Action!

Sure, I can tell you what makes a hit song:  A pleasing melody that sticks in your mind, lyrics that roll off the tongue, and a chorus that makes you want to sing along.  You know, like almost any Beatles song, or some of the old standards that have stood the test of time.  Quick-- sing the end of Hey Jude-- Na, Na, Na... NA NA NA NA...  (Now try to get it out of your head!)  Now that you know how simple it is, go out and write a hit and make a ton of money off iTunes.  You're welcome.

But what makes a hit painting?  I think the two most important elements are color and composition.  Skillfully done, those two ingredients add up to movement, and movement is like the "hook" of a painting.  It allows you to remember it.  What's movement?  Well, a couple of days ago I poked fun at my good friend Tom Eakins about his painting The Biglin Brothers Turning The Stake.

Really, these guys are just sitting there.  What are they waiting for, a tow?  I think if Eakins were to portray a modern football game, he'd paint the huddle.  (I kid with Tom, but it's OK, we're buds...)  Of course, a painting with movement doesn't necessarily mean one with people actually moving.  A still life can have movement.  A landscape can have movement.  It all depends upon the composition and the color, with a little help from brushwork.  Eakins' painting is still considered a masterwork because he used color and composition to move the viewers eye around the painting, thus giving it movement.  Let me coin a phrase:  Movement is in the eye of the beholder.

What brought about this line of thought?  Knowing that color and composition are of primary importance in a good painting still doesn't guarantee I'll have those elements in my paintings.  I have mentioned intermittently about a large painting I have been working on.  I'm still going at it between other projects, but I have a gnawing suspicion that it lacks serious pizazz.  I tried to make the figures in it dynamic by their postures and placement.  But the more I look at it, the more stagnant it seems.  I could try to fix it with color, but I don't believe that color alone will do it.  It'll just look like a colorful stagnant painting.  So I'm a bit stymied by it.  I've got it almost half-way done, so it seems a shame to call it lost and give up on it.  Since I'm not totally convinced it's beyond hope, I'll keep going and see where it leads.   

I also have an idea for a new painting that I think would be cool to paint.  I just need to be sure about the composition-- but it's really the same old story; they are all masterpieces...before I paint them. 

I just hate the thought of old Tom Eakins laughing at me while saying, "Ha, Ha!  And you thought it was easy?"



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