~ Ron Mills de Pinyas, painter, muralist: "Tondo" round and "Ovato Tondo" oval paintings

These current round tondos and ovato tondo paintings are experiments in formatting. The terms are from the Italian since the architectural geometric format originated in Rome. None are titled and they have not been shown anywhere just yet. I am thinking of scaling up. The practical design of just how to build the supports is not entirely clear just yet. The manufactured ones are hoops cut out of sheet material like plywood but do not offer the edge bead that you want in a canvas stretcher support. Then there are the aesthetic issues of presentation related to scale and body....

I am learning that ovato tondos are not true ellipses, but are ancient Roman in construction, by means of simple geometry with a compass and straight edge. Excellent illustrations of the process at: http://akwalkerart.blogspot.com/2012/12/how-to-draw-ovato-tando.html.

"When the ellipse is perceived as a deviation from the circle, it pays with a ... to the high-strung ellipse, which plays on the ambivalence of roundness versus ... ellipses by means of two overlapping circles, the so-called ovato tondo. (From Rudolf Arnheim's The Power of the Circle)

Construction of the Ovato Tondo

Construction of the Ellipse

I am not certain that the pre-manufactured ovals below are technically ovato tondos or ellipses, but as I understand it, art historically all ovals are called ovato tandos. They appear a bit more elliptical to me than the relatively more blocky ovate tondos, as constructed above. When I build supports I might use the old string method with two epicenters...