Workshop. Composition: Dynamic Symmetry with Halbert and Albert
This workshop will delve into how the principles of Dynamic Symmetry can be made accessible and practical while exploring the interplay of harmony, proportion, simplicity and shapes in Intuitive Composition.
Karen Halbert and internationally known, master artist, Albert Handel, have joined forces to provide this workshop. His intuitive composition skills will be juxtaposed in this presentation with Dynamic Symmetry for a unique approach combining intuition and analysis.
The approach will be demonstrated with iconic, historic paintings through the lens of dynamic symmetry along with Handell’s work. In addition, hands-on guidance in the Dynamic Symmetry tool will be provided.
Add a Dynamic Symmetry tool to your repertoire of painting tools: fast track your goal of good design and composition.
Halbert became a full-time artist after careers as a Professor of Mathematics, Computer Programmer and Wall Street Executive in NYC. Though she loved painting and won the High School Award in Art, she made the more practical decision to pursue her first passion of Mathematics – until 2001. She then retired and moved to Woodstock, NY to join its artist community.
And then, Halbert came across Intuitive Composition by Albert Handell. It inspired her to to move to Santa Fe in 2005!! She began to show work in galleries while studying with master artist, Albert Handell.
In a mentoring session early on, Albert encouraged Karen to include the topic of Dynamic Symmetry in her biography, taking advantage of her background in Mathematics. Recently she began to share its principles through teaching. This has resulted in workshops with Albert Handell on Composition and Dynamic Symmetry, sponsored by the Bluebird Studio of Santa Fe .
Addendum: Perhaps Dynamic Symmetry has contributed to several recent awards for Halbert’s artwork.
Decide for yourself: does Albert subconsciously incorporate the Dynamic Symmetry theory? He did refer to the theory in Intuitive Composition as far back as 1988.
Albert’s paintings show a remarkable coincidence with the Dynamic Symmetry Armature. Is the theory behind dynamic symmetry natural so that intuition alone can give the artist design skills that incorporate the theory?
Intuitive Composition might indicate an internalization of Dynamic Symmetry principles:
“..composition is analyzed through the elements of shape, pattern, planes, positive/negative space and movement dynamics”.
“Additional sections of the book include proportion”
Is Handell a latent, right-brained Mathematician (think Albert Einstein)? Can we refer to Albert as Albert “Einstein” Handell?
Intuitive Composition.. Published Nov 5, 1988. Introduction
“.. dynamic symmetry. .. may be described briefly as the type of symmetry found in a natural organism, in the placing of leaves on a stem, in the architecture of the human body, always suggesting life and movement as opposed to static symmetry which suggests order without the potentiality of change. Mr. Hambidge and others working with him have found that the dynamic type of symmetry was used by the Greeks, who inherited it from the Egyptians and developed it in their art during the classic period with varying degrees of elaboration”—New York Times, Sunday, June 10, 1923 (as quoted In Dynamic Symmetry in Composition by Jay Hambidge pg 53)
Dynamic Symmetry can be viewed as a tool. Its versatility may suggest design possibilities that the artist might not otherwise consider. A composer is not hampered by knowledge of musical theory. An artist should not be hampered by knowledge of composition theories. Dynamic Symmetry makes more precise the aesthetic principle: a work of art must exhibit some kind of unity in variety.
Dynamic Symmetry Armatures will be applied to iconic paintings - especially of trees – to illustrate how the master artists might have composed their works. Underlying the armatures is a sense of the natural, mathematical ordering of nature – in its proportions and in the way plants ad trees grow. If the artist can capture the sense of “life” in a painting and of “growth” then perhaps a feeling of accomplishment can be attained. If the viewer finds elements of the painting pleasing and worthy of study, then perhaps a painter’s goal can be achieved – whether it’s material goal or simply a feeling of satisfaction for a “job well done”. .
By the way as a hint at what's to come in today’s presentation, the golden PHI rectangle is the soul of Dynamic Symmetry. Its magic lies in how it’s the only rectangle that can be subdivided so that it consists of a square and another rectangle of the same proportion as the original one..
Ar 1.334. The vertical through the left ”eye’s” align with the trunk of the main tree. Notice how the negative spaces between the tree trunks seem to mimic the spacings between the diagonals. Are these kites? Diamonds?
