We’ve begun the tricky business of creating the layout of the painting, exploring the composition by arranging the structures of the painting according to the golden ratio correspondences that are available to us as a result of the arrangement of the space. The sides of the giant triple chair that sits in the centre of the wall are, by extraordinary coincidence, almost exactly on the golden section (the ratio 1 : 1.62) of the canvas. Even more extraordinarily, the top of the chair is right on the golden section of the vertical dimension too! Fantastic!
Using chalk line to draw the dimension of the painting, and break up the composition introduced a new tool to my students, putting them in good company with the craftsmen who are said to have planned the structure of the pyramids using a line dipped in paint in exactly the same way that we did today.
In the photos Jason and Joseph are helping me to line up the chalk line and to lay out our reference lines – centre and golden sections.
seems meant to be then o magical one!!