Laraine Armenti

visual artist

  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT
  • BLOG
  • ART
    • Still-life & Interiors
    • Landscape
    • Collage
    • Magnolias
    • Mylar
    • Sketchbooks
    • Gouache Copies
  • BOOKS
  • OUTREACH
    • RESIDENCIES
    • INTERNATIONAL
    • WORKSHOP ART

Composition

February 12, 2008 by Laraine Armenti, visual artist

021008_birches_wb

When I was an art student in the 1970s, an instructor praised the composition of my painting in a crit, and then said, “You know you’re in trouble when the composition is the best thing about a painting.”

It was a confusing insult and a mean way to teach. But it was typical of a common attitude of the time: contempt for analysis of visual arrangement and an unwillingness to teach composition. Since then I’ve read several authors on the subject. One was “Pictorial Composition” by Henry Rankin Poore. It is a Dover reissue originally published prior to 1903.

Reading about composition has felt like a mischievous snub against those who denigrated me for wanting to learn about it thirty years ago.

ABOVE: Birches in Snow, micron pen on Holbein multi-drawing book, 5.5″ x 7.5″ (13.97 x 19.05 cm), Feb 10 2008

Save

Save

Save

Filed Under: Books, Drawing, Ink, Landscape Outdoor, Writing / Poetry Tagged With: birches, composition

SUBSCRIBE

Search

Content by Category

Content by Date

Recent Posts

  • Outsiders — Musa Collective
  • Evolution
  • Teacher Student
  • Summer Drawings
  • Summer Series
  • Little Gems Show
  • Spring Teaching 2018
  • Teaching Winter Session 2018
  • Tempus Fugit
  • New from Vermont

NEWS

For immediate release . . .

. . . . . . . .

Little Gems: a group exhibition of small artworks by fifteen contemporary artists

May 29 – July 28, 2018

Gladstone
36 1/2 Union Street, Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA
info [at] gladstonejewelry [dot] com
978-704-9410

. . . . . . . .

From Life: Studio School Paintings

September 8, 2017 — November 16, 2017

Cambridge Center Studio School
42 Brattle Street, Cambridge MA 02138
617.547.6789

. . . . . . . .

 

 

 

 

 

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Copyright © 2021 · Laraine Armenti. All rights reserved. Please do not copy pictures or text without permission.
Outreach Pro Theme · Built on the Genesis Framework · Customization and maintenance by ASK Design.

Copyright © 2021 · Outreach Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in