Welcome to
The Painting Lesson
by Linda Carson
big black pig studio
98 King St. N., Waterloo Ontario Canada
www.bigblackpig.com
Asymmetry
Asymmetry is the absence of patterned repetition of forms. For instance, parting your hair on the side (instead of in the middle) is asymmetrical. A gnarled tree leaning into the wind is asymmetrical. Your hand is asymmetrical.
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For example: The roughly-circular design here is place askew and way off-centre on the panel. That's asymmetrical. The test pattern is cut into slices like a pie (which threatens to be radially symmetrical), but the colours are applied in no regular pattern. That's also asymmetrical. |
As a compositional device, asymmetry seems to suit the sensibility of our culture and time. (In contrast, the Renaissance painters were big fans of symmetry, such as triangular arrangements of the Holy Family plunked right in the middle of the canvas.) The key is balance; don't just put everything on the left side of the painting, but put a little something on the right to balance it out.
Back to the main lesson?Art & Text (C) Linda Carson 2002
Loosely translated, that means:
"Please don't copy this material or redistribute it
in some other form, for any reason.
This is my livelihood."