Santa Barbara Courthouse Side Door

"Courthouse Side Door"
11 x 14 inches
oil on panel
sold

The sun did not poke through yesterday so I went to our most famous building in town to study some architecture. I find that perfect symmetry in paintings is not appealing. Surprisingly most architects don't feel the same way as most buildings are made very symmetrical. If you start looking at building you realize there is an annoying symmetry to most of the design. The courthouse being an exception, every part of it was made non symmetrical but at the same time having great balance. You can see here how they offset the entrance from the center of the large arch. The windows and white wall on the left tie the offset pieces together and balance the whole composition. I felt like I was helping the whole expression by offsetting the arch in my own composition.