Pattern uses the art elements in planned or random repetition to enhance surfaces or paintings or sculptures. Patterns often occur in nature, and artists use similar repeated motifs to create pattern in their work. Pattern increases visual excitement by enriching surface interest.
The modes he describes include the following which are described here in terms of examples from nature. However, each of these modes can also be seen in examples of designed objects and works of art:
Flow All things flow, following paths of least resistance. Flow can be seen in water, stone, the growth of trees. Meander patterning is related to the idea of flow, and is built on the repetition of an undulating line. In this detail from a textile hanging made up of knotted threads, the meandering color lines resulting from the technique quite naturally create this type of pattern.
Branching is an obvious form of patterning in the plant world, but it can also be seen in geological formations such as river deltas and certain crystalline formations.
Spiral patterns can be seen from the scale of galaxies to the opening “fiddlehead” buds of ferns, to the forms of microscopic animals.
Packing and Cracking refers to the way in which compacted cells define each others shape. A densely packed cluster of mushrooms will grow together, deforming the circular form of each cap because of crowding. In the same way a cluster of soap bubbles deforms each bubble from the perfect sphere of the isolated bubble, according to rules that govern the surface tension of soap bubbles. Surfaces (like mud or old paint) that shrink may experience cracking, resulting in similarly cellular patterning.
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