lotsa

etsy shop: lotsa
listing: Dirty Clean Soap - Original Painting
artist: Liz Clay

Liz Clay's etsy shop currently offers 27 paintings for sale. All of which are studies of bottles. It's intriguing to contemplate the full range of all these paintings. They share similar foundations in their subject matter and style, yet each painting is clearly unique unto itself through varying use of layout and colors. Her paintings are excellent examples of the fundamental design and art properties of layout, repetition, variety and color theory.

I find myself first looking at the arrangement of the bottles. All her paintings feature different layouts that keeps each painting fresh. In the example shown above there's a horizon line (or "reflecting line" as described by Liz) defined by the bottles. Above the horizon line, the bottles are upright. Below the horizon line the bottles are facing downward. Simple, clean approachable layouts are commonplace in all her paintings. And simple layouts are the core for great design. Liz establishes a solid foundation of clean design from which she is able to elaborate further through the use of repetition.

Do a google search on "repetition in design" and you'll find countless pages detailing the many benefits. Liz maximizes these qualities by keeping her focus on the bottle as subject matter and presenting in them in simple layouts and with a color palettes that share a similar sense of simplicity.

Look through all her paintings and you'll see the color palette is always simple. If the color palette was complex, it would overpower the harmony found in the layout and repetition.

Finally, variety is found in the bottles themselves. No two bottles are the same. Each one is inherently different. It's not only fun to look at the overall layout of the painting, but it's equally entertaining to study each individual bottle. It' like having dozens of tiny paintings in one painting.

Liz Clay's paintings are interesting studies in the art of painting and are excellent examples in the vocabulary of design.