The Feather Featured Art series is chosen by art teacher Vickey Belmont from her classes and/or independent art students. Belmont picks the best work during current units and encourages students to participate in these occasional posts. Other students are encouraged to submit art pieces as well. Please contact the editors directly or via adviser Kori James for submissions.

Description by art teacher Vickey Belmont:

Notan is a Japanese word that means ‘dark-light harmony’. It is defined as the interaction between positive (light) and negative (dark) space. A notan also shows balance, the yin/yang symbol is a classic example of this.

Artists use ’notan study’ to explore light and dark elements in a painting, without the distraction of color, texture or finer details.

If you are interested in learning how to make a powerful notan, this lesson from the Virtual Art Academy is very helpful.

Using dark colors with black and light color with whites is known as a two-value notan. The famous painting “Whistler’s Mother 1871”, by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, is an example of a two-value notan study.

A notan is used to filter out all other elements so that the balance of light and dark elements is revealed. It represents the most basic abstract design of a painting.

More information about the art is offered via an Aug. 24, 2015, New Yorker article by Peter Schjeldahl entitled “The mysteries of “Whistler’s Mother.”

Students in art I class were asked to use these principles to ‘expand the square’. They were given a 6″ x 6″ square and instruction to create a notan. The requirements were to create positive/negative interaction on all four sides, demonstrate an understanding of positive and negative space, and use creative thinking and problem solving.

Madi Bryant, a first-year art student, completed this project, fully understanding the concept of notan design. Her project is a balance of light and dark with complex, intricate pieces. It is hard to replicate something that so many of us know.

The proportions have to be correct in order for the image of Mickey Mouse and Cinderella’s castle to be recognized. Her attention to those details made her project stand out. Madi did an amazing job representing, ‘The happiest place on earth’.

Junior Madi Bryant

The name of my piece is Disney Notan. The process was long and a little stressful at times. A good stress though!

The project was pretty extensive for me because of the detail I put into it. I came up with the idea to do Disney because I know that Mickey is symmetrical as well as the castle. Once I drew it all out on the black square, I realized that I had created dimension. The detail came when cutting with the exacto-knife; it was difficult for sure.

It got really interesting when I had half cut it out because to put the pieces together was time consuming. The project took me about a week and a half. There were many tiny pieces to keep track of, but in the end, it turned out well beyond my expectations!

For a previous art post, read Feature Art No. 2, 2020-21: Zentangle or for more Feather articles, read Amanda Phan leads international organization, creates community among Vietnamese students.