Space and Detail in Art

"Space is the breath of art." 

Frank Lloyd Wright

"Less is more" is a concept that we sometimes forget about in art. While this may seem contradictory, it is actually a very key component. I, myself, often forget about this. I find myself spending way too much time considering every detail, not considering the piece as a whole. This results in a piece that is too busy and difficult to look at. Along the lines of this concept, Debora Stewart, author of Abstract Art also agrees. She preaches that space is just as important as areas of activity within a composition (Stewart 46). Given her writing, Stewart has completely changed the process I go through when looking for inspiration. I found myself looking at things in my environment that contained not only detail, but space, as well. This highly contrasts to what I would do before, only paying attention to things that were intricate and contained lots of detail. Now, I start to consider both components of space and detail together as a whole, coming to the decision to use my neighborhood and the nature that is visible in it as my inspiration. It contained adequate amounts of both: the sky providing the space while the houses, trees, and the smaller features providing the detail. Stewart's writing reminds me to consider both space and detail in a piece, impacting today's activity through my choice of inspiration. 

One way to add space to a piece is to ensure that the work is not entirely active and busy. Doing this often times makes the piece lack contrast and variety. Stewart would agree with me on this. She says that, "Not every area of the paper has to be filled with detail. Leave some areas open. This helps build atmosphere, energy, and emphasis" (Stewart 46). Going along with this idea, I made sure to consider space and detail while painting my piece. I started of the base of the piece by painting a blue triangle and covering a large portion of the canvas a yellow-green, hoping that the large scale of these two would help add space. Then, I painted a large portion of the two corners orange and white to create even more space, knowing that I could easily make it detailed later if I wanted to. To finish off the piece, I added lines, shapes, and strokes varying in pressure in orange and yellow across the canvas to balance the piece out with detail. To my surprise, my piece to turned out beautiful. But, this is only thanks to Stewart's writing, which reminded me to keep a good ratio of space and detail while I painted, because before, I would've just went about the piece mindlessly. With Stewart's writing, I applied crucial space and detail techniques to my piece, and consequently, my piece ended up embodying energy, atmosphere, and emphasis at the end.

First Layer of Space

Final Product

What are your thoughts on the "less is more" concept? Do you think it applies in art?

              Stewart, Debora. Abstract Art Painting: Expressions in Mixed Media. Cincinnati, OH: North Light,               2015. Print.