Placement of a brush stroke or a color can change how one sees a painting. Like placement of a comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence. A stream flowing through a painting can come to a halt when the pure white water meets a black rock jutting into the center of the painting. Painting is a mix of ideas; ideas of both passions and different teachings of the requirements for making art. The artist has to decide where they want to place their emphasis. A perfectly executed painting can fall short if the artist has no defining message to give the viewer, and even then a wrong stroke can kill that message. The viewer can be misled by an out of place bit of color. The peacefulness is lost when that out of place color presents a question and draws the viewers mind away from the intended message. Chaos is becoming a concept in art these days, but even chaos has a flow or a non-flow.
Each artist selects a set of guidelines to build a concept with. A realist will use different guidelines than an impressionist painter will. Yet they can wind up with paintings that look very similar. How much the impressionist wants his painting to carry a likeness of his subject will determine how much of an impressionist they are. There are guidelines for every artist. Where to place your center of interest? How to balance a composition? How to design the reading of a painting? These guidelines are what makes art interesting. Subjects attract a viewer, but composition and design are what makes a viewer want to live with a painting.
