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COMPOSITION IN THE ROUND SERIES
The Full Circle of Nature
Capturing the gesture and form of botanical subjects in a round composition
This is the piece of paper that started my venture into circular compositions! Who knew that an impulse buy would lead to exploration of a new format in several different mediums?!
I often paint botanical subjects — flowers, fruit, and vegetables — and am always looking for new ways to emphasize and convey their rounded forms, spiraling vines, and context in the circle of life. The circular composition seems perfect as a means of emphasizing each of these aspects of a botanical subject.
Form: A Circle Within a Circle
Most botanical subjects have rounded forms — the roundness of an apple, grapes or tomatoes on a vine, a snowball hydrangea — each of these is inherently circular in form, many times having repetition of the circle in their structure. When we draw or paint a subject, it’s important to first understand its form, because that will inform us how to shade it in a way that will emphasize volume and dimension.
While painting a botanical subject on a round canvas will not guarantee an end result of dimensionality and form, the round format will echo and thereby emphasize…
