Recently I found a watercolor sketch, View from the Window, that I painted in 1958 while working at a hospital in Harlem. Although I included the sketch in my January newsletter, I am showing it again along with my new completed larger oil version.

Editing, what to delete, what to add, what to change and why, is an important aspect of the creative process for writers, composers, choreographers and all visual artists. Editing is where the important thinking process takes place and is essential to making our best work. My painting process is enhanced when I draw a preliminary pencil sketch to work out the composition and value range, the two most important elements in the hierarchy of painting design. Much of the editing can be done at this stage, facilitating   greater ease during the painting process.

I was inspired to paint View from the Window in oil because it presents many interesting compositional elements. Strong vertical lines of the buildings are juxtaposed with the horizontal energy of the clothes lines with clothes blowing in the breeze and the beautiful rhythm of the zig-zag fire escape. The various levels of the tops of the apartment buildings also supply rhythm for the viewer’s eyes.  This oil is 24’X18”, more than two times the  proportion of the watercolor sketch. This change allowed for more floors to be added to the buildings and a longer fire escape, adding to the verticality of the work. I deleted the lower bottom portion of the original sketch as it interrupted the long vertical lines of the buildings. I also edited out three telephone lines at the top to better showcase interesting negative space between tops of buildings and sky.  Those of you who know my work, realize that creative use of negative space is an important part of my compositional thinking both in my painting and sculpture. I did leave in two T V antennae

in this space, as their T shapes repeat the T shape formed by the lowest balcony and ladder of the fire escape and I like how this repetition enhances the overall composition. I added a tiny shadow figure, head and shoulders, at one window to add a small human element to this architectural scene.

Editing is an important part of every work of art and the learning process of each art form is an on-going, lifelong endeavor.