How to Write Killer Prose (11)

What can painting teach us?

We were looking at place and context a few posts ago, and it struck me that painters face many of the same decisions that we do as writers. How do you set a scene? What do you include? How much value do you give to details? What choices do you make?

Portrait painters have answered these questions in different ways. Historically, their task was not only to create a likeness, but to reflect their subject's status, so scene setting was everything. Let's look at the decisions made by some 20th century 'society' portraitists, and see what we can learn. It's striking how similar the canvas is to the page.