My Painting, and Photograph compared with Chinese watercolor painting

 

Although I didn't start this painting thinking it would be like a Chinese watercolor, others at the West Hawaii Painters thought it was.  Like a Chinese painting the light area ties the painting together working with very linear brush strokes. The color is subdued with the linear elements giving the painting strength.  When determining if it was finished, I referred to examples in  the book, CHINESE WATERCOLORS by Joseff Heizlar. I was reminded of what I knew about the Chinese organization of distances.

February 22, 2018 at Pu'uhonua o Honaunau  National Park

Kekaha State Park, February 2018
 Like Chinese paintings which combine three points of view, this panoramic picture was made by  moving the camera  first by looking down in the foreground, then across the middle ground, and finally up and farther away in the background.
The Chinese watercolor,"Pines on a cliff'' pictured above  has similar compositional elements.





Admiring Edward Hooper's Moodiness Created Through Composition

"Lewis Barn", 1931, a watercolor by American artist Edward Hooper can be analyzed as to how he created the mood.
        Is the main subject the barn with the dark side facing left but the roof points the eye upward?  The upward movement doesn't uplift my spirit.  The dark lines and areas behind zigzag me back to the unseen back of the barn.  From the the wide dark band does your eye skip through the barn to the small window? When do you see the dark fence posts pointing  the eye toward the small square window,  plus the dark earth zigzagging toward the base of the front of the barn underlining the window? The fence posts might be seen secondarly.  The small static square window sets a mood of forlorned mystery for me.  Does your eye continue to circle in a figure eight or does it stop at the window?


Below is a later1955 painting, "South Carolina Morning." Is the main subject the woman in red or the woman grouping with the doorway? She stands out by color hue of red against white and not so much from the color values of darks and lights. The mystery is why she is standing in a doorway. The emptiness of the blue sky and light ground draws me into her.

(The pictures by Hooper are taken from the book, Silent Places, A Tribute to Edward Hooper, Fiction Collected and Introduced by Gail Levin)

What I admire is every part of his paintings is essential for creating the mood and mystery with no distracting extra information in the negative spaces. Hooper has no fear of cutting the composition with a horizontal right in the middle of the painting pointing to the main focal point. It is no wonder he is widely admired.