Color and Composition

Not too long ago, I was having a short conversation about color and was making a point about color being different from composition.  The woman I was talking with asked "isn't color also composition?"  Darn good question.

Yes and no.

Matisse is a good one to turn to on this topic.  He was at least somewhat known as one who had some painting that focused on color and others where he focused on composition.  Perhaps turn also to Papa Cezanne.  It's much easier to see his focus on composition as there's isn't the same riot of color going on as there is with Matisse.

It's easier to approach this topic from the vantage point of black & white photography.  This strips the picture plane down to the organization of various shapes in shades of grey.  Color is monochromatic in a b & w image.  Here we can then focus on how various shapes are arranged in that two-dimensional plane.

Can't color also be a way to organize shapes in a picture plane?  It sure can.  We're back to Matisse for one.  Here's the thing though, if you're able to see past the color to that actual organization of shapes in the picture plane, you might find that the basic structure of the painting is flawed.  Since we're so reactive to color, its easier to disguise lousy composition when using color than when painting monochromatically.

It's true that knowing some elements of Color Theory can help you play with composition using color.  For example, warm colors generally come forward and cool colors generally recede.  Large shapes generally come forward and small shapes generally recede.  Knowing this, you can put a large cool shape in front of a smaller warm shape (not overlapping) and play with the rules to achieve more tension in your painting.  This is but one example of using the rules and 'breaking' them in the aim of more effectively reaching your goal.