". . . a brush with nature"

There are many things that I like to do when I paint and now, I know why. 

One of the concepts that I am pretty fanatical about is painting things in uneven amounts. Yes, that can even include blades of grass that end up forming a clump of grass, or something more substantial, like a parade of small ducklings. I have always just found that an uneven number of things, like 1, 3 or 5, for example, is more personally pleasing to me. Something I feel more comfortable about, if you will. 

Sometimes I have found that by placing two of my subjects very close to each other (where their shapes are actually touching or overlapping) they blend together to become one larger visual form in my painting composition. When that happens, I am often comfortable counting them as one rather than two and moving ahead with my painting.

Well, it turns out that this whole “Even/Odd” thing I often find myself obsessing about is actually based on science and how the human eye “sees” things in a painting, or anything else, I would guess. 

Any object, item, subject, etc. that is even numbered becomes “static” because the eye subconsciously creates pairs of everything. Pairing things up creates a beginning and an end and a heightened sense of relaxation.  Too much relaxation can potentially lead to boredom within in a painting. 

When odd numbers are used in a composition, the piece becomes more dynamic. There is no sense of conclusion and the viewer’s eye keeps moving around throughout the painting because of it.

I am not saying that you cannot or should not have a focal point to your work. Of course, you should. But the entire painting should still “feel” interesting to the viewer and that can be accomplished using odd numbers to your advantage.