Peter Howson: Folding Mirrors Show Balance of Art

Image by pixelsandpaper via Flickr

I was watching a clip from a BBC documentary about Peter Howson, a Scottish artist, when I noticed he used two mirrors (with a folding effect) to check the balance of his painting, saying you could see all the mistakes that way.

I hadn’t noticed it when watching the whole documentary, so that shows how editing and repeated observations can be beneficial.  The whole video is available from the above link in the UK for three days, and the clip might be available to everybody for longer?

It inspired this Folding Mirror poem, which took a lot less time than Howson’s work, and could probably do with more editing.

Art of Humanity

art surface beauty is usually good enough
the mind is built on selection
look inside yourself
but don’t dig too deep

pictures are never perfect

edit a little over time
don’t destroy it
balance isn’t constant over a life
of change not felt on gallery walls