Also known as self-similarity The wonderful book, Godel, Escher and Bach has been on my bookshelf for decades. I used examples from the book to teach introductory and advanced college Mathematics. And if time were available, I would love to spend a half-day discussing this book. The author, Martin Gardner, is a well-known Mathematician and game theorist. The book looks at logical paradoxes as found in Lewis Carroll, excellent examples of the use of logic for students, fugues of Bach for their repeated, looping passages and Escher with his unique application of designs at varying, seemingly convoluted proportions. Escher was invited frequently to Mathematical Association meetings to present his artwork; the Mathematicians and Scientists marveled at how his designs could be used to interpret the higher mathematics involved in Chaos Theory and Fractals and in chemical and biological phenomena..
Note from Wikipedia about the spiral nature seen in the galaxy or in plants such
as the sunflower:
“It is sometimes erroneously stated that spiral galaxies and nautilus shells get
wider in the pattern of a golden spiral, and hence are related to both φ and the
Fibonacci series. In truth, many mollusk shells including nautilus shells exhibit
logarithmic spiral growth, but at a variety of angles usually distinctly different
from that of the golden spiral. Although spiral galaxies have often been modeled
as logarithmic spirals, Archimedean spirals, or hyperbolic spirals, their pitch
angles vary with distance from the galactic center, unlike logarithmic spirals (for
which this angle does not vary), and also at variance with the other mathematical
spirals used to model them. Phyllotaxis, the pattern of plant growth, is in some
case connected with the golden ratio because it involves successive leaves or
petals being separated by the golden angle. Although this can sometimes be
associated with spiral forms, such as in sunflower seed heads, these are more
closely related to Fermat spirals than logarithmic spirals.“.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me6Dnl2DOtM
Video may serve as an introduction to Numbers in Nature.
A primary focus of this workshop is “Trees” in relationship to the Dynamic Symmetry. We will see how trees form natural proportional systems.
“From 1909 to 1912, Henri ran his own school, and from 1915 to 1928 he taught at the Art Students' League in New York. In 1923 he published The Art Spirit, a collection of essays and excerpts from letters, lectures and advice to students, embodying his philosophy of art. In the 1920s he experimented “with the "Whirling Square" theories of Jay Hambidge, who devised a mathematical system of proportion applied to the placement of the subject on the canvas.” Henri “spent several summers in Santa Fe, New Mexico, inspiring friends George Bellows, Leon Kroll, John Sloan, and Randall Davey to follow suit.”* Bellows will become a familiar name in this workshop; Bellows and Henri were close friends and colleagues. Read more in the biography of Henri, Robert Henri and his Circle, by William Innes Homer. *From the Yale Archives.
Random quotes from Henri, The Art Spirit: pg 89, “If in your drawings you habitually disregard proportions you become accustomed to the sight of distortion and lose critical ability..” pg 260 “Get one form that looks like a tree rather than little picking at the branches. Give the tree its gesture. Some trees are heavy, ample and full”.
From: Theo of Golden by Allen Levi:
"He pondered how a trunk could become so gnarled. It must have taken a great
force to torque such a massive object. Or had some small force early in the tree’s
life dictated its course of growth? You can bend a twig, but not a tree. Theo tried
to imagine how an artist might draw this particular trunk. It has the look of a
twisted towel. Or perhaps a human neck caught mid-scream, muscle and
veins taut and protruding. Yes, the old oak is a permanent scream, a memorial
to some horror it might have witnessed long ago. It would take a skilled artist to
capture the soul of such a tree. Theo looked higher up at the branches. They too
provoked questions. Was their symmetry achieved by design, the work of an
arborist, or was it purely the result of nature? How did they find water in the
midst of so much pavement?"
Phyllotaxis: theory developed around the time of Dynamic Symmetry. Before continuing with Dynamic Symmetry, let’s see the symmetry implicit in plant growth and how in fact plant growth inspired the return of Dynamic Symmetry design. Research teams have been trying to find one unifying formula for how leaves spiral around a tree (different specie have different formula in Phyllotaxis, generally variations of Fibonacci numbers but there are exceptions).
*From The Golden Ratio by Mario Livio. Different trees and plants have different
ratios, all related to the Fibonacci Series.
