Caswell Series, #2: Rules Were Made To Be Broken is another gouache on paper, 9" x 12", from 1981. It is part of a series from material gathered on Oak Island, NC, at Civil War era Fort Caswell. I loved the old buildings and the wide open area they occupied, and did many paintings from the photos I took on several visits there. One time I went down with an artist group for the weekend. We had a short workshop on basic composition; the only thing I remember from it was the leader's stern warning: "never put anything in the center of your picture." That rubbed me the wrong way, since I had recently graduated from art school and was pretty tired of being told what to do. There was also plenty of historical precedent to show that she was wrong, so I decided to deliberately stick a chimney in the dead center of this painting and make it work. I think it does.
My students are told that I don't give artistic "rules" - only "suggestions."
Caswell Series, #2 is in a private collection in Raleigh, NC.
Caswell Series, #2 is in a private collection in Raleigh, NC.
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