Blog / 2009 / Working the Whole Composition

One of the the most important lessons I’ve ever learned about painting came from Alexandra Hirsch, an instructor at the Pacific Northwest College of Art. I was barely 16 and studying acrylics formally for the first time.

I was working on a self-portrait and having trouble with the background, an abstract color field. Alex approached my easel and recommended I take some of the color I had mixed for my cheek or my eye and put a dab of it elsewhere in the composition as a way of tying the whole together.

This is that painting, and, in the ten or so years since, I’ve figured out just what Alex meant. I still paint by her words, making a point to work the whole composition every time I put brush to canvas or panel.

This method comes naturally when working on small art, like this piece, which measures just 7 by 5 inches.

In a few brushstrokes, the entire composition is changed drastically.

It’s exciting and sometimes unnerving how quickly the painting evolves when there’s only a small surface to work...

...but it’s also a good reminder of why working the whole composition is essential even with bigger paintings.

Focusing on just one area of the painting at a time isolates it from the rest of the dynamic. It makes for a very disjointed or even mannered look.

Reworking the whole piece every time I touch it is sometimes scary, especially when I’m convinced that I’m on the right track like I was here.

But, by the time I got here...

...and even here...

...I was aware that certain aspects of the painting a few process shots back would never have worked out.

Working this way is a discipline of not-getting-too-attached.

It’s akin to the ceramicist who, to some degree, must kiss their pot goodbye when it goes into the kiln.

There’s always the possibility of a complete overhaul...

...or even a complete do-over!

Nothing is finished...

...until...

...it’s finished!