Multi Panel Paintings

Mainstream artistic tradition holds
that each panel of a multi-panel painting should be a stand-alone composition. I don’t necessarily agree with this, but I like to have a legitimate reason to use more than one panel; otherwise it feels
like a gimmick. When I’m constrained by my pochade box to using small panels, painting more than one panel for a larger composition is a logical solution.

Over the years, I have approached multi-panel painting in three different ways:

(1) I’ll tape two or more panels to a piece of cardboard clipped to the lid of my pochade box, paint the panels together as if they were one canvas and then transport
them safely home in my carrier case as separate panels. (2) I select the composition, divide it into panels and paint them one at a time, sometimes on different
days. (3) I will return to a previous location with a painting I did there, with the thought of painting an adjoining panel. When I paint each panel separately, in
sequence, I find that the resulting slight disconnect from panel to panel can be quite engaging. This discontinuity can enhance that
characteristic which distinguishes plein air painting: the subtle expression of experiencing a
subject and its surroundings
over time.

Some recent observations of visual function¹ suggest that we engage and process visual information more intensely when it is presented in multiple panels, such as a view seen through an old fashioned multi-paned window (as opposed to a picture window). This may help explain why multi-panel paintings frequently enhance an image rather than detract
from it.

Then there is the question of framing. Anyway you look at it, framing a multipanel painting is going to be more complicated
and/or expensive. Separate, narrow, simple frames for each panel, mounted close by one another on the wall or hinged
together to stand alone are reasonably simple.

Single frames divided by mullions (below) can be very effective, but the considerable expense of having them custom made can make them impractical.

1. From a November 5, 2000 NPR Weekend Edition interview
with Christopher Alexander, author of A Pattern Language.