Improving Composition: Redefining the Mersey Painting
Postcard No 12: Life by the River Sometimes I'm so caught up in the moment, and feeling quite pleased that I've managed to capture the main element in my painting as I imagined, that I miss the obvious. That happened with today's postcard painting of…
Sometimes I'm so caught up in the moment, and feeling quite pleased that I've managed to capture the main element in my painting as I imagined, that I miss the obvious. That happened with today's postcard painting of the Mersey. The Mersey is a fishing boat that seems to be constantly moored at Franklin, just 10 minutes from our home. I can't recall ever driving past, in the seven months we've lived here, when she wasn't there. I love her jaunty yellow cabin and all the nautical paraphenalia on her decks, how she reflects so beautifully in the calm water of the mooring channel and how utilatarian she looks beside the sleek yauchts moored alongside.
When I looked at the painting later in the day I immediately noticed the hideous amount of symmetry I'd managed to cram into a postcard size format!
I was so intent on getting the Mersey right and positioning her so that the bow was nicely offcentre that I forgot to pay attention to the fact I had ignored my cardinal rule of not including even numbers of the same object. Here I have 4 houses and 2 poles. Uugh!
I also placed those even numbers of objects symmetrically in the two halves of the picture and to top it all off I further divided the picture in half horizontally with the reed bed and vertically with the mast.
Here's a new version I just worked up using the Paint program to erase some of that symmetry. The extra orange post is gone and one of the houses, I also added in a little more water so the horizon line is moved up a little. I think this is a much stronger composition now.
I don't even know why I put in that second mooring post because I didn't like it at the time. It's that old chestnut of just painting what you see instead of doing some judicious editing.
Shows what a short memory I have as only yesterday I was advocating simplifying a scene to make a more cohesive composition!
I'm so glad I started this year long project because 12 paintings in and I've already learned and relearned some valuable lessons. I know my art will have improved exponentionally if I can stick the course and keep up these mini postcards. By the time I get to Postcard No 365 I'm expecting to be a different artist!
How do you shake up your art practice? Is there some challenge you've set yourself in the past that's changed the way you create? Can you see other ways I could improve this composition? Let me know - I would be genuinely interested.
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