Studio Dog Fun, Playing with the rules,Progress on the puppy portrait,

2 Lab Puppies
12x16 inches
oil on panel

More work on this one. It is coming along now.

Yesterday I spent the day getting ready for my students with a new lesson plan and getting all of their easels ready. The floor is a mess with Henry's toys, shredded paper and his favorite striped green towel. He says it helps him to think when he paints. Many of you have mentioned Henry's Studio Dog Photos. They are great fun to do, but not always successful. To be fair, I got the idea from Jean Hood, who arranges studio mannequins for her photos. Naturally, I had to copy the concept, but unfortunately, Henry is not easy to arrange. Alot of the photos are hit or miss, but I'll keep rotating them for your viewing pleasure, warts and all.



My friend Larry brought up an interesting point about the rule of composition which basically advises that we should use 2/3 of the painting for activity and 1/3 to give a resting place for the viewer. A good way to paint for the most part, but I am a risk taker. I don't always follow the rules though I know them well. I have studied design and composition since the early 70's and have a great respect for good design in all things including kitchen equipment, home decor, architecture, great cars and art.

The danger in rules is developing a static way of looking at painting. I often hear artists looking at work in exhibition, pontificating over the rules of composition that a painter may have broken accidentally or deliberately. Good painters can break the rules because they can pull off miracles and get away with it. All rules are off if you can break them successfully.

Last Saturday at my demo, I talked with the viewers about the rule of thirds and the sweet spots in a painting. I then proceeded to place major elements outside of the sweet spots in the painting in a few place. The viewers wanted to question my placement. My answer was that composition is fluid. It cannot and should not be rigid and formulaic. Composition is a road map for a good painting. That doesn't mean that you can't get off the freeway and enjoy a leisurely Sunday afternoon ride now and then along the way. Good composition means manipulation of reality and stretching here and there outside of the common thought process.


Composition also often depends on the latest trends I'm sorry to say. Let's say a popular painter is using garish color, sloppy brushwork, and proclaims him/herself to be the latest and greatest. Bam! Everyone thinks this is real painter and the old school approach to design is out the window. I see this happen frequently and it used to bother me quite a bit. It took me a long time to have enough confidence in myself as a painter to go my own way regardless of what other painters thought. That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt when your work is criticized because it certainly does. Particularly when the criticism is focused on a matter of personal style. In other words, if you are not painting the way your peers are in the current style, you are considered to be lacking or old school, or too different. Instead of your individuality being respected and valued, You are edged out of the pack, marginalized because you don't fit in. I have seen this kind of thing happen at plein air paint outs, to those painters who had very different work to most there.

In my meandering way, I am trying to point out that composition can and should be tested and pushed out of bounds now and then, and yet the tried and true tested rules must be learned and respected until we reach the maturity level in our work that we can break those rules with routine success. Taking risks helps us to grow as painters, but being a rule breaker through defiance or laziness because we don't want to learn good composition is just stupid and arrogant!

There is also the danger of over analyzing composition. Last spring I was at a paint out where one poor painter was analyzed to death. Her painting became the opinion of all of her peers. They analyzed and offered so many suggestions that it was no longer her work but a combination of everyone Else's opinion. At first I was happy to offer a suggestion, but the longer the group went at it, the more dismayed I became. It actually became depressing as I watched the rest of the group continue to pull her painting apart. I am not sure that critiques are all that good for us. I believe we can all have a mentor who we trust and admire to go to occasionally for advice, but I avoid the critique scene as much as possible. As a professional painter, I have to have confidence in my own work. I believe it can be damaging to professionals to constantly be second guessed by our peers. We would all be better off to just get busy painting than redoing each other's work.


Today's Recipe:

Strawberry Honey Butter

2 T honey
1 pound of butter at cool room temperature
1/2 cup strawberry jam or fresh strawberries chopped up.

Put it all in a mixer and beat it together. Make it into a log on plastic wrap and roll it up like a sausage. Refrigerate or freeze. Cut off portions at a time when needed.