Winter 1946 by Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the 20th century, a realist, often termed a regionalist because his favorite subjects were the land and people around him. One of the best-known images is his painting, “Christina’s World“.

 

“Winter 1946” was completed 2 years prior. It actually shares the same visual concept with a high horizon and single figure in the foreground. In this way, Wyeth contrasts the singularity of the figure with distance, space and perhaps a sense of something outside the “world” of the painting itself – what’s over that hill? Why is the figure turning so? There’s clear movement in the figure, the topography, the farm tracks, the fence – all frozen in time and space. I think the reason that Andrew Wyeth is considered an American master, when you strip away the skill and subject matter, is that he had a wonderful eye for intriguing compositions.

The painting is almost entirely monochrome. There’s a little green in the grass, but not much. Everything is essentially in shades of gray. Not many, either, as there are perhaps 4 or 5 main value groups. In this, Andrew Wyeth builds his painting from strong values and this characteristic is of fundamental importance across all mediums. A quick search on Andrew Wyeth watercolours for example, will show the power of line, wash and form, all with colour used sparingly, if at all.

 

 

Designs in space

This week we’ll cover a couple of systems for organizing space. It’s appearing at this stage in our season, rather than earlier, because I feel it’s important not to draw and paint to a set of composition rules. That said, discussions on composition invariably include a review of some common approaches and norms that can help with layout. In the following  video, I cover some common ideas and approaches to laying out your picture space, why they make sense to follow … and sometimes break!!

The following video covers both the “Rule of Thirds” and the mystique of “the Golden Section”.  There’s also some analysis of Van Gogh and Monet paintings plus our own Tom Thomson’s Jack Pine.

 

The Golden Section/Ratio

If you’re interested in the “Golden Number” there’s some additional analysis to be found on this website (one of many!): https://www.goldennumber.net/art-composition-design/

The rule of Thirds

This system is fairly self explanatory:

 

Examples

The near bed post and corner of the room, plus the window frame on the left, are on the Golden Section. Note how the far corner of the room’s horizon splits the painting along it’s center line horizontally – this worked well for Van Gogh in this and a good few of his other paintings.

The rising sun and reflections, plus the most prominent vertical are on the Golden Section.

Here Monet is again placing vertical on the Golden Section. The boat’s boom and the tree line are perhaps conforming more to the Rule of Thirds. By-the-by, the horizon splits the painting along it’s center line – another example of breaking the “don’t put the horizon in the middle” rule.

The tree follows the Rule of Thirds and the horizon is on the Golden Section.

All the main compositional elements are around the Rule of Thirds.

In the following video I comment on the compositional genious of Andrew Wyeth

 

Finally one of my studies:

Here’s one of my watercolours: Totally Rule of Thirds eh!

More on painting this watercolour next week…

 

Exercises

1. This week, rather than suggest that you draw and paint explicitly to conform to one of these spacial layouts, try a few comparative composition sketches to see:  following both the “Golden section” and alternatively the  “Rule of Thirds”. Notice how the visual impact is affected.
2. Which do you prefer?  Are there any other layouts that might work better? Along with your work this week, include a few comments on how you decided upon your final composition!
3. Take a look at Andrew Wyeth’s Winter 1946 and compare with Christina’s world. How do they differ? What makes each composition work? What about the study for Winter 1946: How did Wyeth decide on this composition? How did he change it for the final work? Which composition is more traditional?