1. Using the Paintings of Winslow Homer
Descriptive Writing
Using the Paintings of
Winslow Homer

2. Watson and the Shark
John Singleton Copley, Watson and the Shark, National Gallery of Art, Ferdinand Lammot Belin Fund

3. Sample Paragraph Wenhua Tian 2007 Watson and the Shark
Watson and the Shark
Watson and the Shark is a painting by John Singleton Copely. In the foreground of the painting, one naked man is being attacked by a huge gray shark in the cold and choppy seawater. One small overloaded rowboat is near the naked man and the frightening shark. There are nine horrified men in this rowboat. They are trying to rescue the naked man. One young man takes a long spear and wants to kill the shark. Some people are reaching for his hand, and some are throwing a rope for him to catch. In the background of the painting, under the dark and cloudy sky, there are many ships stopping in the stormy harbor. The whole painting makes people feel tension and fear.

4. Background Information
The power of a hurricane

5. The Gulf Stream by Winslow Homer
The Gulf Stream by Winslow Homer, The Gulf Stream, Oil on canvas; 28 1/8 x 49 1/8 in. (71.4 x cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York, Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, 1906 ( ). Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

6. After the Hurricane by Winslow Homer
Winslow Homer, American, ,After the Hurricane, Bahamas, 1899, Art Institute of Chicago

7. The Destructive Power of Nature
Example of Paragraph
The Destructive Power of Nature
The Gulf Stream by Winslow Homer shows how destructive the ocean can be. In this picture, a wounded (injured) man sits calmly in the face of danger. Fierce sharks are circling around him sitting on his damaged boat. The whole ocean shows its true powers causing powerful waves. The boat is lying helplessly under the mercy of the ocean.
This is a great first draft! Remember, it’s not finished, but it has great promise.

8. Things to Remember Description not Narration
Is this narration or description?
In about fifteen minutes after the storm, the man was exhausted, and couldn’t believe that he came out of the ocean churned by the stubborn wind.
His boat is broken and he looks half dead, and since the storm has stopped the sky looks peaceful.
From the moment he realized he was about to be eaten by shark, he laid motionless on top of the boat.
In the ocean, you can see the ferocious sharks with sharp teeth waiting for him to fall off his small and old boat.
Avoid I statements in academic writing.
Double space your paragraph.
Use an appropriate title (see page 89 in textbook).
Verb forms/tenses (see handout)

9. Outlining – the Key to Unity and Coherence
Outline your paragraph here:
Topic Sentence: Remember a topic sentence includes the topic and what you want to tell the reader about the topic – what is the point of your paragraph?
Example _______ by Winslow Homer makes the view feel __________.
Supports and details
Support One:______________________________________________
Detail:_____________________________________________________
Support Two:_______________________________________________
Support Three:______________________________________________
Conclusion: Remember to refer back to the controlling idea from the Topic Sentence.
Example: For these reasons, the viewer has a feeling of __________ after looking at ______________ by Winslow Homer.

10. Unity and Coherence Unity – how do you create it?
Keeping your controlling idea in mind while you create your supports and details.
Coherence – how do you create it?
Following logical pattern
In this paragraph, discuss fully one object before moving on to another
Using sentence types to link ideas together

11. Grammar Point Run-ons Comma Splices
When a sentence is lacking necessary punctuation, it is called a run-on.
Example:
His boat is broken and he looks half dead, and since the storm has stopped the sky looks peaceful.
Comma Splices
When a comma is used to separate two sentences
The painting that Winslow Homer painted makes the viewer feel sad, there are few things you will see if you look on that painting.

12. Instructor Information
Using the Watson painting generated a lot of discussion about how the artist is able to make us feel via his chosen medium. The sample paragraph is missing a topic sentence with a controlling idea – this is a great teaching point.
There are probably thousands of video of hurricanes – these are just two that I found that suited my purposes (the first just a quick view of the power of the wind, and the second, an idea of the power of the waves – 140 miles away from the eye)
I decided to infer that the two paintings tell a story, but in reality, they don’t. The man in the second painting is from this painting The Water Fan (a type of coral).
Info on The Gulf Stream:Homer’s exploration of life and death in the tropics found ultimate expression in his oil painting The Gulf Stream painted at Prout’s Neck following his return from the Bahamas. A group of four watercolors documents the evolution of this terrifying seascape, which details the plight of a solitary black man, adrift in stormy seas on a broken boat and encircled by a school of aggressive requiem sharks. In early 1885, on his first trip to the Bahamas, Homer had painted Shark Fishing which depicts two fishermen controlling a hooked shark that struggles, mouth open, in the immediate foreground. On this same trip, the artist executed a similar subject, Sharks (The Derelict). In this work, an unmanned wooden boat, broken-masted and taking on water, is under attack by at least three large, circling animals. The fact that the boat is empty leaves the viewer to wonder if the worst has already happened.
Homer’s 1898 voyage to the Bahamas must have reminded him of these works, suggesting the idea for his next major painting. Either in Nassau, or more likely after he returned to Prout’s Neck, he developed the theme in two watercolors. One is Study for “The Gulf Stream”, a detailed view of the bow of the derelict boat that corresponds closely to the final painting. In the work, the artist trimmed a horizontal sheet into a vertical format and filled it nearly to the top with churning waves. In the Art Institute’s watercolor study The Gulf Stream, Homer positioned the shark so that it appears to swim over the submerged side of the boat. It is probable that he painted this work in his Prout’s Neck studio, where he would have been able to refer to the studies from He trimmed the bottom of The Gulf Stream sheet, forcing the belly of the shark right up against the picture plane. In both this watercolor and in the finished painting, the impassive (or dazed) expression of the castaway and his surprisingly relaxed (or resigned) pose imbue the subject with ambiguity.
Info on After the Hurricane After the Hurricane, Bahamas shows a luckless man—seemingly the same model depicted in The Water Fan—washed up on the beach, surrounded by fragments of his shattered boat. The splintered boat testifies to the frightening severity of the hurricane, even as billowing black clouds recede into the distance and sunlight begins to glimmer through the clouds. Frothy white caps and a surprising horizontal stroke of brilliant green in the distance conjure an ocean that is gradually calming itself. Homer used thin washes and fluid brushstrokes to render the waves, setting up a contrast to dry land, where he employed opaque red and yellow pigments, thickly applied, for the seaweed tossed upon the sand by the storm.

13. Other paintings The Gulf Stream, Watercolor Study, 1899
Prout's Neck, Breakers, 1883