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I've decided it's time to blog about some of the ways that artists can make their paintings more interesting and compelling. If you are reading this as a creative, you may already be familiar with the content. But if you are an appreciator of the arts, the info may enhance your experience by showing you what you're looking at and what to be looking for in a painting. Today's post is about "Irregularity"...the good kind, not the kind you need a pill for! If you are a gardener you might already know to plant odd numbers of the same type of shrub or tree or flower. You would also choose a variety of heights, foliage types, and shapes because, well, it's just more interesting. However, our human brain on a rudimentary level actually finds more security in even numbers and predictability and will default to repetitive arrangements and expressions. Artists are no exception; we must learn to resist the inclination and intentionally seek designs that are expressive with energy and tension, So why, if we feel safer with even numbers, even spacing, predictable patterns, do we find ourselves responding to the opposite? In a word: Variety. We want to be safe but we also want to be surprised, interrupted, engaged mentally and affected emotionally. This is a higher brain function! The artist can create a much more interesting painting using variety in shapes, spacing, and placement, Here's a little exercise for you: Step 1: draw a simple tree...a trunk and a shape that encapsulates the foliage. Now draw a second tree an inch to the right with the same shape and size. You can draw a third and fourth tree in the same way until you have a line of trees the same size and spacing. Step 2: Draw tree #1 as before, but now draw tree #2 making it taller or shorter, tree #3 wider and further away from 1 & 2 and maybe even in a cluster with trees #4 & #5. Your first drawing may resemble a Christmas tree farm which is great for shopping, but not for evoking visual interest. Your second drawing with its variety increases the visual energy! Go frontal lobe! photo credit: unsplash,com The next time you are enjoying a gallery visit pick a painting to study with this concept in mind. Are the shapes varied? Are the intervals, i.e. spaces between, different? Is everything the same size or is there a variety of heights and widths. This concept applies whether it's a landscape, still life, or even a portrait painting. Are you more drawn to paintings with complexity to the scene? Pick out one or two of the paintings during your gallery visit that succeed in expressing visual energy and see if applying this knowledge has enhanced your art viewing experience. And Thank You for reading my blog!!
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 So many of us start the New Year with resolutions, right? This year I found a great way around the "exercise" resolution: Painting Exercises! The biggest exertion involves your brain. Let me explain: in January, a wonderful artist and generous teacher, Mary Gilkerson, coordinated a painting challenge to all comers to paint every day, 5 days in a row, for only 20 minutes with the aim to paint more freely and loosely, make faster and better decisions, simplify and focus on the subject. (You can read more about Mary here) I was familiar with the concept but had never tried it, so, since my 2018 art resolutions included all the above goals, I decided why not? My first two paintings were still life set ups next to my easel and the rest were from photo references (Oregon and Scotland). The way it works is preplan the subject, do the basic decision-making of composition, canvas size, color scheme, lay out the paint, put a simple drawing or sketch lines on the canvas, set the timer for 20 minutes and...go! Trust me, there is no extra time to dinker around! You have to Concentrate! Your brain has to focus and choose and get it done. All the little voices in my head from previous instructors kept reminding me of the important things: values, edges, shadows, perspective. Nothing else occupied my mind except those 20 minutes of intense focus. My biggest take-away from this exercise is that it is an excellent way to prepare for a bigger painting. The preplanning helps with all the important decisions and the limit of 20 minutes forces me to simplify the shapes and keep the painting loose and expressive. So these are the six little paintings I did over those five days and I hope to paint larger versions this spring of the Oregon coast. Thanks for reading my blog!!
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