Radical Impressionist: A Mathematician Paints

It's time to resume working on an article I've promised myself for years. Perhaps it could become a book. I've been too busy painting though. But also, the one gallery representing me (Marigold Gallery on Canyon Road in Santa Fe) closed in January so I've been thinking about next steps.  But the main reason I am thinking about this now is that I see some excitement generated in the community to revisit the design techniques that I see as mathematical, involving dynamic symmetry concepts. I could even touch on the deeper mathematics behind the techniques in an appendix. This will fulfill my need to marry my two passions: painting and mathematics. In any case, two years ago I took a zoom workshop with Michele Byrne (now of Santa Fe) well-known artist specializing in using a palette knife, my favorite painting tool. An added benefit of the workshop was to see how she employs dynamic symmetry in her work: https://www.oilpaintersofamerica.com/2022/03/dynamic-symmetry-and-ho...

Notes I am beginning a series of shorter posts. Each post will concentrate on one topic and in an order such that they will build on each other. The series is open-ended but they will begin with topics on composition.  The underlying mathematics will be explained where ever possible or at various points. Introduction  I want to preface this post with my usual 'disclaimer'. When I first began to paint I wanted to make sure that the left-side of my brain didn't take over, which -as a Mathematician- it's prone to do; I wanted to be expressive !  However, as the years went by I couldn't avoid seeing how often mathematics entered into discussions of composition, for example. So I decided to spend time investigating for my own self the symbiotic relationship of math and art. My usual approach to a painting now is to start off analytically, with measurements and thoughts about proportions and unequal measures, and perspective in the landscape and the direction of light and...