Melissa Bartlett discusses the importance of composition

Before doing anything else, Melissa Bartlett spends a lot of time figuring out the composition of her pieces.

In her opinion, if you have a strong composition, it makes a big difference.  People will be drawn to it. But if you have a bad composition, nothing will save it.

This is how Bartlett described a good composition: "The eye is drawn through the painting. There's some drama.  A little unexpected pattern that's unusual or eye catching."

It can be a little mysterious, but once you understand this concept the little details aren't as important.  The best way to develop a sense of good artistic composition is to keep your eyes open and to experiment.

Bartlett was at an occupational therapy (in addition to being an artist she is an occupational therapist at an elementary school) conference where they had to sit at long tables with white table cloths. On the tables were glasses filled with cheap hard candies.

She spent the entire time composing pictures of the candies in her mind. She said, when it was time to leave, "I dumped them in my purse and spent the morning experimenting.  Taking photos."

Anyone who saw her dump the candy into her purse might assume that he has an addiction to sugar. But really, this is the type of thing that artists do.

In Bartlett's case, she doesn't really paint candy.  She likes to do landscapes and animals.  She said, "Every once in awhile the light will attract me to something different (like the candies). It's what art is.  You look at something in a different way.  Get a different view of something.  Take something ordinary and make it startling."

Although Bartlett is the type of artist who works quickly and usually has more ideas than she has time to complete, there have been a couple of times when she didn't know what to do with a piece and it slowed her down.

"One time I gave my husband a certificate that said I'd do a picture of a fish that he caught," she explained.  Bartlett's husband loves to fly fish and she spends a lot of time sketching on the side of a river while he fishes. "I dragged my feet for a year. I couldn't wrap my mind around it.  Finally, I decided it was a still life.  But it still took a long time.  [In the photo] the fish was on mud, and that was ugly.  So I took pictures of pebbles in water."

Melissa Bartlett's artwork is available at the Karen Wray Gallery of Fine Art.