Essays on Painting

anything with only blank space around it. In addition to the object we
see its surroundings, the situation that it occupies. In a book they usually
leave a blank space around the object so that they can isolate the object. If
the object is new to you, this enables you to have some visual idea of the
appearance of that object and you then know where its boundary is. If other
objects are included in the illustration it can lead to some confusion. A good
example of this is the botanical drawing. The plant is faithfully and clearly
drawn and a space is left around to separate it from distracting objects and
other flowers in the vicinity. Purely an identification piece but many people
like the idea, think this is the epitome of high art and paint in this way all
the time.
Looking at many painter’s work today I continually find that the subject
is a single person or object mathematically in the centre of the frame, very
often surrounded by a background of one colour. This background is obviously
of less importance than the main subject to the painter because less
care has been taken in painting it. What isolates the main subject even
further is that often the background is often vignetted.
It is very understandable that this represents a great deal of hard work on
the part of the painter who may be still only learning. However, many of
these depictions are painted with close to photographic accuracy. Surely by
this time, having achieved this standard, a little arrangement and composition
should be evident, an attempt to create a relationship to the frame.
Just an observation by a picky ex-teacher.
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Queenborough II,