Designing The Catskills

Whether exploreing New York’s Catskill Park or trolling through art history we repeatedly find the fundamental design form of the triangle. With its unifying effect on design it has become as omnipresent as the circle in painting. It can be turned in any directi0n to suggest the orientation or the motion of an image.  It can suggest the direction of light, the fall of water, or the slope of land. In example 1, a Rembrandt etching demonstrates ascending triangles. Their downward fans suggest falling rays of light.

example 1. Rembrand Etching.

I can’t stop finding new design uses for the triangle especially, triangles within triangles or, reciprocal triangles which point toward each other.  I found myself on the shores of a lake at Devil’s Tombstone in the Catskills.  Two mountains formed a dramatic triangle at one end of the lake, example 2.  I snapped a photo ( example 3) as I looked across the lake with fronds of lake grass assembling themselves into a fanciful  “V”. The fronds erratically stretched in contrary directions.  Their reflecting light stood in strong contrast to the shadowed shoreline.  I diagrammed that photo by superimposing two triangles on it (example 4).  Next (example 5), I laid down a mixture of three colors, Gamboge yellow, ultramarine blue, and translucent azure blue(Sennelier). My next step ( example 6) was to carve out the grassy fronds with a six-inch wide squeegee which revealed the reflective brushed silver substrate.  Example 7 presents a diagram of the triangle of grasses and the inclined trees. These distant trees  imply another triangle which converges far above the painted image (above the picture plane).  These trees are inclined in the reverse direction from those in the photograph.

Example 2. Devils Tombstone photo with sky triangle and reflected lake triangle.

example 3. Photo of lake with triangle of grasses.

example 4. Diagrammed photo with reciprocal triangles.

example 5. Step 1, initial lay-in of oil paint.

example 6. Step 2, After carving out fronds with a squeegee.

example 7. Diagrammed painting.

While visiting the Catskills I conducted a plein-air painting workshop.  I began each day with a talk and small demonstration.  If I followed the tradition of the Hudson River painters like Sanford Gifford or Asher Durand who painted here I would start with a small sketch in oil or pencil.  Later I might try refining that sketch in my hotel or tent or studio.  In the studio the sketch becomes more distinct or legible.  That was their mid-19th century practice. I began my demonstration in oil on brushed silver anodized aluminum, 12×12″ ( example 8).  Example 9 presents a triangle-within-a-triangle design diagrammed on the image.  I returned to my studio and worked into the demonstration ((example 10).

example 8. on sight quick demonstration.

example 9. triangle diagrams on demonstration.

example 10. After studio work on the demonstration.