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Last February, I was painting with a friend at one of his favorite locations.  Later over lunch, we were discussing work by a number other artists and my friend commented " You know he really created abstract paintings." Bob was referring to Aldro Hibbard's work and the recent Rockport Art Association Retrospective. Hibbard was known for the strong compositional components of his work and if one eliminated some of his descriptive brush work, you would have a great abstract painting.

Fast forward a few weeks;  I was attending an opening for another artist who does the most amazing abstract paintings.  The artist introduced me to several other friends and mentioned that I was a plein air painter.  A woman in the group, who is studio painter, commented how difficult it was to paint outside and unthinkable in cold weather. Her comment prompted the inevitable plein air war stories of wildlife running underneath my easel and in really cold weather, having to hammer paint out of the tube to refresh my palette. We had a great discussion of several artists who were either abstract or realist painters.   I thought back to my conversation in February about the strong abstract qualities of Hibbard's and other well-recognized realist painters.

John Singer Sargent painting with underlying abstract design

Millet's Garden by John Singer Sargent, private collection*	Design created from Sargent's painting showing Payne's Balance Scale pattern

In his book on composition*, Edgar Payne created labels for different geometric patterns that form the bones of paintings: " The Steelyard, The Balance Scale, The Circle O, The S or Compound Curve, The Pyramid or Triangle, The Cross, The Radiating Line" and many others. The design on the right would fit the balance scale category.  I am sure that any number of the categories would also apply to HIbbard's work. Further on in the same chapterhe states; "The listing is random and not necessarily by the importance of each type. In studying composition, we should not consider one approach better than another but study and experiment with each and every one."  Paynes book is a must read for artists.

It is interesting that Sargent, Hibbard and Payne career's overlapped but I do not know if they ever met. They certainly had different approaches to their respective paintings but underneath the rules of  engineering a good composition were the same.  Developing the bones of the piece is a critically  important first step on which to lay in value and color to build form.

Keep painting.

*Edgar Payne, 1883 ~1947.  Composition of Outdoor Painting.  © copyright 1985 Evelyn Payne Hatcher. Distributed by DeRu's Fine Arts, Laguna Beach, CA 92651.

*Millet's Garden. image courtesy www.wikipaintings.org