18x24 charcoal drawing…huzzaaah

Harmony is how the various parts in nature can relate to one another in such a way that can be observed to compliment the whole of the subject. The purpose of such subject is revealed by way of focus either by the light, the contours and elements of the picture, or by all at once. For harmony to work it must have a focus, a point with which the meaning of the picture is directed. If one doubts this premise, think of its inverse, could any picture be harmonious scattered in focus of light and form? We’ve seen the results of such modernistic approaches to painting, and it inspires confusion and derision, not respect and awe.

The figure can best be served as a good example of harmony. The patterns found in nature of the shadow shapes from the feet, legs, body, arms, and head can all be found to relate to aspects of one another in a way that accentuates the entire form. One will find when beginning the construction of the figure certain lines in the form which relate either directly or in rhythmic junction such as can be found in musical scales. Any good instructor of the classical art will show the student these rhythms and related patterns as a tool to create a more naturalistic representation.

Finding such harmony interlocks the figure within itself, so that if anything of the whole changes, its harmonious parts must also change. It is the artist’s task to find how these changes work over time to create more than just a “recreation” of the figure or an object, but a synthesis of deeply attentive observations, capable of the illusion of life in ways photography could never reproduce.

Where composition is concerned, harmony takes on a more broad and complicated approach. Not only do the various individual elements need be, in themselves, constructed so that each angle, note of color, and intricacy of form be in junction with itself, but also with each additional object or person along with it and in line with the main point of the picture.

It is even then more important that a larger composition have a focal point, even if it isn’t directly apparent at first to the viewer, the artist must have in mind the direction he or she wishes to take the painting in all aspects. Much like how a symphony plays a concerto, all instruments playing with one another a piece of music which has a beginning, crescendo, and end, the painter must also keep this in mind when considering compositions.

Harmony does not mean balance, the two are different, but harmony can use balance as a tool in creating something which works both individually and as a whole. This is why in many cases the contemporary artist shies away from multi-figured compositions, the figure alone is enough to stay obsessed over for some time, and is complicated enough to use as an excuse never to venture further, for as complicated as it is, to then have to add more elements to the work, in addition to more figures, must strike fear to many artists, if this weren’t the case we would see more work of this nature about.

The figure is said to be a work of art in itself, and end which justifies the means of its creation, this is only sometimes true, and in today’s world of art I see little in the way of any single figure used as a work of art in itself. Most figures painted lack the most important aspect of what a figure has in itself to make a painting have a point; emotion. Without an emotional element all we have is static, a robot for the purpose of a study, it’s a good learning tool, but not a work of art without something of an emotional element that connects the observer to the subject. If we are to paint people, we must strive to paint humans, humans who feel, think and act, not robots who sit, stare and are blank voids of lifeless lumps of flesh.

Raphael, an artist who was truly ahead of his time and above his peers

The essence of beauty is not an entirely pleasing one; meaning, something doesn’t have to be pretty (or the sentiments usually carried with the word pretty) to be beautiful. The simple example of this lies in beautifully constructed dramatic scenes, battle scenes, or scenes of death. Horrible, and even gruesome subject matter, if handled correctly, can be a desirable and beautiful thing to see. Humans relate to art which can be happy and sad, quaint and dramatic, and which depicts a various assortment of sentiments and values. It is the job of the artist to bring out the beauty in all of these things so that even the most difficult of subjects can be tackled and observed.

It has been the point of many proclaimed artists to shock. This is a child’s game with the intention of the “art” only to get a knee-jerk reaction and nothing more. Over time culture gets used to the shock of its voyeurs, they have accomplished nothing but the obvious fact; things can be shocking. What a real artist does is take what could be shocking and present it in such a way that is palatable, and even more so, beautiful. A shocking scene of death can go one of two ways, gruesome horror, or beautifully tragic. Which one an artist chooses to represent shows whether or not he really cares at all about making something that could be called art.

The question arises alongside beauty, is of the nature of goodness. What is the good always seems to accompany the question, what is beauty. But just as what is truth is irrelevant without knowing what makes truth, such is the same with beauty. What makes beauty will automatically lead to the answer of the question what is good, because it will have to be reworded as what makes good.

Can we have something beautiful that is not already good? The answer is no, yet we can have something which is good, not be beautiful because it does not yet meet the extra tenets of what constitutes the creation of beauty. Just as for art to exist one must have craft, so is the same with the good in relation to beauty. One can not have beauty without the good already present in such work. But never forget, it is all work, a labor is needed for the construction of the good, and an even greater amount of effort is then needed for the creation of beauty itself.

To even come close to replicating the beauty in nature from the mind of consciousness (and this consciousness must be the consciousness of man and man alone, no other animal on all of earth is capable of this), it has to be an intentional action of the will; a labor which can only match natures arduous evolution through the ages with the strength of consciousness, a strength of intellect which takes from nature and observes, processes, creates, criticizes, and adjusts. A strict adherence to excellence reveals but only a fraction of the beauty in nature, it is the best man can do.

Beauty is harmony in the construction of the composition in relation to the subject matter, to observed nature, and to the synergy of the whole. Harmony is the key here. In observing the natural harmonies found in nature during the observations needed to create a work of art, and in using these harmonies, select those from the various parts of such separate observations, those which will contribute to the purpose of enhancing the theme and entirety of the composition, will the artist then be able to accomplish a beautiful work of art; a picture, which symbolizes and embodies both the values of the painter himself, and the values of the point in the picture he is painting.