TOWARDS VISUAL BALANCE

A couple of weeks ago I posted a photo of a heron wading in the Creek at Torquay. 


This one, however, I photographed in the Yarra River in the heart of Melbourne. Black Swans are a more common sight and I was a little surprised to see it there. By chance the photo seemed to capture the gracefulness of the bird's heavy, slow-flapping wings.

During the week I went to a class with my teacher Elizabeth. She had set an exercise of 'line, colour and mass'. I wanted to use a shallow, open ceramic vessel that I had recently bought in New Zealand. I thought it would allow me to show the lines of the long stems of some orange/yellow chrysanthemums. This would then allow me to create a mass above the vessel. To emphasise colour, I decided to use additional red lines in the form of a 'stick sculpture' I had made which harmonised with the colour of the flowers.



The red sticks provide the support for the flowers, which enabled me to avoid having to use a kenzan that would have been visible. The blue vessel, which has a pink interior, contrasts with the other colours in the arrangement. 

I was not particularly happy with the original version of this exercise and felt that the elements did not relate well to each other.



When I got home I added some more red sticks among the flower heads thereby making a visual connection with the base of the arrangement.



Here is the final version of the work installed in the niche in our living room. The ceramic vessel is by  Nadine Spalter * .

Greetings from Christopher
27th June 2015

* Click on the blue text for further information

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