Vuillard and the Silhouette

"Interior with Women Sewing"

Oil on Canvas, 15 7/8 x 12 11/16 inches

Édouard Vuillard, 1893 

Faithful readers know that Édouard Vuillard is one of my favorite painters, and one who greatly inspires me.  I've been revisiting some of his work, and exploring his use of the silhouette.  Truly masterful!  

The top image is variously called "Interior with Women Sewing" or "L'Aiguilée" ("The Needle").  Oh, wow, I can just feel that hand with the needle pulling the thread taut.  The central figure has such a strong gesture.  There are actually three women in this painting, but the silhouettes of the ones on the left serve merely to bring you eye to the main actor in the center.  It's a masterpiece of composition and sparing use of shapes.

"Beneath the Lamp"

Oil on Canvas, 12 1/2 x 15 3/4 inches

Édouard Vuillard, 1892

The next one is also full of lessons for us lesser mortals.  There is a lot of "busy-ness" in the interior decor, but the power of the two female silhouettes create unity and harmony.  There are a lot of lost edges, where the women's silhouettes fade right into the darkness of the room.  As a result, only partial silhouettes remain.  And even then, they are so powerful!  I also think the silhouettes of the chairs are wonderful compositional tools.  They define the area of interest, and bring our eye in a circle. 

"Seamstress"

Oil on Panel, 9 1/4 x 13 1/2 inches

Édouard Vuillard, 1892-95

And the silhouette doesn't need to be blackened.  This last painting shows how a simple, un-modeled figure in silhouette can anchor a painting.  Again, the interior space is replete with details and small shapes of color.  Almost dizzying to the eye.  But the solid form of the central figure holds everything together.  Such a beautiful piece of magic.

If you are interested in more about silhouettes, and especially Vuillard's, check out this post from a few years ago.  Happy reading! 

It's Black and White

Arthur Wesley Dow

I have recently been thinking a lot about notans, and trying to use them more in my painting process. What, you might ask, is a notan?  "Notan" is a Japanese word that means, roughly, "light-dark balance". I think of a notan as a black and white image of the subject. I am coming to believe that the notan is an invaluable tool in making good compositions, and therefore good paintings.

Left: James McNeill Whistler, "Symphony in White No. 2,
The Little White Girl", oil on canvas, 1864

A painting involves many elements. But at its heart, it's the arrangement of dark and light shapes that makes or breaks the painting. A painting that is broken up into a bunch of random areas of dark and light appears "dot-y" and busy. It's

A Geometry Lesson

Image by Martin Gommell

I have been using the "Rule of Thirds" for decades--ever since I took photography lessons as a college student. What, you may ask, is the "Rule of Thirds"? Explained simply on the PhotographyMad website, "The rule of thirds involves mentally dividing up your image using two horizontal lines and two vertical lines. You then position the important elements in your scene along those lines, or at the points where they meet."

There is a lot of research on this, but the bottom line (ha!, pun intended) is that the "thirds" distribution of shapes is believed by many to be the most pleasing to the human eye.

(c) Anne Blair Brown

Anne Blair Brown recently wrote an interesting post for the Oil Painters of America blog, talking about the Rule of Thirds. She gave an illustration(above) using one of her

Finding your Rectangle

One of the most important steps in creating the composition of your painting is "finding your rectangle". If you don't define the edges of your painting, you can't make a strong composition. Why? Because good composition depends on placement of shapes, and you can't place your shapes if you have not