Composition - ACE352.2

Shots of dried flowers, a table setting, a row of shoes, photographs. Commentary: "The urge to arrange things so that they sit pleasingly before the eye comes so easily to most of us that we hardly give it a thought. But the art of composing a painting is more elusive." Ray Richardson, "a painter noted for his striking compositions", driving his car. Some of Richardson’s paintings. Commentary "A good composition is when every ingredient – light, tone, colour, texture, spacing – work together to create balance and harmony." Richardson in his car in a seaside town. Commentary says that his first decision about a new painting must be its size and shape. Richardson and his father, an upholsterer, who stretches his canvases for him. This painting is to be on of the longest and thinnest he’s ever done. Richardson explains why he likes letter-box shaped paintings, but says that this one is so big that it’s "almost terrifying". Reconstruction of 14th or 15th century artists working on a mural; architectural features had to be incorporated into the composition. Examples of such works where doorway and arches frame and cut into the space. Venice (reconstruction), where artists first began to paint on canvas. The Miracles and Apotheosis of San Pantalon (1680-1704) by Gian Antonio Fumiani, in the church of San Pantalon; at 25m x 50m, "it is said to be the world’s largest oil on canvas" [painted on panels]. Richardson making preliminary sketches, on the beach, with his father as a model, Sketches he’s made at other times, ideas he may incorporate into his current work; he talks about how these original ideas may be changed when they’re finally used. Beginning on his new work: taking an earlier sketch and copying it so that it will be upside down in the finished work. Adding an undercoat which he says will give him further opportunity to experiment. Saying that the right-hand-side of the canvas needs some larger mass in it. He adds a sketch of an ice-cream van to counterbalance the figure at the other end.