#14 Camille Corot 'Italian Landscape' - 25 Days of Tonalism
Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is a study after Camille Corot, 'Italian landscape.'
Our video features the progression of this study from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about cleaning brushes. I know this may not seem to be a particularly interesting subject. However, brushes are a very important part of landscape painting and the proper care of them will extend their life considerably.
I'm sure I have mentioned in the past that it's counterproductive to purchase cheap brushes even for amateur painters. I recommend that you invest in quality brushes that do not drop hairs on your paintings or lack in snap/springiness. The brand of brushes that I use (for those of you that are interested) is Robert Simmons Signet Brushes (Flats).
For a long time, I was cleaning my brushes using jars with a bit of metal screen placed inside of them. I had a two-stage process. I would start with one jar, rubbing my dirty brush against the screen inside the jar filled with mineral spirits. Then I would go to a second cleaning jar and repeat to finish. My two jar process worked pretty well, but last year I discovered a way to dramatically improve my brush cleaning.
Before I get into that, I should indicate some of the things that happen as brushes age from use. The main thing that occurs is that pigment that is left inside the brush (not thoroughly cleaned out) will cause the brush to lose its shape over time and eventually the brush will become fat and spread out losing its shape. For some painters this is not a problem, but for the way that I work I require that my brushes be nicely shaped and quite flat.
Last year I was turned on to a product by my friends at Takapuna Art Supply here in New Zealand. The product is called Art Spectrum Hand and Brush Cleaner. It's available in a tube as well as a 500 ml jar. This product has increased the usable lifespan of my brushes by at least four times. That may seem like an unbelievable extension in the lifespan of a brush but this product has really made that sort a difference.
The brush cleaner is actually a kind of soap that you rub into your brush and work thoroughly through the bristles. This removes pigment that can't really be gotten out any other way. It's truly amazing how I can clean a brush with my jars of mineral spirits and they will seem to be 100% clean, yet after applying the soap and rubbing it in I always remove a ton of pigment that was hidden inside the brush even after the vigorous cleaning I've done with my jar of mineral spirits.
Truth be told, I sometimes retire my brushes now, just because they have become too rounded at their edges. I have encountered very little of the sort of spreading that I would regularly incur in the past, and as a bonus the soap leaves a nice film on the brush that also helps preserve the bristles. This is been a helpful tip from your friendly resident Tonalist painter M Francis.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
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| Painted after - 'Italian Landscape' by Camille Corot, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Our video features the progression of this study from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about cleaning brushes. I know this may not seem to be a particularly interesting subject. However, brushes are a very important part of landscape painting and the proper care of them will extend their life considerably.
I'm sure I have mentioned in the past that it's counterproductive to purchase cheap brushes even for amateur painters. I recommend that you invest in quality brushes that do not drop hairs on your paintings or lack in snap/springiness. The brand of brushes that I use (for those of you that are interested) is Robert Simmons Signet Brushes (Flats).
For a long time, I was cleaning my brushes using jars with a bit of metal screen placed inside of them. I had a two-stage process. I would start with one jar, rubbing my dirty brush against the screen inside the jar filled with mineral spirits. Then I would go to a second cleaning jar and repeat to finish. My two jar process worked pretty well, but last year I discovered a way to dramatically improve my brush cleaning.
Before I get into that, I should indicate some of the things that happen as brushes age from use. The main thing that occurs is that pigment that is left inside the brush (not thoroughly cleaned out) will cause the brush to lose its shape over time and eventually the brush will become fat and spread out losing its shape. For some painters this is not a problem, but for the way that I work I require that my brushes be nicely shaped and quite flat.
Last year I was turned on to a product by my friends at Takapuna Art Supply here in New Zealand. The product is called Art Spectrum Hand and Brush Cleaner. It's available in a tube as well as a 500 ml jar. This product has increased the usable lifespan of my brushes by at least four times. That may seem like an unbelievable extension in the lifespan of a brush but this product has really made that sort a difference.
The brush cleaner is actually a kind of soap that you rub into your brush and work thoroughly through the bristles. This removes pigment that can't really be gotten out any other way. It's truly amazing how I can clean a brush with my jars of mineral spirits and they will seem to be 100% clean, yet after applying the soap and rubbing it in I always remove a ton of pigment that was hidden inside the brush even after the vigorous cleaning I've done with my jar of mineral spirits.
