During the time I've been teaching virtually, one question continues to surface: How do I choose what to paint? I addressed that in June, 2016, and even though some of
you have seen this already, I think now is a good time to address it again. So I hope you enjoy this dusted off rerun from that post.
What causes us to begin a painting or a drawing? My guess is that our answers vary, but let's take ourselves to when a subject catches our attention and
pulls us towards it. Chances are there's junk there, too-- stuff that's just in the way. Not only that, but the subject as is might need some rearranging and editing to pull together a sound composition.
Here's a subject that years ago got my attention. In 2008, for the first time ever, my entire bed of bearded irises sprang into full bloom. One morning a section bathed in light caught
my eye and pulled me towards it.
Without some selecting and placing as well as editing, it's a jumbled mess, but the way the light was striking those center flowers got my attention.
That brought me to five pivotal questions: What to use? What to ignore or leave out? What to emphasize? What to subdue? What to change?
Using the thirds division option for cropping, I found a beginning of what to use. Finding what to change, I spotted the flower on the upper right that I
could move to the left a bit and another mid-left that I could scoot inward. And rather than use the withered shadowed blossom in front, I chose another (not in the photo) to use.
Within this rough crop, I chose to ignore the azaleas and tool shed in the background, to subdue some of the textural details, and to emphasize the
light pattern and shadow area of the foliage. This reinforced what caught my attention in the first place: the light.
Here's the resulting oil painting, "Irises in Light".
Asking these questions--What to use? What to ignore or leave out? What to emphasize? What to subdue? What to change?--can help us more closely scrutinize possibilities and
make more aesthetically sound decisions while composing our paintings and other art works.
Have a delightful weekend and Happy July 4, Americans!
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