Welcome to Compose. There's lots of stuff here, all about composing paintings.

Current entries appear in Dianne's weekly newsletter.




Sunday, June 18, 2017

Rediscovering a Forgotten Tool

Are you able to guess what these three excerpts from a painting might be describing?
Image
What if I told you they are all describing a white wall.  No way?  Well, take a look at this:

painting by Colin Page
Image
The painting is by Colin Page, a painter adroit at working with temperatures of color.  In this painting, it is the alternation of warm and cool that creates the vibrancy and rhythm we feel in the piece. Here's a brief analysis of what we are seeing:
Image
And that is alternating warm and cool.  
Alternation is somewhat a forgotten tool, a principle long used by master artists to give life and rhythm to their works.  It's a way of switching gears in between thoughts, of staggering where the temptation might be to repeat. We can use it with any of the visual elements as well as with our brushstrokes.  It's an exciting principle that can add just vigor in the most unexpected ways.  

1 comment:

Teresa said...

It was the year 1990. I paid $25 to watch an artist paint and present color theory. My world changed forever and I could never look upon paintings in the same way. What I’ve discovered by your teaching is that indeed my eyes were opened by my education is far from over. I appreciate these lessons on color having revealed an even more in-depth understanding. Where I thought my understanding was complete I’m excited to learn that there is still much more to learn. Your examples are very revealing.