Oil Demonstration 135Most beginners get confused by all the detail and variation
in the landscape so learning ways to simplify our subject is
one of the biggest keys to successful landscape painting. As
I said in the previous article, we need to learn to see more
and paint less. Why should we paint less? Don’t our brains
love complexity and detail? Yes they do, but they also love
a mystery.
We love using our imaginations to ll in the gaps! Some
artists do paint in a super realistic style. I admire them for
their patience and their skill, but for me, a painting holds my
attention for longer. at is, I get more value from it if every
object is not spelled out to me. It’s the di erence between
reading an encyclopaedic dissertation on the geological
properties of waterways or enjoying a story, a poem or a song
about a river. It has more soul. So, simplifying is good. ere
are many ways to simplify a scene. ere are ways to simplify
your vision, and there are ways to simplify your painting. e
rst and most fundamental way to simplify your painting
is to divide it into light and dark. I don’t mean light and
shadow at this point—I mean light and dark, and more
speci cally, the balance and design of your light and dark
spaces, or the “notan.” Notan is a Japanese word meaning the
balance of light and dark, most memorably illustrated by the
yin and yang symbol.
Using small notan designs
is the best way I know of to
begin designing a painting.
Most of the way we see our
visual world is in terms of
light and dark patterns.
Colour is really just the
icing on the cake. Our brain
recognises the silhouettes
of objects rst and actually
needs very little other visual
information to work with.
When I see a notan design
I see the absolute core of a painting, the skeleton that everything
else is built on. Notan is a great way to sort out the placement of
the major masses before you dive into your painting. What I try
to achieve with my small notan designs is an interesting abstract
design which often, but not always expresses something about
what I want to say about my subject, or the “visual concept.”
To help with that I often write the visual concept at the top of
the page, which sums up what I want to express in the painting
as, described in the previous article. In this case, I wrote “Bold
Shapes, Strong Contrast.” en I went ahead and did a few
di erent notan designs.Pataua Pleasures, oil on canvas, 12 x 18" (30 x 46 cm)
Yin and yang symbol