$89 unframed

8×6 oil on canvas panel Sometimes when I’m setting up things to paint, a kind of logic of relationship comes into play. I’m not looking for melodrama in my subjects, but in the process of “staging” how the shapes will compose and relate to one another certain implications may arise that take on unintended meanings. I suppose that’s true about anything that has an identifiable interaction of its parts.

There must be a judicious arrangement of all the parts. Considered conversely, the artist’s task is to fill his panel with a design that conforms to its shape and is beautiful in itself. (Walter J. Phillips)I love the complicated logic of a perfect composition. It is not just the shapes and lines that make one travel through a painting. It’s the placement of the strongest colors, the sharpest lines, and the dominant shapes. (Kathryn Stats)

The personification here was unintentional, but is the result of the interrelatedness of the parts. Composition is the art of the logic of relationship. (For more insights and quotes on composition visit Robert Genn’s Art Quotations.)