Glenn Hirsch, Instructor www.glennhirsch.com

1. Composition is the
arrangement of shapes
to keep the eye moving
with pleasure.
Glenn Hirsch

2. Positive and Negative Shape creates rhythm
Repetition creates rhythm
Scale creates impact
Diagonals keep the eye moving all over the picture
The exchange of value creates relationships

3. Positive and Negative Shapes
create rhythm

4. (M.C. Escher 1930)

6. Franz Kline, 1953

7. Jackson
Pollock,
1944

8. Phillip
Guston
1954

9. Henri Matisse

10. Helen
Frankenthaler

11. Arshile Gorky

12. Gustav
Courbet,
1855

13. Graham
Sutherland
1944

14. Vladimir Volegov

17. Robert Bechtel, watercolor

18. DIAGONALS keep the eye moving

19. Gericault

20. Raphael (left), Rubens (right)

21. Anders Zorn, watercolor

22. Anders Zorn, watercolor

23. Stephen Scott Young, watercolor

24. Stephen Scott Young, watercolor

25. Edward Hopper, pastel

26. Andrew Wyeth

27. Vincent Perez

28. Vladimir Volegov

30. Ilya Repin

31. SCALE unites smaller shapes into
large shapes by unifying the
color

32. Serov

33. Francis Picabia
1913

34. Vladimir Volegov

35. Serov

36. Elmer Bischoff

37. translation of value
dark on top of light
light on top of dark

38. A ‘translation
of value’ white
against dark,
and dark
against light
Georges Seurat, c. 1885

39. Georges Seurat

40. Translation of value -
light against dark, and
dark against light.

41. (Mo Seder)

42. Vladimir Volegov

44. Pattern creates rhythm
through repetition

45. Tomb of Nakht 1500 BCE

46. Gustave Klimt, 1905

47. Deborah Oropallo, Tree,
Violin, and Violinist, 1989Evenly space, repeated rhythms

48. Deborah Oropallo, Sioux Sox, 1989
Staggered, uneven rhythms

50. For comparison:
Leonardo didn’t
favor pattern
Botticelli’s art is all about the pattern

51. Primevera, 1482

52. Detail from The Trials of Moses, Sistine Chapel

54. Édouard Vuillard
(French, 1868-1940)
Vuillard lived with his mother, a dressmaker, until the age of sixty, and
was very familiar with pattern.
Much of his art is decorative with intricate patterns marked by a gentle
humor and executed in a delicate, soft color.

62. Fred Tomaselli
(American, 1956 - )
Tomaselli is best known for his highly detailed paintings
on wood panel, combining an array of unorthodox
materials suspended in a thick layer of clear, epoxy
resin and a maelstrom of pattern.