painted wooden pieces

Four hand painted flat prism-shaped wood pieces made by Teresa Summerskill and they were donated by Laura Burden. Both a) and b) have illustrations representing “folk art” with the rosemaling pattern of the Telemark style. They are painted identically, except the difference being the slightly changed colour hues. a) has greens, pinks, yellows, and blues tinges, meanwhile b) has also greens, yellows, and bits of blue, though it has purple tinges instead of pink. c) and d) as well have the Telemark style painted on, atlthough both are painted slightly different from each other. This includes one of the pieces in the center of the design is filled with the colour yellow, while the other piece in the center remains colourless aside from the patterning surrounding it. Despite this, they do have the same colour hues of brown, greens, and yellows. The floral patterning, “rosemaling”, or also known as “rose painting/decorative painting”, is from Norwegian origin and is a mix between Dutch painting and traditional folk art. It was named “rosemaling/rose painting/decorative painting” since during the 17th to 18th century, various artists painted roses and other types of flowers. The three main styles of this specific folk art are called Telemark, Hallingdal, and Rogaland, named after the regions of where they were formed. Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic. It is characterized by a naïve style, in which traditional rules of proportion and perspective are not employed. Folk art mainly expresses cultural identity, such as sharing community values, by using various materials of wood, clay, metal, paper, and other resources. It reflects traditional art forms of diverse community groups of ethnic, tribal, religious, occupational, geographical, age- or gender-based, who identify with each other and society at large. For donor biography see description for 021.10.01.