provides tips for engaging the viewer in a composition
We all look for interesting subjects for our paintings, but finding something interesting is only half the battle. For the painting to engage the viewer, hold their attention and trigger some sort of emotional response, we must do more than simply document what we see. I always ask myself “What is it that makes me want to paint this subject?” The answer is usually less to do with the subject and more to do with some abstract, emotional response to what I am looking at. Take a group of weathered buildings on a Venetian Canal for example. Sure, the buildings are interesting enough, but the rising dampness, crumbling plaster and fading paint all work hard to interrupt the grand formality of the architecture. It is this contradiction of man-made beauty and a thousand years of chaotic natural forces that really make these buildings interesting. Exaggerating, emphasizing and editing to capture that feeling of nature slowly destroying man’s best attempt at beauty makes a much more interesting painting than simply copying the subject in front of you. Whatever the subject, try to find the associated factors that identify and define it. These factors can then be manipulated to squeeze so much more from your subject than just a likeness.
What appealed to me about this subject was the confusion of objects zigzagging their way down to the group of ladies quietly chatting. By intensifying the color and tonal contrast around the focal area and subduing it toward the top and bottom, the confusion remains but the eye is always directed back to the ladies relaxing in the sun. So, rather than just a painting of ladies chatting in the sun, we have a painting of happiness in amongst the chaos, color and confusion.
On the surface, this is not an appealing subject, but the masses of formal geometric buildings spanning a complex network of organic roads and freeways interested me. The subject is reduced to a complex pattern of geometric rectangles and dominant verticals. This pattern is fractured by the contrasting organic curves, creating a confused congestion typical of the city. The varied textures and procession of traffic leading the eye into the painting help build the chaotic bustle of a busy city.
There is a beauty in the random chaotic shapes that make up this old shearing shed. It was never designed, but grew organically according to the needs of the farmer. By concentrating on the variations in shape and size, the misalignment of elements and contrasting textures, the subject becomes more abstract, random placement than just a shearing shed.