Asymmetry

Frederic Edwin Church - American, Rough Surf, Mount Desert Island

A composition consisting of  three main elements (in this case, three areas of rock), often at the vertices of an asymmetrical triangle,  is generally more pleasing to the eye than a painting where the eye bounces between just two main elements. Asymmetry is more visually dynamic than symmetry.


Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters. While committed to the natural sciences, he was "always concerned with including a spiritual dimension in his works".

Church's technique

Frederick Church - Coast Of Mount Desert
Source: gurneyjourney.blogspot.com

This unfinished oil painting shows Church's technique: a salmon pink underpainting unifies the image and adds warmth to the sky, gives vibrancy to the green areas through complementary colour. The fine detail of the drawing is visible. Church has painted area by area, rather than doing what many teachers advise: covering the whole canvas with rough massing first, adding detail later.

Frederic Edwin Church - American 1826-1900

Fog off Mount Desert

Frederic Edwin Church - Icebergs

The Iceberg


The Iceberg, 1891, 20 x 30 inches


The Icebergs, 1861, 112 inches wide