WEEK WORD: Simplicity
I am back to posting our weekly words that we are all going to be creative with! Check on Christine’s Blog for more bloggers to read about this week’s word: SIMPLICITY!!
It seems that we live in a complex time, an age in which many yearn for the simplicity of life. Simplicity comes before complexity. When learning math, the student must know 1+1 before he can go onto more complex math, but the student will always remember the cornerstone of 1+1 or the upcoming math won’t make sense. In the 2nd law of thermal dynamics, simply said 
entropy is always increasing. The past was always simpler and less chaotic than now and the future. But the simple had to come before the complex. In philosophy and many religious texts, scholars look for the simple truth before grasping the more complex. We always have simplicity in our roots, we just have to look for it. Often, simplicity helps explain the more complex, as in art.
Cezanne said that every painting is composed of simple shapes: the cone, square, and sphere. If you look at a painting, try and look at the simple shapes first to make sense of it:
Cezanne Shapes
I have put in magic marker the simple shapes in a Cezanne still life. Painters start with the simple shapes, or message before they compose the complex. Some artists fill their shapes with color and have the painting about that.
Picasso
The cubists were all about shapes and the juxtaposition of them.
Matisse
Instead of concentrating on minute details and values, Matisse often chose to paint a room scene with just shapes of color.
Simplicity is here with us, we just need to relax and go back to the basics.
My small oil, Hidden Stream
Have a wonderful weekend full of simplicity!!
Read more at: Week Word: Lacuna.
Hi I'm Joye!! 
Lovely impressionistic painting. It has the feel of a simpler time.
Nice one here! As an artist I love reading the description of the shapes in paintings and how important they are to the composition. The complicated whole is composed of the basic simple. Love it and it can be applied to many aspects in our lives; paring down things, or issues, to simplify and resolve. Thanks Joye!
what a gentle reminder that art appreciation begins at an early age (beginning with shapes; familiar even to preschoolers) and advances to more complex, sometimes difficult to “see” shapes. I hadn’t thought about the positioning of color in a painting – but that rings true for me when I’m taking a picture or cropping it for the greatest impact. Love your small oil painting. Is this a picture of where you live? an imaginary place? or someplace you vacation?
thanks for this reminder of how simply everything we see really is – and a lovely rembrance of the green to come at this time of year in your painting!
I won’t be able to look at paintings again without trying to find the shapes! I see a crescent stream waiting for a fisherman.
Joye -
I so enjoyed reading your post. This is my first time at Weekword and if I hadn’t visited your blog I would have never thought to think in terms of shape,color, and medium. I love to paint, but have been preoccupied (or distracted?) by the kitchen! Thank you for reminding me.
Karen
What an interesting and thought-provoking and different post. I LIKE IT A LOT, thanks! :-D
I really love your descriptions of the shapes and positions of color. You painting looks like a very peaceful and “simple” place. :-D
I love your misty morning painting!
Excellent point!!! I never made it past 1+1 or stick figures so I guess I am still living in simplicity. :-) I love your painting.
Oh Joye, I have missed learning and exploring artists through your blog, I love little lessons like this! I think the simplicity evident in the most complex artist’s work helps to understand how they created such beauty and gives everyone the confidence to keep improving their own art by example. I love your small little oil painting, your work is always delightfully focused in Nature. Wonderful post!
Thanks everyone for your kind comments! My small oil is a plein air painting I did several years ago. I painted it near a small pond outside of Philly in a park with a sweet cottage nearby. Tried to simplify!
What a beautiful interpretation of simplicity.
Gorgeous Joye! I do remember you, and am so pleased to see how creatively busy you are still keeping
Well done! Your blogs a true inspiration, xo Janine