Not all sections of a surface are equal. Movement, space, and placement can be used to suggest time. Within the composition we can infer a sequence, a past, and a future. In part, this is due to how we read. Generally, we read top to bottom, and left to right. Within a scene in a painting we often interpret things happening at the top or left side as beginning, and as they move towards the lower and the right side, they are perceived as ending. Things happening in the lower right side tend to be perceived as happening later in time. Spacing and placement can also can suggest how much future or past there is outside of the immediate scene of the painting. This isn’t true for all paintings, but it does happen in some, and you can use it in yours.
For example, the painting Christina’s World by Wyeth suggests a moment of time in the subject’s future. We connect the figure (left) to the house (right), and the tension is in the suggested attempted movement from the figure through the blank space, as the figure pulls towards the house.
In the painting below by Harry Franklin Waltman, the action has mostly already happened (represented by the figure on the left), and the figure on the right is at his end. Both Christina and the fencer are in peril, but Christina, the figure on the left side, will extend into prolonged suffering, while the fencer, the figure on the right edge of the canvas, suggests the story is at its end.
I asked Fran O’Neill from the New York Studio School to talk about her upcoming workshop “To Transcribe” and the benefits of transcribing masterworks. She offered a beautiful and inspiring response. Fran O’Neill’s 2 day workshop “To Transcribe” is coming to the Seattle Artist League October 24, 2020. Click here to learn more. “To Transcribe” …
Nearly 100 works show how an American post-war painter used a French master’s work as inspiration. BMA Exhibit Curated by Katy Rothkopf. Post edited from original post by Gabriella Souza on Baltimore Arts & Culture. Posted on October 20, 2016 They were painters separated by decades, continents, and artistic movements, but their love of color and passion for painting …
William Scott (1913 – 1989) British artist, known for still-life and abstract painting. He is the most internationally celebrated of 20th-century Ulster painters. (wiki) Yesterday I posted charcoal drawings by William Scott. Today I’m posting his paintings. I look at these as a series of compositional experiments. I like to look at each object that he separated, grouped. …
Left vs Right: sense of time in composition
Not all sections of a surface are equal. Movement, space, and placement can be used to suggest time. Within the composition we can infer a sequence, a past, and a future. In part, this is due to how we read. Generally, we read top to bottom, and left to right. Within a scene in a painting we often interpret things happening at the top or left side as beginning, and as they move towards the lower and the right side, they are perceived as ending. Things happening in the lower right side tend to be perceived as happening later in time. Spacing and placement can also can suggest how much future or past there is outside of the immediate scene of the painting. This isn’t true for all paintings, but it does happen in some, and you can use it in yours.
For example, the painting Christina’s World by Wyeth suggests a moment of time in the subject’s future. We connect the figure (left) to the house (right), and the tension is in the suggested attempted movement from the figure through the blank space, as the figure pulls towards the house.
In the painting below by Harry Franklin Waltman, the action has mostly already happened (represented by the figure on the left), and the figure on the right is at his end. Both Christina and the fencer are in peril, but Christina, the figure on the left side, will extend into prolonged suffering, while the fencer, the figure on the right edge of the canvas, suggests the story is at its end.
Related Posts
Fran O’Neill on Transcribing Masterworks
I asked Fran O’Neill from the New York Studio School to talk about her upcoming workshop “To Transcribe” and the benefits of transcribing masterworks. She offered a beautiful and inspiring response. Fran O’Neill’s 2 day workshop “To Transcribe” is coming to the Seattle Artist League October 24, 2020. Click here to learn more. “To Transcribe” …
Matisse’s Influence On Diebenkorn
Nearly 100 works show how an American post-war painter used a French master’s work as inspiration. BMA Exhibit Curated by Katy Rothkopf. Post edited from original post by Gabriella Souza on Baltimore Arts & Culture. Posted on October 20, 2016 They were painters separated by decades, continents, and artistic movements, but their love of color and passion for painting …
William Scott’s Paintings
William Scott (1913 – 1989) British artist, known for still-life and abstract painting. He is the most internationally celebrated of 20th-century Ulster painters. (wiki) Yesterday I posted charcoal drawings by William Scott. Today I’m posting his paintings. I look at these as a series of compositional experiments. I like to look at each object that he separated, grouped. …
Painters named Alex
[image_with_animation image_url=”5980″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] ” load_in_animation=”none Happy day-after-your birthday Alex Walker!