Christopher Bartlett

My littoral landscapes usually depict foreign locations from sea to shore or shore to sea. An important principle of design and composition is repetition, so creating any structure such that the elements of a painting are aligned within self-similar areas and consequently at repeating measures from each other would satisfy the goal of unity. It is the thread that holds together an otherwise loose tapestry of forms in space and provides a structure of harmonizing ratios of distance. My compositions are based on the golden ratio that has the quality of bringing harmony and unity through self-similarity of proportional divisions to the compositional design. The canvas rectangle can be divided ad infinitum into similar rectangles forming a geometric progression with a ratio of 1:Φ, this being an illustration of the Greek notion of ‘dynamic symmetry’. These divisions may be reversed so that long side measures are used on the short side as well as employing squares and symmetrical divisions.