Travel Journals
Painting diagrams
When I visit a museum, I’ve gotten into the habit of ‘diagramming’ paintings. Paintings demonstrate the rich possibilities of the in-between - the void between one solid and the other, the space between one figure and another. This echoes the flow of spaces into each other in buildings, and, to the envy of architects, painters often create some of the most wonderful places on their canvases.
Why does this matter to Echo Studio? Looking at art, and by extension the world around us, helps train the eye and hand to recognize proportion, color, and texture. Studying paintings maintains an essential connection between the past and present - as ones makes their own interpretation of another’s work, one faces the challenges and the choices of the original artist, in a sense invoking the thoughts of someone long ago.
Studying art and diagramming also helps on a practical level - the ability to sketch in front of a client helps an architect (or any artist or design professional) communicate ideas quickly and evocatively, and aids the [design process](/architecture/process).
The charged void
In The Burial of Count Orgaz, Spanish painter El Greco draws the viewer’s eye through a multitude of faces and figures heavenward and back to the dark space between two robed figures in which the white hand of a mourner gestures toward the body of the stricken count.
The resulting space is a ‘charged void,’ which emphasizes the position of this pivotal figure.
Other paintings
Civil War, 1994, Bo Bartlett