What is 'Sense of Place' and how can it help us as artists?
To compliment the discussion on pure compositional rules I would like to explore the idea of ’sense of place’.
Sense of place describes the range of connections and meanings people can feel towards a particular place. These could be based on particular specific memories of a place, or they could be more intuitive - a place can just feel right, feel balanced, or equally uncomfortable, or wrong, we can also describe a sense of ‘placelessness' - think of all the spaces between places - motorways, waste ground for example.
So if we focus on the formal attributes of a space that we find appealing what are these? With a greater understanding of these attributes could they inform our sense of design and composition in a more intuitive and emotional way?
I have a photocopy of a book from the 1970s called the concise townscape by Gordon Cullen. This is directed primarily at town planners to understand how people relate to spaces and it provides an A-Z of principles. I’ve attached a few examples below. Many are based on dualities, 'here and there', 'public and private', 'inside and outside’ ‘open and closed'. They can be equally applied to the rural landscape, think of the kinetic rhythm of a road, landmarks and beacons, one the crest of a hill to the next, the sunken lane leading to an open vista, a crossing point. I attach a few examples below.
Armed with this knowledge we can perhaps feel more confident in our choices of subject matter. We can play with these principles in an informed and creative way to direct the eye through our paintings. Of course this can be further expressed through the play of light and the positioning of clouds for example but as an extra tool in our armoury it may strike a chord with some members of this blog, so I invite comment and hopefully examples - these could be photos, sketches or paintings of course.
A few interesting links that explore sense of place in various directions:
https://www.placeness.com/topophilia-and-topophils/
https://andygoldsworthystudio.com/
https://www.commonground.org.uk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Poetics_of_Space
Yes, Paul I certainly do recognise these. The Peck factory at the end of West Bridge (the one that Richard III crossed, having spent the previous night in Leicester, on his way to Bosworth Field, (where he lost his crown and his life) and over which he was probably carried back to Leicester, only for his body to have recently been discovered beneath a car park.
The Mill Street Bridge just in front of the Liberty bulding. A lovely Art Deco factory building which has since been pulled down, despite concern from local residents and English Heritage.
The Liberty statue from the corner of the building now stands on a stone plinth, in the centre of the traffic island next to Upperton Road bridge, within sight of her former home.
Your first collage might be Bradgate Park but I have to say I don't recognise the last one with the stones and the factory. Shame on me!
Glad to have evoked these fond memories for you.
BTW, I lived for many years in the Aylestone area of the city, a few streets away from the Grace Road Cricket Ground.