This painting, the summery garden – which Van Gogh later referred to as ‘the painting of the garden with the sweethearts’ – is one of the largest canvases he painted. It is also the first work he exhibited in Paris. He painted the park in the Pointillist style that kept him so occupied during the summer of 1887. This technique, in which small dots of unmixed color are placed close together, has been applied fairly consistently here. Carefully crafted in the studio, this painting lacks the spontaneity of much of his other work. The artist’s brushstrokes are nonetheless expressive. The sky, for instance, is rendered with vigorous dashes of paint.
1 Chapter 2 What We Can Easily See
1. 1 what stands out = what we can bias for
The painting is painted by small dots. Basically, the painting is divided into three main areas, the sky, the plants and the road. The dots’ color in the same area are very similar with each other, they are in the same hue. Also, the dots’ shapes are alike in the same area. (Figure 1) Thereby the elements of features make an area blend into a whole. (Figure 2) These are the things that easy to find out, because the features can be easily seen.
Figure 1 Colors and shapes
Figure 2: areas
“The strongest pop-out effects occur when a single target object differs in some feature from all other objects and where all the other objects are identical, or at least very similar to one another.” (P. 29) Thus, the people in the painting pop-out. The clothing and accessories are composed by different colors, which are not in the same hue. And the high saturation parts are bigger and closer than other areas. The shape of dots and orientations are also not in tune compare to the surroundings. (Figure 3) In conclusion, the degree of feature-level is more complex than the surroundings. They are in different multiple channels. (P. 29) Secondly, the second fixation will be the trees in the middle, because of the contrast color of flowers and leaves- red and green.
Figure 3 next fixation
1.2 The visual search
Bigger pattern has bigger detective field, so we first detective the sky, the grass and the ground. Then our fixation comes to the people on the ground. They pop out. “At every instant in time part of the brain is planning the next eye movement based on the information available from the current fixation of the eye as well as some small amount that is retained from the previous few fixations.” (P. 37) When the people in pink dress and blue suits become the fixation, the two people next to them may be the target of next fixation. (Figure 3) Apparently, the two people are hard to be detected at first stage. They cannot be distinct due to the colors are very similar with the background. And they do not have clear rims for the body shapes. The contrast is not big enough for us to detect at the start. However, the shapes of brushstroke are still diverse compare to the background, so we could discover the people when we have a fixation on the people in front of them.
1.3 Using multiscale structure to design for search
To become a rhythmic painting, to become a painting that can be easily understood and remembered, high level structure make them happen. (P. 41) These area structures are at different scale. For instance, the patterns and colors of people are more complex compare to the surrounding. The color of trees and grass are more complex than sky. These feature lead efficient and fluent eye movement sequences.
2 Chapter 3 Structuring Two-Dimensional Space
2.1 The binding problem: features to Contours
“Our brain constructs contours and areas from the millions of fragmented pieces of information in V1.” Patterns of light, shade, color and motion, help the binding process put disconnected pieces into connected pieces. So we identify the differences of each area in V1, and understand the painting by analyzing the objects in it. By this process, the edge-finding machinery helps we identify the trees, the sky, the bushes, the road and people. (Figure 4)
Figure 4 Edge-finding
2.2 The generalized contour
When people look at a picture, they need to understand the objects in the picture. People instantly search for the objects, and make plans for eye search movement. “An object may be separated from its background in many different ways including luminance changes at its silhouette, color differences, texture boundaries, and even motion boundaries.” (P. 49) People could distinguish the sky area, tree area, road area and people area by their color and shapes distinctions. (P. 49)
Let us have a closer look at the people that in the picture. The three groups of people are at different distance. In order to show the spatial distance, the painter used diverse methods to reach the goal. Refer to the book Visual Thinking for Design; line drawings are so effective in conveying different kinds of information. The couple on the left side pops out, the painter draws some black lines along the bodies. (Figure 5.1) Therefore the couple draws people’s attention in the first place. After this, the other couple on the right side will be detected; the color of their wear is very distinct from the surrounding. Even though the edges are vague compare to the couple on the left side. (Figure 5.2) Following this, people could eventually find out the two people that ‘hide’ in the background. They do not have clear contours, they are in the similar colors with surroundings, and then they are involved into surrounding. Those reasons create out the feeling, they are the farthest ones. (Figure 5.3)
Figure 5.1 Figure 5.2 Figure 5.3
2.3 Texture regions
Except for the couple on the left side and some trunks, they have some black lines as clear contours. Most of the objects do not have explicit contours. The contour extraction mechanism generates the contour by assemble the features together. The texture element orientation, shape and color which could be analyze in V1. (P. 50) As what we could see in figure 1, the whole painting was painted by small dots. People start thinking the dots as a texture when the dots have similar orientations, shapes and colors. Figure 6 illustrates the organized dots of each area. The properties of texture make these areas distinct. The dots of sky are straight blue lines which are at 45 degree. The dots of trees are straight lines that point to a center, form the crowns of a tree. Short and crosswise dots are used to show the texture of grasses and road. Bushes and short grasses are cut apart by vertical grasses, which are in straight and vertical lines of long length.
