New Mural

"Perpetual Growth", 9.5'x3', 2011

I spent the past week-and-a-half painting a new mural at Palette Contemporary Art & Craft Gallery in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My goal was to build a non-traditional-format landscape based-upon the Golden Section, an ancient compositional tool used most notably by Renaissance painters and early adopters of Cubism. At nearly ten feet tall, it took me most of the entire first day to work-out the math for the composition of the under-painting. - North


Now some information on how I attained the composition:

Fibonacci numbers and Phi are related to spiral growth.

If you sum the squares of any series of Fibonacci numbers, they will equal the last Fibonacci number used in the series times the next Fibonacci number. This property results in the Fibonacci spiral seen in everything from sea shells to galaxies:

1² + 1² + 2² + 3² + 5² = 5 x 8
so
1² + 1² + . . . + F(n)² = F(n) x F(n+1)

The Golden Section is a ratio based on phi.

The Golden Section is also known as the Golden Mean, Golden Ratio and Divine Proportion. It is a ratio or proportion defined by the number Phi (1.618….)

This ratio has been used by mankind for centuries. Its use may have started as early as with the Egyptians in the design of the pyramids. The Greeks recognized it as
"dividing a line in the extreme and mean ratio" and used it for beauty and balance in the design of architecture. The Renaissance artists knew it as the Divine Proportion and used it for beauty and balance in the design of art. It was used in the design of Notre Dame in Paris and continues today in many examples of art, architecture and design.

It also appears in the physical proportions of the human body, movements in the stock market and many other aspects of life and the universe.

Placitas

"Placitas", Oil on Canvas, 64"x72" - North

Moonlight Recordings

"Moonlight Record 24", Enamel on Glass and Ampersand Panel, 6"x6" - North

Coffee and Fresh Canvas

Lost in a psychosis that places painting slightly ahead of breathing in the natural order of importance, I have trouble justifying my existence when that rare downtime appears. This is not an everyday occurrence, just those moments when the coffee pot is full and I’m caught between paintings, waiting for my next shipment of supplies from the Daniel Smith catalog.

At this moment, I have stretched a 72”x80” canvas with a couple coats of gesso and while it needs at least three more layers before I start my under painting, only one more coat rests in the bottom of my container. The bottle of linseed oil has only a half-inch, at most, of liquid remaining.

I find myself literally scraping the bottom of the bucket for that last stretch of glorified white-out. “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” (Richard III, Shakespeare). That’s how it happens, a million perfect ideas and only a stick and bit of paint to apply them. - North