LOREN FRIESEN GALLERY

 

QUIET WATERS: the artist's view

As seen in Quiet Waters, distance in a landscape (from near to far) is created by gradual changes in color, size and focus. 

​• Sizes of things get smaller as the distance recedes.

​• And colors move from brighter to grayer, from higher contrast to lower contrast.

​• And focus goes from clearer to more blurred–so the edges of objects go from sharper to softer.

These simple, basic realities are important tools for me in my art.

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Space is a major theme of Quiet Waters. There are the following sections of space, from front to back, that you as the viewer can be drawn into:

1. The nearest space on this side of the large, middle rocks, inviting you into the picture–or into the small space lower-left.

2. The space from the large, middle rocks to the boys.

3. The space from the boys to the far line of trees.

4. And even the furthest space of light, gray-blue trees.

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Interestingly, the height of the camera determines the height of the horizon line. And the height of the horizon line determines where the eye of the viewer is–the "height" you are looking from.

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The rocks are visual stepping stones in the lower three-fifths of the picture. The spaces between them (negative spaces) have a kind of magnetic pull that draws your eye across the gaps between the rocks, tying the picture together. This sense comes from the shapes of the rocks (e.g., the front-middle rock "points" to the right), and from them being placed in right relationship with each other. And the large trees in the top-third work together to hold the negative space of the sky in place. So the trees and rocks work together to define the big negative space of sky & water that runs down the middle of the picture–as well as pull together the right and left sides of the picture which are spread far apart.​​ The right and left sides are also tied together by the grass "bridge" in the distance.

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So depth of space is not my only compositional goal. Along with arranging the picture front to back, I am consciously arranging it top to bottom and left to right–creating a kind of loose "framework" of shapes on the surface level of the painting (as described in the previous paragraph). This comes from my years making abstract paintings–abstract pictures are  typically the arrangement of shapes, lines and colors on a flat or shallow space.

 

The two, distant trees, cropped by the top of the picture, are critical in maintaining this surface "framework." The cropping keeps the top edge of the picture from zooming off into the far distance by making the top edge of the picture, and the top edge of the sky, feel closer to the viewer than they logically are. And the tree just left of center is in sharper focus than it logically should be, making it feel a little nearer than it normally would, thus becoming a shape that ties in with the cluster of trees and bushes in the left foreground. The large tree on the right holds the top of the "framework" together by reaching left across the sky toward the center-left tree. So these trees and the rocks tie together, making up the loose "framework" on the surface level of the picture that is critical to the over-all composition–a composition of deep space viewed through a surface "framework."