Composition

 Greetings.

It has recently occurred to me that, whilst I have posted about a great number of my paintings, I do not think that I have previously posted anything about composition.

Obviously subject, objects and colour are all essential elements of any painting, but none work well without good composition.

This is geometric and roughly mathematical.

I will use my painting Metamorphosis as an example

Here is the painting with the composition superimposed.

The tower on the hill is set at The Golden Section, which roughly( in this case very roughly) divides the horizontal space one third to two thirds ( this is a classical element of composition that has been used since the Renaissance) ;

The foliage of the trees is formed by two intersecting circles;

 The trees on the hill, the tower on the hill and the tor on the horizon from a triangle;

The trees on the hill the moon and the arc of butterflies form an extended ellipse

I use circles and arcs a lot in my paintings as they are excellent ways of leading the eye of the viewer and I like to encourage the viewer to explore different paths within a painting.

In this case , one path leads from the transformation of the flower to the butterfly, via the arc of butterflies , to the moon; the other from the trees to the tower to the tor on the horizon.

...and now I look at it again, there is a second triangle formed by the trees and the moon...which was unplanned and just happened that way...

I may use other paintings to talk more about composition later.

Until next time

Adieu