Since Ancient Antiquity artists have used the window as a device to frame, deepen, and design their pictures. The window constrains our view. We don’t scan; we only take in the single point perspective of a the window’s small vista. This is how painting windows began. They were a small porthole onto a larger space. They presented the idea of limitless external space vs. the confined space of the interior room. The window took the form of the Roman arch as well as squares and triangles. Da Vinci recognized the value of a window as you see here in his Madonna with a carnation (example 1). The Windows are where we relax our attention and imagine the world beyond. Later the window would eventually take over the picture.
example 1. Da Vinci’s Madonna with Carnation 
Countless artists experimented with the role of the window. It framed the sitter in portraits and promised adventure, harvest, serenity, abundance, religious experience, and it demonstrated authority and property ownership. Turner explored other forms of the window. He used Porticos, Colonnades, and ruins as framing windows for his divided worlds of inside/outside. In example 2 is a watercolor sketch in which Turner uses an arch in Venice as a window onto a sunlit external world. In the mid 20th century Diebenkorn was thoroughly aware of the window theme. He had admired Cezanne’s, Picasso’s, Braque’s, Bonnard’s and Matisse’s window paintings. Like his mentors his windows followed the format of modern residential architecture of a square vs. an arch (example 3).
example 2. Turner’s watercolor 
example 3. Diebenkorn’s Window 
You can use the framing power of the window and infer a window structure in a landscape. In example 4 I used the arched window form but, subtly. Trees act as a framing archway creating a window within the window of the picture.
example 4. Landscape with arch window insinuated 
Windows were historically set deep within the picture as a square of light surrounded by a larger dark square (the traditional interior) . In example 5 I have a Times Square painting with a series of squares within squares (see upper left quadrant of the painting).
example 5. Times Square, oil 
Continuing with the modernist move toward reduction and abstraction, I began work on two window images. These examples represent early stages for these works. I aim to sustain the idea of a squared window. I also aim to show the interconnection between interior and exterior as more fluid and blurred as I blend inside and outside space ( examples 6 and 7).
example 6, living room window 
example 7. porch window 
I invite you to join me for my lecture on “Art and Science” at 4:30 PM on Sunday, October 19, 2014 , $12. at the Silvermine Art Center in New Canaan, Ct. Contact 203 966 6668 ext 2 or Silvermineart.org for more information. I also invite you to join me in November 15th and 16th for two different workshops at Art of The Carolinas in Raleigh Durham, N.C. First is “the New Merger, Painting and Photo Collage” and second is ” Paint the City with new Techniques and Materials”. Register for the workshops at www.ArtoftheCarolinas.com or call 800 827 8478 ext 156.
Susan Johnson
David, thanks so much for taking the time to write this blog. I met you at Art of the Carolinas and you expanded my perspective–that was my first time at that event. You “reach” me with your verbiage and explanations. I haven’t read your entire blog yet (or watched the PBS show), but I’ll work through it. What I have read has been VERY informative. I’m just getting back into art after a long hiatus and at a good time in my life. I’m absorbing this information like a sponge;() Carry on, my friend. (If you have an email group that you contact for upcoming classes, please add me: I was the person at the table–AOC event–with your other friends and you ordered pizza.)