hopper’s paintings. Industrially, the transformation of the trans-

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portation industry, the invention of cars, and the improvements on the train systems, economi-

cally, the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the depression that followed in the 1930s, politically,

the Second World War. These events affected everyone, Hopper included. These effects are

depicted in common themes in his paintings, paralleling and expressing how Americans felt.

The americans’ loneliness and hardship during of these times were expressed in his art along

with juxtaposing nature and tradition against man made products. For reference see Image 2,

Hopper shows the rolling hills of wheat juxtaposed by the deep red barns scattered in the land-

scape.

Scott Anderson was born in Cary, Illinois, USA and is currently living in Minneapolis Min-

nesota, USA. Before painting Anderson worked as an art director and magazine designer

(Scott Anderson Interview). Having this background influenced his approach when choosing

places to paint, laying out the design, and the actual creation of his paintings.

One of Scott Anderson’s most dominant themes in his paintings is depicting the beauty

in everyday life, especially the things overlooked or perceived as unappealing, by transforming

them into beautiful and enticing paintings that capture attention. His more dominant subjects

include his current series of urban and suburban scenes such as many buildings, roads, and

vehicles. He also has done many scenes of the countryside, forests, and rural areas with an

emphasis on scenes with snow, farms, and lakes.

!

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!

Image 3 Minnesota and its culture has greatly influenced the art, and themes Anderson depicts.

Minnesota has a rich history and recognizable trademarks to it. Greater Minnesota is home to

the Iron Range, where for years people would mine for iron ore. Now we are left with beautiful

deep red mountain ranges from the remainder left on the on the surface. Up north also has

been home to the logging industry, and legends of Paul Bunyan, a lumberjack, and his blue ox

named Babe. Minnesota also has a few tribes of indigenous peoples that have lived here a very

long time and still do, including the Ojibwe and the Dakota Sioux. In southern regions of the

state contain a large amount of agricultural regions, rural and suburban areas, along with the

Twin Cities, see Image 3, largest cities in the state.

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! Image 4 !

Anderson uses a limited palette named the Prismatic Palette, in reference to the prism of

light, it is an approach that goes back over a hundred years to Paris, France (Scott Anderson

Interview). Anderson uses slight tints of primary colors for the main subjects of his paintings.

Complementary colors (often orange against blue, Image 4) to emphasize to focal point, and

tertiary/intermediate colors as the background or the many cars, roads, and trees in his work.

Scott Anderson learned this palette from his art instructor, Joseph Paquet, and it has roots in

“fin de siecle France”. The American painter, Vincent Dumond, created it from what he learned

at the French Julian Academy. He then used it to apply new thoughts on light and color from

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the impressionists. Like Hopper, Anderson was influenced by France, though his palette, not

the training that Hopper went through there.

Plein air painting has been around for a very long time, and is currently one of the grow-

ing techniques recognized in the United States. The definition of plein air paining and painters is

often different to every person because it’s based off of personal bias. Gangelhoff defines it as

“contemporary artists who paint from life”(Gangelhoff 133), but the Plein Air Painters of Ameri-

ca’s website goes further to define it as an experience where artist have to use their senses of

what's before them through sight, sound, temperature, and atmosphere.

Scott Anderson has traveled across the country and parts of the world in order to sub-

merge himself in different environments so he could produce work that have elements foreign

to where he lives. Plein air painters paint the scenes before them, this makes travel a necessity

for them to find new and original places that inspire them. These painters also have to make

their works quick in order to capture the light before the sun’s position changes it too greatly.

This leads itself to the quick, spontaneous methods of impressionism that these artists use.

Edward Hopper has commented on plein air artwork, stating ‘“Plein air painters aren't

interested in abstraction. Nor do they see a point in trying to improve upon nature or create a

personal critique of reality”(qtd Gihring 120). Like how plein air painters move around, Hopper

has traveled a long the East Coast searching for inspiration over many years.

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! Image 5 !

Image 5, by Anderson, is a painting of a silver suburban van in a city during a winter with

snow on the road and sidewalks, an everyday scene in Minnesota. In the morning or evening,

due to where the light is coming from probably evening, parked on the right side of the street,

positioned behind six various newspaper stands on a sidewalk.

The palette used is mostly dull with a medium range of tonal contrast due to the various

colors used are mid tones and most of the painting being in the shadows. Many tertiary colors

have been used along with grayed out tones of blue, brown, and black in the shadows. Brush-

strokes to create depth, are most visible in the snow, around the newspaper stands, and in

muted tints of light blue and slight coral color,.

