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THE ART OF THE PORTRAIT
H
uman beings are very complex animals. In our
everyday lives, as well as the arts (painting,
music, literature, etc.), we demand that which is new as
well as familiar to keep us engaged. The new is exciting,
and the familiar helps us feel like everything is right.
To neglect these elements typically means losing the
interest of an audience.
The familiarity in a work is derived from our biology
and the environment in which we have been raised. Our
biology draws us to patterns. In fact, our very survival
has depended on recognizing them (configurations of
animals, other people, movement of the stars, etc). Our
environment is a function of our history as a species. In
the case of art, it is represented by the history of art/
architecture/interior design, as well as any additional local
art cultural development.
Because of our innate complexity, well-developed
composition doesn’t just make a painting better; it’s a
critical necessity.
Fortunately, good composition is not just an esoteric
or theoretical idea, but one that can be studied and
implemented into any work. Books have been written,
studies have been performed and a whole history of work
has been filtered through our species to help us categorize,
analyze and implement its various facets. Thanks to the
great accessibility of online sources, we even have access to
obscure composition sketches by past artists. These unlock
an important doorway into the process of conceptualizing
and developing the most influential paintings of our
culture. By reading books and articles of the past, studying
works in the same way as prior artists, and building on
this foundation with our contemporary ideas, it becomes
easy to not only say something new, but also in a way that
has familiar resonance. Historically, there were subject-
oriented compositional choices that were made to impart
meaning or deal with the complexity of various topics (such
as figure or still life), but there are fundamental elementsCreating Composition
A Critical Necessity
By Timothy ReesPierre-Auguste Cot, Spring, oil, 84 x 50" (213 x 127 cm)