Alternate distichous leaves will have an angle of 1/2 of a full rotation.
In beech and hazel the angle is 1/3 in oak and apricot it is 2/5,
in sunflowers, poplar, and pear, it is 3/8, and in willow and almond the angle is 5/13. The numerator and denominator normally consist of a Fibonacci number and its second successor.
Also seen in the Number and Nature video.
A scene with many possible painting panel subjects.
A controversial study on the esthetics of rectangles was performed over a century ago. The study indicated that the golden rectangle (10x16.18) was the favorite shape. Since the study, researchers have highlighted its flaws. But I read a recent book by a preeminent psychologist (and writer), Rudolf Arnheim (author of Art and Visual Perception and The Power of Center (these books will be referenced further in this workshop), that cited this study, seeming to consider it worth noting. He did write that the study had two different audiences – artists and non-artists. The non-artists were described as preferring the golden rectangle while artists preferred shapes that were closer to squares. 1968, a professor at MIT, Moon, found: An analysis of 100 paintings of the impressionist school, for instance, gives an average aspect ratio of 1.27. Modern abstract painters usually prefer ratios closer to a square. For Mondrian’s paintings for example, the average is approximately l.19. A 16x20 panel has AR 5/4 = 1.25. while an 11x14 (or 22x28) has an AR of 1.2727.... Of course, the aspect ratio of a square is 1.
When looking a scene to paint, identify the center of interest (at least in your mind). I recall wanting the red hill on the right to be my main area of interest. Do you agree? When using a transparency grid, move it around on the scene until the grid’s focal point lines up with a desired center of interest.. I do this, while trying to keep Diagonals on major hill lines, with implied horizontals lining up. I personally like using a 10x16 panel in the field, close to a golden rectangle. This is why this particular transparency includes the red spiral. In general, I use a transparency to help identify major shapes of the hillside while trying to be careful not to be restricted by the underlying symmetry of the grid completely. I do this when trying to paint trees as well, aligning the tree OR the negative spaces with grid lines. We’ll be practicing with transparencies and grids later today.
I arrived at the cliff above the Chama River in the parking lot near the Chama river Overlook and did the quick painting on the left. I realized that I didn’t really like it and decided to start over. I used the first painting as a color study since the colors, values and tones approximated the ridge colors.. (I had two 10x16 panels with Dynamic Symmetry grids penciled in ready to use. Can you see the grid pencil marks in the second painting? I usually take photos of each step but didn’t in this case.
For the second painting, I applied the paint more thinly (scrubbing it in) using the palette piles left from the first painting with a little more cadmium orange to offset the strong red.. I used big shapes aligned with the underlying grid. I scrubbed in the lighter green at the bottom and in the middle ridge to balance the strong red’s and orange’s. I also worked to vary the heights of the layers. I needed more light in the painting than seen in the first one and more varied shapes. Again, I didn’t let the underlying symmetric grid dictate the whole composition. I tried to vary the shapes of each ridge and hill to make an appealing design. .The second image is the second painting one hour later. I seem to recall that I didn’t want to make changes to the first painting (yet) since it seemed to have some merit.
Before leaving this section I would like to show a painting of trees I did at Los Luceros recently. Later today I would like to take some time to ask how it could be fixed – looking at the actual, framed painting. I put a grid on it here as I used it in the field. (A square requires a special kind of Dynamic Symmetry grid since the reciprocals coincide with the diagonasl and the rebated squares collapse into the main square itself.)
Page 36, Intuitive Composition. Negative Space. .”Try to analyze the negative and positive shapes. Start with the baseline of the adobe buildings on the eft, which lead right into the baseline of the coyote fence on the right. Notice that this is practically a straight line. Focus on this area and consider all the buildings and trees above this line as one shape, one foreground mass, the positive areas. Consider the sky holes as constituting negative areas. Notice how the blue of the sky is broken up into different shapes—left, right, and beneath the dark rich green of the center tree. Squint and try to pull out these shapes. Abstract them and try to look only at these negative shapes to see what you come up with.”
AR 1.3
You may right-click the GIF and save it to your computer. The resulting “gif” file is a combination of the different ”still” “jpg” images that you may view and print. OR you may right-click on the GIF to pause the animation.
