Li Mahalik
Abstract, Landscape and Still Life in Oil, Acrylic and Mixed Media
Scottsdale Arizona

Painterly Art by Li Mahalik

My most recent Abstract, "Untitled II" Oil on Gessoed Board, 16 x 20

 Focal Point Or Not?  6.1/09

 In the last few posts we talked about the order of importance in creating a good painting, with composition being the foremost important, then comes value, drawing, perspective and edges, with color being the last.

We had also talked about why color was the least important, because it can be anything to the artist's liking as long as the value is done right. I then picked five of the principles of a good composition: eye movement, focal point, shape variety, the 3:5 factors and the escape.

In the last post, we discussed the first of these principles, the eye movement. Here in this post, we’ll talk about the second principle, the focal point, in a painting.

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 After eye movement, focal point can be the next most important component of a good composition. The eye movement often begins with a focal point. Even though a focal point can stand alone, it itself cannot have the effect of that of the eye movement in keeping the viewer’s interest. That’s the reason why, in my opinion, eye movement takes precedence over the focal point. Having a focal point without the consequential eye movement bores the viewer in no time.

A focal point in a painting is like the topic of an article. It helps one compose it, design it and organize around it. That said, we find that it’s not a necessity in many of the great paintings by the masters, left alone in the abstract paintings. Take Van Gogh’s paintings, for example, many of them were breathtakingly beautiful with brilliant colors, great composition, eye movement, pleasing space division and interesting brush strokes, but had no focal point to speak about. In analogy, let’s say that they read dreamingly like a poem.

So, focal point or not depends on whether the painting calls for it. As long as it’s thoughtful done and beautiful to look at, a painting without a focal point may want to talk to you about the feeling, not a specific subject.

If a painting naturally acquires a focal point, then how and where the focal point is placed and painted in relation to the rest of the painting makes the focal point a very important part of a composition. We’ll talk about its placement when we go to the next topic: the 3:5 factor, in a composition.

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******  Vincent van Gogh chose the colors in his paintings deliberately, not because he was crazy or diseased like some people would conveniently put it that way to explained his ingenuity. Here he stated what was in his mind when he chose a certain colors for his paintings  in part of Van Gogh’s letter to Theo, August 11, 1888, Arles:  [….] instead of trying to reproduce exactly what I have before my eyes, I use colour more arbitrarily, in order to express myself forcibly. Well, let that be, as far as theory goes, but I'm going to give you an example of what I mean. I should like to paint the portrait of an artist friend, a man who dreams great dreams, who works as the nightingale sings, because it is his nature. He'll be a blond man. I want to put my appreciation, the love I have for him into the picture. So I paint him as he is, as faithfully as I can, to begin with. But the picture is not yet finished. To finish it I am now going to be the arbitrary colourist. I exaggerate the fairness of the hair, I even get to orange tones, chromes and pale citron-yellow. Behind the head, instead of painting the ordinary wall of the mean room, I paint infinity, a plain background of the richest, intensest blue that I can contrive, and by this simple combination of the bright head against the rich blue background, I get a mysterious effect, like a star in the depths of an azure sky. Similarly in the portrait of the peasant I have worked this way, but in this case without wishing to evoke the mysterious brilliance of a pale star in the infinite blue. But imagine the terrible man that I have to do in the full furnace of the harvest at high noon. Hence the flashing orange colours like a red-hot fire, hence the tones of old gold luminous in the gloom.  [….]                                                                           As translated by Mrs Johanna van Gogh-Bonger ******* If you're interested in purchasing any of my paintings and would like to make an offer, please write or call me. Anything is possible! Thank you for visiting! Your comments are welcomed and appreciated Li Hua dreamcobbler@cox.net 480.947.4741