I.                   Descriptive: Focuses on form. Primarily a description of the subject matter and form.

This oil painting features a large two-story country home in the French countryside. The color composition is mainly yellow, blue and green, a combination of both warm and cool hues, accented by bits of red. This effect creates tension and energy, making the painting bright and cheery. Had the painting been done in an analogous color scheme, perhaps of mostly the yellows and oranges, without contrasting colors, it would have been warm and calming like Sanford Gifford's October in the Catskills. It's almost painted in primary colors - red, yellow and blue - but since the red has been minimized and the green, blue and yellow occur more or less equally, the primary colors don't immediately come to mind.  The artist has sought to harmonize the piece by using colors of the same intensity.

The home is the largest feature, painted in yellow, in simplistic terms, with a chimney, several windows, and an entry way with an overhanging roof. The home is very simple, not fancy, and a sandy path painted in a light tan leads up to the door, bordered on each side by colorful flowers in full bloom. The flowers are indistinct, blues, reds, yellows, purples, pinks. Some could be Holly hocks, roses, but none are in exacting detail, making the colors the more important aspect as they jump out in front of the house.

The artist has used an Impressionist style, similar to Claude Monet's Grainstack (Sunset), often painted outdoors in order to render the true colors of the scene. Based on Chilman's biography, I would assume he did paint this painting in the open air. He used a technique where the oil paint is applied very thick and then has been cut with a knife to create the texture of tall stocks and leaves and trees. Even the house is done in this texture as is the sky and clouds. Perhaps it would have been better to have created some contrast, where the house is smooth against the textured trees and plants, or where some of the original ground has been exposed.

The line is mainly an expressive one, which adds to the energy of the piece. The artist has used linear perspective to create distance and dimension in the house and in the pathway which narrows as it recedes in the distance.  The painting is divided equally in a vertical format, where the center of the piece is the line of the house so that the house occupies the left side of the painting. This is balanced by a tiny orange shed on the right and slightly below the house. The light clouds in the sky are balanced by the light of the pathway, which contrasts with the darks of the trees and flowers.

There is repetition in the thick paint strokes and texture as well as in the blobs of color representing the flowers. Motion is expressed in the clouds, which have been created in billowy white and blue and in the trees, which are indistinct but could be moving.

The painting is asymmetrical, leading the eye to the yellow house, which is the focal point. In this piece the details of the paint texture work to form regions: the tree grouping on the left, the flower grouping on the right, the green stalks at the front. All in all the elements of art and principles of design work together to unify the piece, although after analysis of the piece I see some things which could have improved it, as suggested above. The painting is framed in a gold embellished frame. Thus this creates an ideal version of country living.