Notes on Composition (AF)

​GO’K 112122(ii)

 

Colors that are important in a representation of this picture must necessarily include the turquoise-blue door contracted with the phthalo-blue sky.  I might crop the top of it to show less sky, depending. I’d probably also bring the frame in from the right to show less of the side and more of the face but leave the angle. The late autumn darkness of the junipers at the front will bring in contrast, which I feel is neededfor composition because otherwise the eye would get lost in thepaleness of the adobe, and why delete them anyway? The roof is an opportunity to put in texture which will also bring a nice contrast with the style of using an ultra-flat monotone of the adobe – we barely if at all see any shadow or other demarcation of the building’s edges, so a fine linework will be the way to go to get in the detail of the gutter-line attaching the vestibule to the church. Otherwise, I would blur it all out, the wall facades, using the blue sky to make the edges. Luckily, the roof of the vestibule has that lovely texture, and this may be depicted while usingonly muted hues that look like black but I would take a raw umber to it; and carry the umber into the green trees and shadows on the rocks. The dried grass will have no umber pigment in order to effect a different material and texture as grass. This color will be made of a thickened yellow oil with something to dull out the goldens, and I won’t know how to do that until I give it a try! 

 

The turquoise must be the iconic northern New Mexico color and nothing less; therein lies the challenge. This needs to be the heart of this composition. I would leave the perspective for the door to be in the visual lower third area. (Note that the cropping of the right side will cause a more centric position than is depicted in the photograph.) It is important to get the vibration (as a frequency the color evokes) as attuned as possible to the location of this subject, because it reveals more as to the identityof the subject than any other aspect of the composition. Why? Because it is a turquoise-colored door. They don’t do that kind of thing where I come from. My mother, whose first language in East Chicago, Indiana was Polish, would be uncomfortable with that. I don’t know that but I do. Here in the heart of the American Southwest, and very localized in our lovely area, blue doors and window frames have a very particular meaning: protection, warmth and familiarity of home. It has been used for generations for a reason, and because of this, the artist is required to represent it to the best of one’s abilities as an ethical matter, at least in my mind.