Sequoia National Forest
In 2020, when COVID-19 shut down the US and most of the world, I thought it would be a good time to work on paintings and increase my inventory. But it was a strange time for everyone, and I found it difficult to focus on painting. So, instead, I did something I wanted to do for years. I wrote a book, or more of a guide, on the fundamentals of painting for visual artists. In the following story, I have included excerpts from the introduction and snippets from the first chapter on composition.
Introduction
A painter’s narrative is a visual experience of energy, light, and color. Learning how to capture that experience takes dedication, creativity, observation, and discovering how to ask yourself the right questions.
I personally believe that a successful artist will also have a natural instinct, an innate ability to see and translate the world around them with vision and understanding. Some things cannot be taught and it is within those types of individuals that great art can be created.
As visual artists, we are constantly engaged with a need to better understand the fundamentals of painting. As colorists, we can spend our entire life studying just the principles of color. Add other elements such as value, composition, and light, and it becomes a lifetime of learning.
Art is a means of telling a story. To help better convey that story as a painter, learning the basic fundamentals and techniques of painting are enormously important, and learnable. But good story telling in a work of art doesn’t emerge from just knowing the elements of painting, or from one’s spontaneous urge to create. As we listen to life’s lessons and visualize our world, the real success comes from hard work and hours of practice. Success of a painting emerges from commitment, passion, and the internal spirit of the artist.
Composition
“It is not the most beautiful painting I have ever seen, but I can’t look away.” What is it that makes the painting so enthralling; the way the light hits the swaying tree tops, the color of the clouds hanging effortlessly in the evening sky, the powerful contrast between the background and foreground, or maybe it is simply the way it is put together? That is, the composition.
Composition is the visual arrangement of the elements within a painting. It’s the layout or symphony of design within a picture. A skillful composition will harmonize with pleasure through the balance of information.
When building a home, the first element of the building construction is the foundation which supports the structure. Without a solid and level foundation, the rest of the structure would be unstable. For the artist, the composition is the foundation on which to build. A solid foundation will retain balance between the main elements of the painting, and pull the observer in and around the picture while keeping their interest.