by Lynne Ayers

When I first started painting, I found two things particularly daunting.  One was composition – what the heck comprises a ‘good’ composition? There are the classic armatures:  the S, C, cruciform, O etc.,  all supposed to lead you through the piece and hold the work together. Never got my head wrapped around trying to force a piece to fit one of these acknowledged guides.  

I watched this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSNPgE2anHU&t=603s  by Ian Roberts, about 14 minutes long.

Robert’s video offers a much easier ‘formula’. If any of you muddle along as I do, I think this video will offer some easy insight.  I’m not very cerebral when I paint, more like I just keep going until I stop. But I think I will try to give this some thought as I randomly create. 

The other things I found intimidating are colour and harmony within the painting.  One method I’ve used a lot recently is a limited palette. Easier to keep it together if not too many things are thrown into the mix. 

The other is information gleaned from artists Louise Fletcher and Nicholas Wilton:  select your colours, take some of each and mix them together into what will look like mud.  Then, when using your pure colour, e.g. blue, mix a little of the mud into it.  This brings the hue down a notch but now that blue has all of the other colours in it.  Doing this with each colour will create harmony. Then there’s always room for that extra splash that says, “wow”.

I include examples of a limited palette.

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