Composition in the art should be your main focus. The importance of good teachers and caring mentors cannot underestimate, explains realist painter Glenn Moreton. They are rare and provide a lot of sustenance for emerging artists. It is an important statement, if not a bit surprising, from an artist who says he is mostly self-taught. However, during critical periods of his artistic development, he was inspired and educated by teachers who helped him define who he would become as an artist.
Cold War practicality
During Moreton’s high school years, the Cold War had a strong influence on the accepted curriculum. Science and mathematics were promoted as a way to defeat the Russians. And art lessons were relegated to the sand by an easy grade. Art’s attraction to Moreton was still strong in college. But living in the rural Midwest, he didn’t have any exposure to the art world or understand how he could earn a living as an artist. As an architecture student, Moreton completed his artistic training with a bachelor’s degree in industrial design. This curriculum helped him develop his perspective skills and hone his composition skills.
The artist reflects:
Some of the lessons made me realize that I had always had an innate talent for composition in art but had never heard the term composition applied to art, nor had I tried it reviewed and examined. He goes on to say: Today, composition is the most important goal of my work. While he was studying architecture, Moreton’s art instructor called him to discuss his artistic abilities. He recognized my talent and continued to push me to specialize in painting rather than architecture. While his words left me more conflicted than ever, they also reassured me. The artist’s appreciation for this support remained constant.
Perspective basics
Over the years, I have noticed the importance of encouragement from instructors. This support for artists is rare in our society, and the obstacles are many, and fine arts are considered excessive. In addition to expanding Moreton’s artistic perception, his academic education imparted the technical skills he uses today. Perhaps the most important was my architectural drawing course in high school. He taught me the basic drawing skills that I use by cool drawing ideas, the initial drawings of the scenes I am painting. That lesson gave me an understanding of the fundamentals of perspective. My architecture courses in college gave me a basic knowledge of building components. My industrial design classes, which required illustrations of my designs, taught me the rendering techniques and tricks I use today.
With fresh eyes
I have no concept of how this happened, Moreton confesses to having become a good artist. Like many, his career and his other obligations have eaten up his time. He knew that he wanted to create art, but for years it seemed impossible until one day, while he was driving through the city, he saw how his vision of shapes and arrangements was constantly changing. I started to notice interesting compositions. I saw arrangements of telephone poles, buildings, and power lines that would normally be considered uninteresting. Still, they caught my eye when my mind eye automatically began to display them in pleasing compositions. It almost felt like I had touched something beyond my finite self.
Having created only a few paintings up to this point, he was stunned by his first cityscape. He says: My picture showed ease and skill that I have never had before. It was as if during my inactive years, I was in painting. My brain had developed a new artistic awareness and displayed new technical skills so that when I was ready to try images again, I was able to do better than I could have imagined. Several years later, Moreton began painting professionally. To this day, he says that he is still a bit puzzled by how everything has evolved.
Quick studies
Moreton’s transition to artistic painting happened somehow in a bubble; he did not know other artists who painted in the same genre, that is, photorealistic cityscapes until a close friend mentioned the name of Richard Estes in conversation. My friend looked at me incredulously when I asked who Richard Estes was. Today, Moreton is inclined to take trips to a museum as a way to study his craft. I find that quick masterpiece reviews are still incredibly important to me as an artist. Visits to museums help me see and develop techniques that I miss because of my lack of formal training. His quick lectures at the museum came in handy as he ventured out of his cityscapes to paint more pastoral scenes. While he was trying to paint the grass, he produced a mess of green spots. After spending time studying art at the National Gallery of Art, he successfully portrayed marijuana in his work.
Composition before
Moreton does not paint the typical postcard views of cities. Instead, he chooses scenes that will produce an exciting composition. I like to see how the spatial elements are organized and balanced. And I love the visual rhythms created by the repetition of shapes or the juxtaposition of contrasting forms. I try to look at the scenes objectively. Wherever you paint, try to avoid obvious landmarks and familiar scenes. Also, try to avoid an overemphasis on the beauty of postcards or, likewise, misery and heavy social comments. Instead, he chooses to paint a mix of urban elements that allow the viewer to experience the atmosphere of that specific place daily: he wants the viewer to see the city within the eyes of its citizens.
First of all, the artist is conducting a study on composition. He wants his work to go beyond the traditional fascination of photorealism that entertains viewers with crisp lines and causes it to resemble a photographic response. According to Moreton, photorealism presents little more to painting than great technical prowess. Sometimes the paintings seem quite mundane or even cold. He continues to clarify. I am no different from those photo realists in my desire to create a sharp, detailed, almost photographic image. However, I also intend to make an interesting, generic, cozy, and perhaps even warm.
The artist’s judgment
The canvas will get a lot of work in the one to three month period it takes to complete a painting, so to prevent the surface from stretching, the artist has devised a way to reinforce the canvas by placing a shallow plywood platform underneath. It protects the integrity of the canvas by creating a hard surface to work on.
The color palette
Moreton begins with a series of photographs that he took of the site he intends to paint. With extreme precision, he will eventually replicate the scene on canvas, selectively manipulating the distortion of the buildings to draw the viewer into the painting. But first, he will create a general composition for the painting and develop the color palette. Once the colors are selected, test them by applying them to a different canvas to see how they respond to each other. Once he is satisfied with the final colors, he records his mixing ratios for each color for future reference. Then, once the canvas is covered with plaster, Moreton paints the entire surface with the color that he will use for the sky or the predominant color of the paint.
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