A painting with a message does not happen by accident. It happens when you place elements in their order of importance.

When we look at a painting, listen to a piece of music, read a novel, or watch a movie we are taking in the artist's composition. The composition is the totality of the work.

By merely increasing or decreasing the amount of contrast in any area we can move the observer through the painting.

The person viewing your work has no idea what the scene really looked like, nor do they care.

You have to understand how the human eye behaves when it views a scene for the first time. Work with that knowledge, and your paintings will have more drama and will evoke strong reactions.

That a viewer does not see what the artist intended does not make the composition a failure... In reality all artists speak first to themselves and then to an audience.

Monet, Manet, Sisley, Renoir, Van Gogh and others went outside to paint for one simple reason - it looks different outside.