Red Cannas by Georgia O’Keeffe

Red Cannas is a painting which deals with formal elements and principles such as color, shape, scale, and value. One of the most visually arresting elements of this work is the intense red hue of the flower petals, which cover almost the whole canvas. Because there is such a great deal of red, value becomes more important for creating dimension. The shapes in this piece are rounded and overlapping, which gives the painting a certain fluid softness, and even a sense a visual rhythm. O’Keeffe manages to convey the organic nature of her subject matter through her use of curvilinear forms and gradual shading. She also takes an interesting approach to scale, going so far as to push her image outside the picture frame. This large-scale yet also focused and close-cropped approach is what gives Red Cannas the incredible sense of spatial immediacy that was one of the artist’s hallmarks.