Gallery Adventures: Chasing the Golden Ratio

The golden ratio (approximately 1:1.618) is a mathematical concept that's been inspiring artists, architects, and designers for centuries. It pops up in nature — in the spiral of a shell, the pattern of leaves, even the swirl of a galaxy — and when used in art, it can create compositions that feel naturally balanced and pleasing to the eye.

The Golden Ratio

Many famous paintings feature the golden ratio, whether subtly or very deliberately. Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper is a classic example, with key figures and architectural lines falling along golden sections. Even in more modern works, like Salvador Dalí’s The Sacrament of the Last Supper, the golden ratio forms the very structure of the painting.

Interestingly, a single painting might include multiple uses of the golden ratio — different elements aligned to different golden rectangles or spirals, woven together to create a sense of harmony and flow. Botticelli’s The Birth of Venus is a great example of this.

This month at Sunday Sketch Club, we headed out on a bit of an adventure — a trip to the National Gallery of Victoria! Armed with golden ratio viewfinders, we spent the morning exploring how artists throughout history have used this magical proportion in their work.

To help us spot it, we used simple golden ratio viewfinders. These are just little rectangular frames based on the golden ratio, which helped us look closely at the paintings and notice how artists have placed key elements within their compositions. Sometimes it was obvious — a sweeping arm, a horizon line, or a cluster of figures lining up along that perfect spiral — and other times it was more subtle, tucked into the overall structure of the piece.

After spending some time looking, we sat down to sketch, using the golden ratio as a guide for our own compositions. Our goal wasn't to perfectly render a copy of each artwork, but rather to record the way in which the main compositional elements were arranged with respect to the golden ratio. It was such a great way to connect with the works on the walls — not just admiring them, but really seeing how they were built. Here are a couple of examples of what we found!

It really did feel like going on a quest, discovering secrets locked away for hundreds of years.

As we were all sketching, Elena even made her own composition featuring Lisa sketching another piece! It was so cool to get to see Elena's sketch and then side by side, what Lisa had been working on at the time!

If you want to try this yourself, it's easy to make a golden ratio viewfinder at home: simply cut a rectangle that's roughly 1.6 times longer than it is tall (for example, 10 cm by 16 cm) out of a transparent sheet. You can se it when you're planning your own paintings or when you're visiting galleries, and notice how often it appears.

As always, thank you to everyone who came along - it's always such a joy to spend a morning making art with you all!

Until next month xx