UNDERESTIMATING THE TRANSLATION. When I look at a painting made by observation I can’t help but assume that the artist painted what they saw in front of them, more or less. If their marks are colorful angled palette knife shapes as they are in Tina Kraft’s plein air painting above, I assume they pulled the shapes directly from the scene, made a few minor alterations, and popped up the color they saw. Sometimes I get so up in my head I forget that many artists do not aspire to copy, and a semi-abstracted translation is not just a copy with big painty brush strokes. A good painting is a combination of input (what the painter sees and experiences) combined with some sort of guidelines with which to inform their choices.
BUILDING A COMPOSITION. Painters who build strong compositions often implement tools and guidelines to help aid their decisions. Below are some examples from The Secret Geometry of Paintings by Charles Bouleau. You might recognize a few of these artworks, and you might be surprised by how mathematical some of them are.
George Bellows, The Private Club. From The Secret Geometry of Paintings by Charles Bouleau
There’s a logarithmic curve in George Bellows’, The Private Club. A logarithmic curve. What???
Nicholas Poussin, Harpsichord Player. From The Secret Geometry of Paintings by Charles BouleauNicholas Poussin, Massacre of the Innocents. From The Secret Geometry of Paintings by Charles Bouleau
HOW DO YOU BUILD A COMPOSITION? Do you copy what is there? Do you change it? How do you change it?
Here is an example of secret geometry applied to a plein air painting by Tina Kraft:
TINA KRAFT’S SECRET GEOMETRY. Take a look at this plein air landscape by Tina Kraft. She has applied geometry to guide the composition, and move us through the scene. I’ve drawn in grey what she told me she sketched in pencil when the painting began. Most of the initial pencil is gone, but you can still see a few pieces of her lines next to mine. Even though the paint application is relaxed, can you see how the geometry guided her translation of this scene into a beautifully structured artwork? Under those painterly palette knife marks there is order, rhythm, harmony, and direction within the painting.
Once I started looking for all the angles that followed the lines, her structure came into view. I kept finding more and more referrals to her grid.
The pink marks follow the grid exactly.The pink marks follow the grid exactly. The orange marks run parallel to the grid, echoing the angles and placements. What seemed at first like a random collection of marks aligns into an orderly solution. The grid isn’t the only secret geometry in this painting. Look at the spokes that radiate from the little red rectangle. A surprise at the edge of the canvas, it’s the only shape in that color, and it contrasts brightly against the green and blue. It’s small, but important. Do you see how Kraft has drawn us there by using radiating spokes? The arrows I drew obfuscate the paint edges, so below is that painting again, without any marks. Can you see the geometry?
YOUR TURN. Now try it with this painting. Can you find the secret geometry?
Readers often send me personal responses to these V. Note postings. Yesterday I received a story I had to share. “I went to Linfield college in the late 60s and we had a seminar that Andy Warhol spoke at. I was excited to attend as I was and am a big fan of his. He …
#30SAL Big thanks to everyone who is posting, and giving support to others on social media. As of 11pm Jan 2, there are 163 new art posts on Instagram with the #30SAL and lots of comments. This is fantastic! How many will we have on January 31??? Art & Fear So… I heard some uncertainty and …
Can you guess the color? It’s just delicious fun to watch paint get mixed. Painters, notice how long it takes. It’s easy to get impatient with this part of the process when we’re painting, thinking the mix should instantly be mixed so you could get on with applying the next brush strokes, but really what good is the application …
Take a class with SAL – anywhere! See those little horns at the top of Moses’ head? It’s a bit of a misunderstanding. In the old Latin Vulgate Bible, they used the term “cornuta facies” which can be translated either as “horned face” or “radiant face” to describe how Moses’ looked after he chatted with …
Tina Kraft: Secret Geometry in Painting
UNDERESTIMATING THE TRANSLATION. When I look at a painting made by observation I can’t help but assume that the artist painted what they saw in front of them, more or less. If their marks are colorful angled palette knife shapes as they are in Tina Kraft’s plein air painting above, I assume they pulled the shapes directly from the scene, made a few minor alterations, and popped up the color they saw. Sometimes I get so up in my head I forget that many artists do not aspire to copy, and a semi-abstracted translation is not just a copy with big painty brush strokes. A good painting is a combination of input (what the painter sees and experiences) combined with some sort of guidelines with which to inform their choices.
BUILDING A COMPOSITION. Painters who build strong compositions often implement tools and guidelines to help aid their decisions. Below are some examples from The Secret Geometry of Paintings by Charles Bouleau. You might recognize a few of these artworks, and you might be surprised by how mathematical some of them are.
There’s a logarithmic curve in George Bellows’, The Private Club. A logarithmic curve. What???
HOW DO YOU BUILD A COMPOSITION? Do you copy what is there? Do you change it? How do you change it?
Here is an example of secret geometry applied to a plein air painting by Tina Kraft:
TINA KRAFT’S SECRET GEOMETRY. Take a look at this plein air landscape by Tina Kraft. She has applied geometry to guide the composition, and move us through the scene. I’ve drawn in grey what she told me she sketched in pencil when the painting began. Most of the initial pencil is gone, but you can still see a few pieces of her lines next to mine. Even though the paint application is relaxed, can you see how the geometry guided her translation of this scene into a beautifully structured artwork? Under those painterly palette knife marks there is order, rhythm, harmony, and direction within the painting.
Once I started looking for all the angles that followed the lines, her structure came into view. I kept finding more and more referrals to her grid.
The arrows I drew obfuscate the paint edges, so below is that painting again, without any marks. Can you see the geometry?
YOUR TURN. Now try it with this painting. Can you find the secret geometry?
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Readers often send me personal responses to these V. Note postings. Yesterday I received a story I had to share. “I went to Linfield college in the late 60s and we had a seminar that Andy Warhol spoke at. I was excited to attend as I was and am a big fan of his. He …
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#30SAL Big thanks to everyone who is posting, and giving support to others on social media. As of 11pm Jan 2, there are 163 new art posts on Instagram with the #30SAL and lots of comments. This is fantastic! How many will we have on January 31??? Art & Fear So… I heard some uncertainty and …
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