NOTICE:
Version 2.0 is sold out.
Version 3.0 is in the works, with upgrades designed to help you choose stronger scenes, simplify faster, and make more confident design decisions from the start.
Join the email waitlist for launch updates and early access.
Version 3.0 is scheduled to launch in February 2026.
Pre-orders are now open.
The simple tool for framing, composing, and designing stronger paintings.
The Fairview Finder™ helps painters choose better scenes faster. Use it to test crops, simplify big shapes, and lock a composition before you start painting.
It’s lightweight, durable, and built for the field. Five nested windows match common painting proportions, so you can quickly compare formats and commit to the strongest design.
This isn’t about “rules.” It’s about better decisions.
Less guessing. Less overworking. More clarity from the start.
The Fairview Finder™ is patent-pending and designed by a working artist and instructor.
Frame your scene. Choose your story. Paint with confidence.
Simply Download the free Handout and you’ll be on our email list for Version 3.0 launch dates and more information.
🌿 Join the waitlist to get the v3.0 drop + the free Thinking Wheel booklet.
A new plein air season isn’t just about fresh air and better light. It’s about better choices.
What if you didn’t start every painting by guessing?
What if you could see the design before you paint it?
The Fairview Finder helps you frame the scene, simplify the clutter, and choose a composition with a clear story.
It started as a simple answer to a common problem: rushed starts that lead to weak paintings and overworking.
More than a tool, it’s a practice.
Use it for the first five minutes, and you’ll paint with more clarity and less second-guessing.
Get on the email waitlist for Version 3.0 updates and early access.
The Fairview Finder™
The Fairview Finder™ is a lightweight, portable tool that helps painters make better composition choices fast, in the field or in the studio. Use it to test crops, compare common painting proportions, and simplify a scene into clear, paintable shapes before you commit.
It helps you do three things that strong paintings have in common:
choose a stronger composition,
place your focal area with intention,
plan your values so the painting reads from a distance.
The Core Principles Behind Strong Paintings
1. Thoughtful Composition
Composition is the foundation. It’s how you arrange shapes so the viewer’s eye has a clear path and the painting has a clear priority. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s clarity: one main idea, supported by quieter shapes.
How the Finder helps: frame the scene, test multiple crops quickly, and choose the one that reads best at the 10-foot view.
2. Focal Placement
Great paintings don’t “happen.” They’re designed. The Finder includes proportion guides (including a Golden Ratio option) to help you place key elements with intention instead of guessing.
How the Finder helps: once you’ve chosen a crop, use the guides to test where your focal area will live, then protect it by keeping other areas quieter.
3. Grounded Values
Strong paintings are built on value structure: clear light, middle, and dark shapes organized across background, middle ground, and foreground. Values create depth, focus, and impact.
How the Finder helps: squint through the window and group the scene into big value families before you start. If the values don’t read in the frame, the painting won’t read on the wall.
Bringing It All Together
The Fairview Finder™ bridges intuition and technique. It gives you a fast way to frame the scene, simplify the design, and start with a plan, so you paint with more confidence and less second-guessing.
What Artists are saying
“Such a totally awesome concept!.”
“I will be so happy to get mine! It takes the guesswork out! So many times, I have chosen the wrong size canvas for the painting! Thank you for coming up with this!.”
“I'm so impressed that the Fairview Finder serves to help "see" the potential composition clearly ( as expected), and additionally has printed reference information to help with value, contrast, and movement right on its margins!”
“Landscapes landscapes landscapes! I stare at them every day and still can't quite get them right. Anything to help would be priceless!”
“Thank you very much, Steve. The "grounded value motifs" will be a great tool for guiding thumbnails and the design of larger works. ”
“The viewfinder looks amazing to use outside and guides us to focus on a view that supports our intended point of interest and composition.
I would be curious to try using it another way. We all have these great first washes that we love and then ruin in the second layer. Could the viewfinder be used to look at that first wash and help us plan the second layer regarding placing points of interest, composition, and values?
You could even cover the first wash with acetate and draw in some general guidelines to test out compositions… I would love to try that!”
“I am really enjoying using mine..it sure helps determine what areas in the scene I think would work!”