Some painters get seduced by light, or images, or non-referential abstraction, but I think what most seduces me in a painting is space.
Space comes in so many varieties, and it is what makes a painting special for me. Because space is the magical thing that makes something which is completely flat look like a window into another place. The artist has control over the depth the space, the quickness that the eye moves through space, the overwhelming or surprising qualities of space.
I have been thinking about the ways to create pictorial space:
1. perspective
a. linear, renaissance technique of using converging lines
b. aerial, colors desaturate as they recede from your viewpoint
c. observed or intuitive, using the above techniques by letting them inform your recording of phenomena
2. overlapping forms, if something is in front of something it is in front of it
3. depth of field, hard and sharp edges, like hard focus and soft focus in a photograph
4. size comparisons, space can be suggested by the scale of different images in a painting
5. Space that does something unexpected, like a Tiebetan Mandala
6. Shallow space indicated only by a form and the space it takes up, or the shadow thrown by a form against a illusary wall.
What gets really exciting is when you can get two or more of these systems for creating space working in the same image, and maybe with the same marks, collage, or paint.
Can anyone think of any other systems used to create pictorial space?
Gerhard Richter was my introduction to depth of field painting when I was learning how to paint at the University of Massachusetts.
Josh Podoll uses space well.
I have always had a soft spot for the paintings of Gregory Gillespie. Space can be shallow too.
Tintoretto is a good old one for perspectival deep space, and enormous canvases too.
Giorgione makes very synthetic images, which feel like the space is act of creation. I have always liked the way he rendered form too.
Titian renders space in a way that makes it look like a backdrop.
Dan Attoe uses all kinds of space, hard to pin him down on one type of illusion.
I am looking for suggestions on how to broaden my understanding and come at this problem of pictorial space from as complete an understanding as I can. So, please, if you have any ideas, let me in on what you are thinking.
Space comes in so many varieties, and it is what makes a painting special for me. Because space is the magical thing that makes something which is completely flat look like a window into another place. The artist has control over the depth the space, the quickness that the eye moves through space, the overwhelming or surprising qualities of space.
I have been thinking about the ways to create pictorial space:
1. perspective
a. linear, renaissance technique of using converging lines
b. aerial, colors desaturate as they recede from your viewpoint
c. observed or intuitive, using the above techniques by letting them inform your recording of phenomena
2. overlapping forms, if something is in front of something it is in front of it
3. depth of field, hard and sharp edges, like hard focus and soft focus in a photograph
4. size comparisons, space can be suggested by the scale of different images in a painting
5. Space that does something unexpected, like a Tiebetan Mandala
6. Shallow space indicated only by a form and the space it takes up, or the shadow thrown by a form against a illusary wall.
What gets really exciting is when you can get two or more of these systems for creating space working in the same image, and maybe with the same marks, collage, or paint.
Can anyone think of any other systems used to create pictorial space?
Gerhard Richter was my introduction to depth of field painting when I was learning how to paint at the University of Massachusetts.
Josh Podoll uses space well.
I have always had a soft spot for the paintings of Gregory Gillespie. Space can be shallow too.
Tintoretto is a good old one for perspectival deep space, and enormous canvases too.
Giorgione makes very synthetic images, which feel like the space is act of creation. I have always liked the way he rendered form too.
Titian renders space in a way that makes it look like a backdrop.
Dan Attoe uses all kinds of space, hard to pin him down on one type of illusion.
I am looking for suggestions on how to broaden my understanding and come at this problem of pictorial space from as complete an understanding as I can. So, please, if you have any ideas, let me in on what you are thinking.
Images in post are from the Hubble telescope.
