How to Find a Composition

I have always found deciding on a composition one of the hardest aspects of painting a landscape but it is important to remember that as an artist, you are not obligated to copy the landscape, and instead, should try to create your own composition. A good composition is vital to a successful painting, but how do we know when a composition is good? There is the well known Rule of Thirds in which an image should be divided into nine equal parts by two equally spaced horizontal lines and two equally spaced vertical lines, and that important compositional elements should be placed along these lines or their intersections. This rule does help in generating a balanced composition which also appears more natural, but it does not have to be strictly followed. Sometimes a landscape in which the horizon line is particularly high or low, can be a much more interesting composition. The use of diagonal elements throughout a painting can also be more engaging and exciting. I have tried lots and lots of different compositions in my work but I do still struggle to create one which works. For my most recent paintings, I decided to revisit Nant-y-Moch and record a few videos of my drive (don't worry, I was in the passenger seat), and this helped noticing more interesting compositions. I created sketches from my videos and the fact that I was trying to draw a moving landscape actually helped to find good compositions. I have included one of the videos below: