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| My own copy of Payne's book. Yes, I mark pages with yellow stickies. I also have underlined and highlighted lots, too. |
If Carlson's Guide to Landscape Painting is the “bible” of plein air painting, I would consider Edgar Payne's Composition of Outdoor Painting to be the “bible study supplement.”
You and I might define “composition” as the placement of shapes within a frame. But for Payne, it goes well beyond that. He writes in his introduction:
A fine painting is a composite of all its factors and influences. Bringing these together, to form this composite, creates the process of composing. Hence the study of composition is a matter of studying art and all of its factors and influences.
So, composition includes more than “composition.” Payne slips under this umbrella everything that goes into making a painting: color, perspective (both linear and aerial), mark-making and much more.
The book isn't much bigger than a 6”x9” plein air sketch. Still, at 170 pages and with a small, dense font, it is a rich vein to dig into. The publisher added color illustrations to the black-and-white ones not too long ago in a reprint. These greatly help with understanding the sections on color, and one wishes the publisher of Carlson's book would do the same.
Here are a few more quotes:
No one can give any new powers to the student. All that can be done is to show him how he may develop his natural abilities. This is much easier said than done.
Freedom in expressing pictorially needs to respect nature and natural expression on the one end, and elementary prinicples and traditions on the other.
Good composition is always determined by good selection. Fine painting is a matter of proper taste and judgement in choosing the motive, accepting some parts, discarding others, and making changes or alterations throughout the procedure.
While any amount of effort may be put into the preliminary notes, the actual work on the picture should go along without a hitch. The less effort, the more pleasure and finer quality.
Many good pictures are ruined by constant striving to make them better. Over-modeling and accenting detail or highlights is an over-influence of realism.
I've never seen any of Carlson's work in person, but I have seen some of Payne's. Beautiful works, and he certainly practiced what he preached. If you don't have this wonderful little book in your library, you should.
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| A page from the book. Lots of helpful little illustrations like this one. |
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| A typical lake and mountain scene by Payne. |
