Landscape Nr Sawrey

This shouldn't work, in theory! You've got a strong horizontal right in front of the painting, forbidding access; a reinforcing hedge behind it; a broad green sward lying beyond both of them - so how come it works??? You've broken all the rules!! Well done: because it DOES work. So much for theory.... I can only think it works because of the rich, vibrant colour, and those hot reds in the distance. A very canny bit of painting.

Rules are made for breaking. It's Renaissance perspective that got people thinking about barriers and ways "into" the composition. but in this case I was simply following the basic tenet of Modernism - that a painting is above all else an arrangement of coloured shapes on a flat surface. Repeated horizontals as a compositional device is actually a very ancient device and reminds us today, perhaps, of the geological stata of the landscape.