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Anderson creates a quiet mood in an area we normally associate with being full of busy

people throughout the day. The composition seems to anticipate something or someone to en-

ter into the scene either in a car driving by or a person coming out of a store, this effect is cre-

ated by the lack of figures and movement in the composition. The center of interest in this

composition is made to be the more vibrant blue, green, and yellow newspaper stands in the

foreground of the painting along with the van being highlighted by the sun’s reflection in the

windows of the stores behind it back at us. Anderson’s theme expressed in Image 5 is tension

between the natural coloring of ground and the sky juxtaposed to the man made news paper

stands and car.

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! Image 6

Anderson’s Image 6 depicts a common gas station, Super America, in the summer. The

perspective is looks towards the cars at the pumps. In the background lies a convenience

store, with a mother and daughter walking on the sidewalk just in front of it. Anderson uses a

warm palette with orange tints throughout the composition to create a friendly, everyday feeling.

The middle ground of the composition, the cars and pumps, are in the shadows. While the rest

of the scene has the sun shining on it.

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Tones of blue, purple, and red display the effect of complementary colors to the green

and orange shades in the light. The light source is the sun coming from the east. The center of

interest, the figures, are highlighted by the light and by falling on the right one-third mark of the

composition. Brushstrokes can be seen everywhere in the painting, as the style is impression-

ism. One can determine that Scott used small to medium sized brushes. He also applied paint

thicker in the foreground, the Super America’s roof and foliage, than in the middle and back-

ground. The limited color palette and layout of this composition creates a calm energy to por-

tray this scene as simplistic every occurrence. The figures in this painting are depicted as the

natural element of this composition and are juxtaposed by all of the unnatural signs.

Scott Anderson’s successful use of a common narrative of going to the gas station was

well executed. Through juxtaposing color, design element placement, and mood, Anderson

creates a common narrative that portrays gas stations in a new and enticing way which makes

one appreciate their beauty.

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! Image 7 !!

Anderson’s painting, Image 7, is of his neighbor’s garage, what Anderson considered to

be “objets d’art”, or found objects (Anderson). In this case the objects were an old fashion

cream colored car, a dresser, car tires, a ladder, objects covered in tarps, boxes, and other

miscellaneous things. The first thing we see when viewing the piece is the long skinny canvas

board looking into a classic Minnesota packrat's garage, like we are peeping in to somebody’s

life. The whole scene looks to be a place where clutter and unused items are stored. The

garage itself appears to be older due to the manual garage door on what could be a large

wooden shed with small plants and grass placed sporadically near the left side and in front of

the opening.

Scott uses tertiary and intermediate colors in this piece, a limited palette. The cream

car’s muted tint, the house in the background, and the outside of the garage are all examples.

The use of vibrant colors, tints and tones of blue, tinted orange, and shades of red and green,

(all complementary colors) for a couple items inside the garage draw the center of interest up to

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the detailed clutter inside. The inside of the garage also has the most dark shadows and the

most wide tonal contrast in the composition, outside of the it there is a narrower range of tonal

contrast and shadows. None of the colors appear to be applied flat, they were all mixed.

Anderson used oil paint as his medium and applied it thicker in places, like the grass

texture by the entrance of the garage and on the car, because it is embossed off of the canvas.

Brushstrokes can be seen throughout the composition, but predominantly in the ground before

the garage and in the highlights of the piece. It can also be seen that Anderson uses a range of

brushes sizes when painting.

This artwork’s variance of the tonal contrast, in emphasis of tints washing out the work

in opposition to the areas in the shadows containing strong bold color use, effectively shows

that even ‘junk’ can be visually pleasing. This creates a successful point of visual interest that

makes us see that even the overlooked cluttered garage can be art. This conforms to Scott

Anderson’s dominate theme, the everyday juxtaposition between nature, the plants attempting

to grow, and human built structures, the garage.

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EDWARD HOPPER’S PAINTINGS !

! Image 8

Hopper’s Image 8, is a painting showing two women appearing tense in a restaurant

during the daytime. The one facing us wears a warm green sweater, purple hat, and her yellow

jacket hangs on the hook; the other is facing way with her back to us. She is still wearing her

cool tinted purple jacket, a warm colored scarf, and blue hat. They are sitting by a window

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that’s a warm red-orange color and the signs outside have writing on them, including a red sign

for the restaurant in whites letters that light up at night. In the background cooler colors with

hints of blue are uses to help create depth, primarily with shades of purple. Behind the two

women in front, we can see another pair of people at a second table and window, the blue sky

shining across them.

The light in this piece is coming from the windows to the right, hitting the women and

table. The shadows are located on the left half of the painting, creating a wide range of total

contrast. Hopper used a mixture of shapes in this artwork from straight edged and geometric

for the restaurant and its windows to the rounded and curved shapes for the figures and chairs

they sit on, juxtaposed shapes. This causes us to see the rounded and curved shapes as the

focal point of the work.

