Notan Revisited

I recently saw Matisse's painting The Green Pumpkin at the RISD Museum in Providence, Rhode Island.  I cannot show a picture of the painting; you can google it and see a picture (don't just google "green pumpkin", though.)  The painting is designed with definite bands of color that extend from one edge horizontally to the opposing edge.  Then there is the green pumpkin, close to the middle of the painting, flanked by blocks of the same green.  (Although there is no continuous band of green, the eye interprets the green objects as being in a green band.)  I realized that Matisse had used Notan in the design of this painting even though he did not use extremes of darks and lights.  By using Notan, he helped the viewer discover what was important in the painting, and keep the viewer's eye moving throughout the painting, and not flying off of it.

Color can be used the same way in a garden design as Matisse used it in The Green Pumpkin.   Plants are placed to help keep the viewer's eye moving throughout.

In the bed that I photographed from a roof deck, I have used plants with reddish-purplish foliage placed in the front left armeria maritima rubrifolia (red leafed sea thrift), middle center lysimachia ('firecracker' loosestrife), back right heuchera 'molly bush' (coral bells), and another heuchera to the front right.  My goal is to help people look at this garden so that their eye does not get stuck on one area, and does not wander off to some area outside the garden.  The red foliage plants help lead the eye around and through the garden.  All of the plants are seen because I have helped people make sense of the space.

Next time, I will write about cone of vision.