Figure 6 texture differences
2.4 Spatial layout
“Group of objects can form patterns based on the proximity of the elements.” (P.56) Take trees for examples, the crowns are made of dots that point to a center and the crowns of trees can be seen as elements of a tree as well. They provoke a response from a large-shape detecting neuron, and form the shape of a tree. (Figure 7) The law is also used in forming the other areas, such as the bushes.
Figure 7 spatial grouping
3 Chapter 4 Color
3.1 Channel properties
This painting is an impressionism painting. This type of painting emphasize on the accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time), ordinary subject matter, the inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience, and unusual visual angles. (Wiki: impressionism) The painter use massive soft colors in chromatic channel, but chromatic channels have less capability to convey detail information. “Chromatic contrast occurs in the red-green and yellow-blue channels. Its effects are much more complex and harder to predict than grey-scale contrast.” (P. 70) In addition, “Shape perception is based mainly on luminance channel information, color sequences that vary mainly in luminance will be the most effective in revealing patterns in the data.” (P.81) So we only could detect the vague shape of each area, and the distance between each objects. This subtle vision gives us the impression of a summery garden to show painter’s experience and perception.
Furthermore, “The brain’s processing of stereoscopic depth information is done via the luminance channel.” (P. 71) So the painting seems a little bit flat. The stereoscopic depth only can be perceived by the low saturation color in the background. “The luminance channel can process shape-from-shading, whereas the chromatic channels cannot.” The painting is lacking of the colors from luminance channel, so that the objects do not have obvious shading which could show the shape in three-dimensional surfaces. We can see the threes blend into a whole in figure 8 as powerful evidence.
Figure 8 threes blend into a whole
3.2 Color-coding information
The unique hues first are red, green yellow and blue, these colors are widely use in this painting. “A strong pop-out effect depends both on the other colored objects in the scene and on the background color.” (P. 77) For this reason, red umbrella, pink dress and red flowers pop out. Because red is the contrast color of green. Red and green are at the ends of middle- and long-wavelength-sensitive cones. The surroundings are trees and grasses, basically are green, although the green are in different hues. In addition, the background colors are low saturation colors, the small area like people and flowers are higher saturation colors. (Figure 9) Higher saturation colors get more attractions. The short-wave-length colors have fewer chances to be dug out than long-wave-length colors, such as blue and purple. (P. 67)
Figure 9 color-coding
3.3 Semantics of color
Blue is usually stands for quiet and soft feelings. Green is usually stands for vitality, hope, friendly, peace and fresh feeling. These two colors describe the mood of garden in the summer. The environment is pleasant enough for people to visit in summer time. Red and white indicates it is the middle of summer; it is the best time in this season. The vivid flowers even provide people a feeling that they are in a sweet smell atmosphere, because of the flowers are booming. What’s more, red is a high saturation color; it attracts people by their first sight. In that case, it emphasizes that the flowers are booming, and people are involved in the smell of flowers. This kind of feeling meets painter’s purpose, which creates a sweet atmosphere for sweet couples.
Besides, the umbrella is red, the dress is pink, and they also hint the couples are in heated love.