"Heading Home" is a painting by Sheridan Ward. The painting is about a car driving in a neighborhood with only one leafless tree. There’s no other person in the painting other than the driver of the car. The sky is orange with some clouds to decorate it. It is simple, but not too simple. Sheridan Ward uses lights and shadows to show a theme of heading home and the common feeling you get coming home from a long, tiring day.
One very interesting detail in the painting is that there aren’t any people in the painting. There are only objects and the back of a car, and nothing else; not even a dog or an ant. The author explains that heading back home feels like nothing is around you, the only thing that you realize is the beautiful views that are around you.
Even though the painting doesn’t have any people in it, the author still expressed every detail of heading back home after a busy day. In the painting, only one car is on the road and the rest are parked on the road. That means the car that is still driving will be at home later than the rest of the workers. That also means that even though there is a driver that is still on the road who worked longer than others, he or she is not complaining, but still driving back home with a happy mood.
One very important detail of the painting is the almost darkening sky. The sky is not blue, not white, not gray, or dark, but orange. That tells us that the driver will end up home when the sky is dark or almost dark. The sun works when the day starts and works until the end of the day, so the painting wants to tell us that the driver woke up with the sun and rested together with the sun.
The artist painted this painting for a reason. We think that she wanted to show the affect the sun has on the darkness, and how hard work pays off. Because the driver went through the stresses of work and life, now they are rewarded by getting to go home for the night. The sunset in the background is a beautiful, relaxing scene, just what someone would want to see after a long day at work. The lack of people rushing around and other cars driving down the street also add to the feeling of peacefulness in this painting. The artist painted this to be calming after a long day. And when I, for one, look at this painting, I do feel calm and peaceful.
Sheridan Ward uses the objects surrounding the car to show the emotion of the driver. There are no people; not even animals. The painting is so simple but yet so powerful. The artist tries to tell us the feeling when you are going back home after a harsh and busy day.
Works Cited
Ward, Sheridan. “Sheridan Ward.” BritishContemporary.art, www.britishcontemporary.art/sheridan-ward/.
By: Britalit