When looking at it the colors Hopper uses, a limited palette with bright warm colors in

the foreground and color complementary colors in the background. This is in juxtaposition to

mood of the piece, the subdued figures.The women are isolated even though they are sitting

together, while inside of a warmly colored restaurant, a public place with others around them.

The composition looks still, also juxtaposing to the average restaurant’s consistent movement.

Hopper does this by painting a shut mouth on the woman facing us and having both of the

women figure’s arms on the table.

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The emotion that Hopper was trying to make us feel when we looked at his composi-

tions was the feeling that a person is just a small part of a very large world, and life goes on for

everyone else even if it is at a standstill for the people, often the single woman, portrayed in his

works. For the most part the oil paint was applied thick due to the multiple layers of colors used

to create the realistically modeled scene.

Image 8 is a successful painting because it draws in view interest by an incredible use of

mood, color, and narrative. Hopper uses all of these techniques to create a center of interest of

his paintings in why the figures are isolated and in particular the woman; by directing attention

to the slight juxtapositions and tension between tradition and progress in Image 8.

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!Image 9 !

The scene in Image 9, by Hopper, is looking from the outside in at a diner at the corner

of the street on the right, with four people, three men one woman, inside. One of the men is

behind the counter, a waiter of sorts, wearing a sharp white uniform and an old fashioned hat,

in what seems to be a high class establishment, because the other two men are shadowy fig-

ures in dark ( blue gray and navy black) suits and formal top hats. The one woman, the point of

interest, has orange hair light skin and in a vivid red dress that could be silk because of how the

light reflects off of her shoulders. The light is coming from inside the diner, the foreground side-

walk, and from the west, the shoppes in the background, at the same time.

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Hopper uses a wide range of tonal contrast in an intriguing way, the inside is light and

the outside is dark, as to direct our vision inwards. He uses light and forms of the color red to

direct our vision from the toned red, and yellow letters, on the diner’s roof, to the orange

shoppes behind the dinner, to the diner’s mahogany counter, and to the lady in flat red colored

dress. The figures are positioned on the right one-third line. The lighter yellow and green in the

dinner also draws interest to them. These figures are the only organic shapes in Image 9 and

immediately are juxtaposed to be of interest and meaning.

The lady is shown to be isolated, again in an inhabited scene, in the way Hopper made

her the only figure, or thing, in a primary flat color, red, in the composition. Hopper’s use of a

limited palette, emphasizes this. Space created in this painting with the windows of the diner in

comparison to the people in it and the buildings behind it, forms an empty mood even though

there are multiple figures they are all seem isolated from each other.

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! Image 10

Image 10, by Hopper, is an oil painting of an 1940s gas station: pumps and a small con-

venience store. The station is empty of cars during the day and located by a forest. The only

person around is the gas station attendant, who is at one of the red pumps. It doesn't look like

the station is doing well financially due to the lack of customers, which is probably related to the

location, at a end of a street with nothing around isn't the ideal location for a gas station. Di-

rectly behind the red gas pumps the contrasting shadowed green tones that are almost black.

Part of the forest is located and continues in a slight right diagonal behind the white conve-

nience store with a red roof. The vanishing point is placed on the right side between the gas

pumps and gas station sign, this creates sharp visual angles on the perspective of the gas sta-

tion that is given.

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Here Hopper uses a strong and warm limited palette with red and green complementing

each other throughout the composition. Some of the reds and greens could have been applied

flat and brushstrokes can be seen in the wheat plants, foliage, and the convenience store.

The light is this composition is coming from the windows of the store and from the nat-

ural light of the sun from the east. There is a wide range of tonal contrast, creating an illuminat-

ing effect on the gas station. The center of interest is the gas stations pumps and man due to

all of the effects: color choice, vanishing point, light, tonal contrast, and foreign emptiness, that

juxtapose them. The solitary figure in the composition, the attendant, is lonely because gas sta-

tions are usually busy, this one is utterly empty. This demonstrates the theme’s juxtaposition be-

tween the natural forest with imposing gas station, and the failure of progress and the reversion

back to tradition.

COMPARISON Scott Anderson’s and Edward Hopper’s paintings both depict what surrounded them in

their everyday lives. Though being from different generations and places in America there

themes and subjects varying, their intent remains the same, common placed scenes in their

regions. For Anderson painting outside in the midwest was his niche and that’s why he travels

constantly. Hopper, he traveled along the East Coast to be inspired for his paintings.

They both use color in ways that create interest, Anderson using the Prismatic Palette,

and Hopper with his blues, greens, yellows, and reds. They both used limited palettes. They

also know how to set up a painting with a invoking vantage point, subject material, and light

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perception, granted each have different styles in this. Both used mainly oil paint on canvas and

painting in realism, and expressionism.

