When I posted the article "Painting Sunshine," http://williambuffett.blogspot.com/2011/01/painting-sunshine.html I had not seen Pegge Hopper's canvas of her two daughters on the beach. It is a good example of the painting of sunshine. The figures are modelled, but only in a few close values, shallowly. The sensation of bright sunlight is achieved by the extreme interval between the lit and shaded portions of the sand on the beach.
Apart from the impression of midday sun, the composition of the picture is a marvel. Though the main figure is in repose, the picture is dynamic because there isn't a horizontal line in it; all are diagonals.
The painting is compelling to the viewer because it is full of novelty and the unexpected, yet in perfect equilibrium. Variety, ( in this case cropped extremities, hidden faces, foreshortened torsos, feet at the top) is an achievable quality, and so is equilibrium, if you employ symmetry. But to get both balance and variety into the same composition is something for an artist to strive for. Pegge Hopper has done it here.
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