Is composition important in art?

Composition is complex. It contains lots of stuff: the rule of thirds, the golden mean, dynamic symmetry, harmonic armateurs, grids, spirals, negative and positive space, harmony, and rhythm. It’s a word salad.

At first, I believed all the hype about composition and read up on things like grid methods and design methods. But when I looked at some of my favorite paintings, they didn’t seem to obey the rules. After a year or two, I concluded that these rules don’t work. Art is so subjective that trying to make art to please other people is like trying to herd cats. So my conclusion is: Make art for yourself. If other people like it, that’s great; if they don’t, that’s ok too. This is a controversial statement that will upset some people. If you believe in compositional rules and feel they help you, then, of course, you should use them. But if, like me, you think that all this compositional stuff is a waste of time, then my message is that it is ok to ignore composition or, if you prefer, treat compositional theory as a set of guidelines rather than a set of rules. I prefer to approach composition as a design challenge. In the case of landscape art, we have several large shapes. We can create interesting patterns by varying the size and relative positions of these shapes. In the first of the two videos below, I discuss composition. In the second, I talk about using notans to create interesting patterns and designs.