They both have similar, consistent, and meaningful themes. Edward’s isolation in the city

and Scott’s everyday can be beautiful. But both stressed the tension between nature and tradi-

tion to man made objects and progress by juxtaposing them in their work. That being said both

had different purposes for their paintings in relation to the difference in themes used.

In the twenty-first century painting the american scene in no longer new or different, now

called by the broader name, of the contemporary scene; Hopper made it famous and many

artists have since spun it their own way, like Anderson. He conforms to the average contempo-

rary scene painter in that he paints plein air. Anderson really likes the term contemporary scene

because it implies the subjects of the current world having a human aspect to them whether

something was built by or is lived in by us, and through this feels it describes his style well

(Scott Anderson Interview).

CONCLUSION Despite his paintings being different against the standard Edward Hopper, Scott Lloyd

Anderson can immensely be classified as a contemporary scene painter. This can be seen in

his subject the scenes around him in everyday, traveling, limited palette, tension, and juxtaposi-

tion in comparison to Edward Hopper and his work. Perhaps all plein air painters should too be

considered contemporary scene painters with Scott Anderson, but further exploration into the

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broad style would be needed. There is little doubt that Scott Anderson, in comparison to Hop-

per, is definitely a contemporary scene painter.

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WORKS CITED !PRIMARY SOURCES Anderson, Scott L. "Personal Interview with Scott Lloyd Anderson." Telephone interview. 10

Oct. 2014.

“Paradise, Paved: An Oil Painter’s Exploration of the Suburbs.” Hopkins Center for the Arts.

1111 Mainstreet Hopkins, MN 55343, USA. 15 October 2014.

!SECONDARY SOURCES Berkow, Ita G. Edward Hopper: A Modern Master. New York, NY: Smithmark, 1998. Print.

Dell, Barbara., Ganglehoff, Bonnie., Bucher, Kristin.. "Artist to watch." Southwest Art. 01 Jan.

2001: 2. eLibrary. Web. 21 Oct. 2014..

Gangelhoff, Bonnie. "The Plein-Air painters of America." Southwest Art. 01 Oct. 2002: 133.

eLibrary. Web. 21 Oct. 2014.

Gihring, Tim. "Light Chasers." Minnesota Monthly. 01 Jun. 2004: 102. eLibrary. Web. 21 Oct.

2014.

Hopper, Edward, and Gail Levin. Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist. New York: Norton,

1980. Print.

Lucie-Smith, Edward. Lives of the Great 20th-century Artists. New York: Thames and Hudson,

1999. Print.

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Mary Abbe Star Tribune (Minneapolis). "Insights into the enigmatic Edward Hopper in a new

show at Walker”

Murphy, Jessica. “Edward Hopper (1882-1967)”. In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York:

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hopp/

hd_hopp.htm (June 2007)

"Scott Lloyd Anderson." MN Originals. Tpt. #204, Minnesota, 07 Sept. 2010.Www.mnoriginal-

s.org. Web. 7 Oct. 2014

"Scott Lloyd Anderson Oil Paintings." Scott Lloyd Anderson Oil Paintings. N.p., n.d. Web. 07

Oct. 2014.

Stewart, Suzanne. "'The Eye It Cannot Choose But See': Dorothy Wordsworth, John Consta-

ble, And The Plein-Air Sketch." English Studies 92.4 (2011): 405-431. Academic Search

Premier. Web. 8 Oct. 2014.

"Scott Lloyd Anderson Biography and Paintings, Page 3." Scott Lloyd Anderson Biography and

Paintings, Page 3. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.

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http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hopp/hd_hopp.htm


TABLE OF IMAGES Image 1-

Anderson, Scott. On Ramp, Burnsville, 2011 !Image 2-

Hopper, Edward. Cobb’s Barn and Distant Houses, 14 in x 20 in, 1931 !Image 3-

Anderson, Scott. Festival, Spoonbridge and Cherry, oil on panel 20in x 12in

!Image 4-

Anderson, Scott. Gotta Move, oil on canvas 30 in x 40 in, 2013

!Image 5-

Anderson, Scott. Jobs & Career, Free, oil on canvas 18 x 24

!Image 6-

Anderson, Scott. 59 Cent Soft Drinks, oil on canvas 36 in x 48 in, 2010

!Image 7-

Anderson, Scott. Neighbor's Garage, oil on canvas 8 in x 22 in, 2010

!Image 8-

Hopper, Edward. Chop Suey. 1929. Oil on canvas, 81.3 cm × 96.5 cm (32 in × 38 in). Barney

A. Ebsworth Collection, n.p

!Image 9-

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Hopper, Edward. Nighthawks. 1942. 84.1 x 152.4 oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago,

Chicago, Illinois.

!Image 10-

Hopper, Edward. Gas, oil on canvas, 1940

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IB Extended Essay FINAL