WHAT LIES BENEATH

WHAT LIES BENEATH THE SURFACE

( won't always bite you )

Italian Nocturne

James  Aponovich

oil on canvas, 17" x 12"

Q. "Hey Jim!, I'm an artist and I'm reading your blog and all I'm reading is pumpkins, shoes n' stuff! Where's the art? What's the matter, you got no more hocus-pocus and golden whatever's to explain?"

                                                                                                      - Quin R., Brooklyn

A. "OK."

DYNAMIC SYMMETRY

Remember the squared circle? here it is again, but now I've drawn the diagonal of the square and used the length to determine the sides of a new rectangle. 

It becomes an irregular proportion (i.e. a 12" x 16" is a 3 to 4 ratio and regular,

 this rectangle is 12" x 17", thus irregular). It is called a root two rectangle.

MIX AND MATCH

Now that I have established the outer lines of the rectangle, I now draw a line down the middle, bisecting it. I locate the Golden Section points on the sides (dotted lines).

CHILDS PLAY

With a compass I've had since elementary school, I inscribe the two circles  from the center on the Golden Section points. The circumference of each is determined by the distance between the Golden Section points. Still with me?

The circles more or less determine my key elements, the flowers, and mirroring them, the fabric. Balance by symmetry.

Q.  "Come on Jim, you're giving me a headache! Whats with all the lines? Don't you ever just wing it? 

      You know .......create? That's what artists do....create."

                                                                                                   -Quin

A.  "Again.....naturally"

THE SHELL GAME

The Chambered Nautilus is an example of the Golden Section as logarithmic spiral as a growth ratio .

In other words, as it gets bigger the shape remains the same.

The ancients believed that all of nature is infused with the 'Divine Proportion'. That I don't know about but why not use it to structure and enhance your.....

CREATIVITY

Cards From Cortona

James Aponovich

oil on panel, 7" x 5"

PS.  In response to Quin from Brooklyn, more than valid concerns that these formulas are in and of themselves hindering creativity I would say that I have spent over a quarter of a century studying formal composition, as I would tell my students, Once you  have learned it....forget it. Let it sink into your visual memory so that you can re-cognize when you see it. In other words, "Just wing it.....with knowledge."