The 'Golden Mean' is merely a mathematical ratio usually discerned by the painter as the ratio of the larger side of a rectangle as it relates to the shorter. Derived by the ancient Greeks it can be constructed geometrically or expressed as a simple ratio, namely 1:1618... Like "pi", the number 1.618... is an irrational number. Both the ancient Greeks and the ancient Egyptians used the Golden Mean when designing their buildings and monuments. The builders of Paestum used the Golden Mean in their temples. Artists as diverse as Leonardo da Vinci and George Seurat used the ratio when constructing their paintings.

In classical architecture it was thought this particular ratio was the most pleasing to the eye and its extrapolation into a spiral could be found replicated in nature in such diverse things as pine cones and sea shells or the curve of a fern.
I see no particular theological significance in the golden mean, nor do I slavishly design my paintings or canvases to follow its geometry.

Well, how is this 'golden mean' found using a ruler and a compass?

Quite simply.
In Fig 1 we draw a square.
In Fig 2 we divide it into two.
Fig 3 and we use our compass to transfer the diagonal to the base line.
Then we form the rectangle that for artists represents the 'golden mean' .

The unfinished painting below is constructed by the 'golden mean'. How, you may ask? But it is square?

To find out how I designed this particular painting format, using the golden mean, you will need to go to the advanced golden mean section of these lessons as the particular details may cause the odd frown or need for some to visit our site refreshment area (open 24 hours). Anyway it does not mention the 'Golden Triangle' (really an isosceles triangle with base angles of 72 degrees and not an unspecified area in SE Asia), and its not for the instinctive painter. It is however, important for those who seek to understand order before they experiment with chaos.