Thinking about Space,  the‘nothings’ that make ‘ somethings’ more interesting
Reflecting on the disciplines of math, music and dance, I find there 
are many tools with which to consider and analyze the use of space 
in visual art.  From math the concept that the element ‘one’ is defined 
by the space, or ‘zero’ seems simple but is often overlooked. 

When one paints an object in a field, the field is just as important as 
the object. The one, defines the other, quite literally.  For example a 
tree placed on the left of the composition will project differently than 
one in the middle, top, bottom or right hand side. Playing with the 
relationship between the object and the field (space) is one of the most 
rewarding and simplest ways of enhancing a composition. 

Attention to the repetition and grouping of units and space is very useful in 
creating interest and unity. Two, four, six as compared to three, six, 
nine for  a simple example.   I can also think of scale which is easily
expressed in mathematics as a useful tool in painting composition. 
How different the reading of the same image, tree, if it takes up ten 
percent of the field, versus ninety-five percent! Quite simply paying
attention to the ‘nothing’ element, space – creates more interest in 
the ‘something’ subject!

Just added new paintings to Daily Paintworks today.  Check out the new 'crop.'
One of the works is of the Arrowleaf Balsamroot, which looks very much like a daisy, and which can only be found in the Okanagan.  Here are some photos of it this spring on the hillsides overlooking Lake Okanagan. It was a great day for a hike, and seeing all these blooms made it quite a wonderful time.

Thinking about Space,

The necessary element that makes the ‘other’ visible.

Our book collection seems to constantly be growing with art books, poetry, science, sociology, psychology and 'how to' books hogging the majority of the shelf real estate. I like used book stores, and try to visit them when on travels, especially abroad. You never know what will present itself in a dusty, almost universally poorly lit, spot!  I delight in finding the older books, including outdated elementary school textbooks.  They are written in a plain, uncomplicated manner, offering a comprehensive yet simple overview of their topic in an engaging conversational way.  

Mathematics, by The Golden Library of Knowledge, published 1958, begins with the sentence, “Mathematics is the science in which we think carefully about numbers and space.” In another that I cannot find right now, “Mathematics is about one and zero.”  I love it! As far as I can remember, no math teacher every pointed out to me that it requires a zero to define the one, a space to create separate and distinct units.  In Music, space divides sound into separate notes which can be used to create rhythm and pattern.  For dancers space is the expanse which allows movement. It may seem obvious that Visual Art needs space as well, but I find often in pursuit of creating the subject, I can forget about the important element of space.

It has been three months since my first oil painting in Qiang Huang's workshop at the Scottsdale Artist School in Arizona.  As I  become more proficient at manipulating oil, I am starting to think about how to use the medium in terms of expression. 

Qiang, paints mostly still life.  His work uses broad lush strokes in high key colour and tone.  This type of painting style is loose and the paint shimmers and dances as it portrays how light falls and reflects off of it's subject.  I have not done much in this style as one needs a bright light source - and I profess that right now, I can't wrap my head around adding more stuff to my small studio.  Other possible approaches to painting include colour, line, pattern, texture, shape,or space. I hope to explore them each on their own merits as I keep exploring oil painting.  

In previous years, my watercolour paintings have explored and pushed the use of space, or volume quite a bit.  Here below are three dry brush watercolour paintings.  

Last Years Maple                        17 x 14". 

The Plight of the Bumblebee        22 x 30"

Sweet Ravages of Time               22 x 30"

Mr. Bumblebee won Best Watercolour in a Botanical Artists of Canada exhibition, while Ravages received the First prize in a Canadian Federation of Artists Show. 

PS: You can check out Qiang Huang at   http://qiang-huang.blogspot.ca

 

A property nearby has been donated to our city to be turned into a park. A big Thank you to the elderly gentleman who has given his community this gift. The land is well over an acre. The original house has been torn down and what remains flowing out from it's footprint  is an overgrown, gone wild, utterly enchanting, garden.   In one corner a massive, at least fourteen foot wide, camelia bush is in full bloom right now.  It's blooms are dropping into the snarl of overgrown rhododendrons that crowd close, into ferns that are reaching high into it's legs and past the intruding wiry barbed strands of blackberry shoots.  The next few paintings will focus on the plants found in this stunning and peaceful spot.

One of the collections accruing in my home are pebbles, shells and miscellaneous wood bits.  Years ago they were the subject of a lengthy series of paintings.The work started out merely by observing and recording them, but then  I became fascinated by the idea that these little things were pieces of massive mountains now lying underfoot at the beach. The more I worked with them, the more I noticed how they had been worn into unique characters, their residual shape revealing the texture and strengths of their substance.  From there I began to muse about the relativity of the experience of time, which can range from the immeasurabilities of deep space, to the vast expanses of geological time, through organic time, to human time. Here is a sample of the first observational works completed in drybrush watercolour (approximately 2001.)

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 Here is a link to my first attempt at pebbles and shell painting in oil on canvas...

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/nicoletta-baumeister/collections-from-the-beach/214476

A few years ago a sentence in the morning paper caught my eye, so it was hastily ripped out and stuck in a pocket.  That night, while getting ready to go to bed, I took it out and stuck it in small sprig of babies breath that was in a vase on the vanity.  The newsprint has long since gone yellow, and the babies breath shriveled, died and dried, but the quote by Plutarch, born in Greece long ago in 46 AD? has not lost it's potency.   "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled." 
 
I look around my home and see all the things I have collected in anticipation of finding sparks. Rows of books to ignite my mind, collections of stones and feathers to excite my eyes, groupings of odd items acquired on trips and visits to stir slow embers of memory.  I remember the finding of each, but what about their affect?

 Time and experience have washed away at both my anticipation and intention, the mind smoothed flat with habit and assumption. It makes me think about the newsprint. Have you ever tried to light a flat piece of paper?  It will not burn.  It needs to be crumpled together just tightly enough to have fiber and air in perfect balance to interact.
 
I wonder if all my objects still hold the potential to kindle fires of the mind, ideas and questions? Or is it all just stuff that fills in space between these four walls. How does a fire start if it does not have enough air?