Red Plums II, Still Life, Plein Air, Art Tip #20.

" Red Plums II "

Oil

7"x7"
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My students, Vickie and Jan, were painting outdoors with me. We set up in my garden under a huge umbrella..the light was devine and the weather warm. I chose to paint a very simple set-up of plums, fabric and spoon. The folds in the fabric key to keeping it from being too boring.

Art Tip #20: Composition idea. Look at the four corners of your painting. If all four are equal, make one of them unequal. In Red Plums I have the spoon in one of the corners, the other three are basically the same. You can do this with an object (spoon, fabric fold, etc. in still life or rocks, water, weeds, etc. in landscape) or with value or other design element. The idea is to keep the viewer's eye entertained and not have your painting be predictable. Shows you how important the corners of a painting are. In yesterday's post I used a darker value in the upper right to vary that corner. Of course this was planned as I was setting up the objects to paint, not decided after I started painting..goes back to planning from the get-go.