Truth be told, I sometimes retire my brushes now, just because they have become too rounded at their edges. I have encountered very little of the sort of spreading that I would regularly incur in the past, and as a bonus the soap leaves a nice film on the brush that also helps preserve the bristles. This is been a helpful tip from your friendly resident Tonalist painter M Francis.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study after Camille Corot, 'Italian landscape'; I'm happy with the way this came out. As always I got a lot of good information and education out of doing a study after this Master painter.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Original painting 'The Italian Goatherd' by Camille Corot |
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| Study after 'Italian Landscape' by Camille Corot (Detail) |
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| Study after 'Italian Landscape' by Camille Corot (Detail 2) |
#11 Camille Corot 'The Rocky Stream' - 25 Days of Tonalism
Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is a study painted after Camille Corot - 'The Rocky Stream'.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
On today's video, I was talking a bit about a discussion I heard recently featuring Tom Campbell. Tom is a physicist, philosopher and consciousness researcher. In this discussion, he was pointing out that in our daily choices there are thousands of potential wrong decisions that can be made and only a few good ones for each possible choice.
This got me thinking about landscape painting and how a painting is very similar. There are more ways to do a bad painting than a good one. Some of the ways that it is possible to fail are:
These are some of the ways to fail that come to mind readily. I'm sure I would find quite a few more if I really put my mind to it. This is one of the reasons that many teachers use negative qualities and 'don't do's' as their teaching approach.
If you avoid these potential issues your painting is probably going to be pretty good. For this reason, it's a lot easier to tell people what not to do sometimes than what it is they should be doing.
The fact is, (as a teacher) when you concentrate on telling people what they should be doing, you will often succeed only in creating clones of yourself since the aspiring painters are not being encouraged to find what is right for them. This is one reason why critiquing is a good way of helping student artists develop.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted after Camille Corot - 'The Rocky Stream'; Camille got it right more than he got it wrong that's for sure and for this reason he is one of the all-time greats.
I learn a lot every time I do a study after his work and gain greater appreciation of him and his paintings as time progresses.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - ' 'The Rocky Stream' by Camille Corot, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
On today's video, I was talking a bit about a discussion I heard recently featuring Tom Campbell. Tom is a physicist, philosopher and consciousness researcher. In this discussion, he was pointing out that in our daily choices there are thousands of potential wrong decisions that can be made and only a few good ones for each possible choice.
This got me thinking about landscape painting and how a painting is very similar. There are more ways to do a bad painting than a good one. Some of the ways that it is possible to fail are:
- Bad composition.
- Odd or garish color choices.
- Areas of the painting that are inappropriately eye-catching.
- Poor draftsmanship.
- Muddy or inconsistent values.
- Too much or too little contrast.
- Insipid or cloying subject matter.
- Abstraction that does not come off well.
- Overreliance on an affected style.
- Boring scene selection.
- Ugly surface quality.
- Too much or too little texture.
These are some of the ways to fail that come to mind readily. I'm sure I would find quite a few more if I really put my mind to it. This is one of the reasons that many teachers use negative qualities and 'don't do's' as their teaching approach.
If you avoid these potential issues your painting is probably going to be pretty good. For this reason, it's a lot easier to tell people what not to do sometimes than what it is they should be doing.
The fact is, (as a teacher) when you concentrate on telling people what they should be doing, you will often succeed only in creating clones of yourself since the aspiring painters are not being encouraged to find what is right for them. This is one reason why critiquing is a good way of helping student artists develop.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted after Camille Corot - 'The Rocky Stream'; Camille got it right more than he got it wrong that's for sure and for this reason he is one of the all-time greats.
I learn a lot every time I do a study after his work and gain greater appreciation of him and his paintings as time progresses.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Original - Camille Corot - the Rocky Stream |
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| Study after - ' 'The Rocky Stream' by Camille Corot (Detail) |
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| Study after - ' 'The Rocky Stream' by Camille Corot (Detail 2) |
#7 Camille Corot 'The Pond' - 25 Days of Tonalism
Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is a study after Camille Corot 'The Pond'.
Our video features the progression of this study from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
While narrating today's video, I touched upon the concept of inspiration versus illustration. For those of you that do not know, I worked as a commercial illustrator for 13 years. I was employed full-time to create illustrations for all sorts of merchandise but mostly T-shirts. I consider this one of the best learning situations I've ever been in because I was forced to work quickly to produce excellent illustrations that had immediate impact and appealed to a retail market.
Inspiration versus illustration is a challenging topic to address, mostly because I am talking about subtle internal processes. This is something I think about quite often and I feel it's worthwhile to try and express the differences and distinctions that I see between illustration and fine art.
Creating an illustration is much like creating any other work of art, in that it requires intention, research and execution. The primary difference is that an illustration is created for a specific purpose like a design or to sell a product. While you can create exquisite and moving art as an illustrator that might qualify as fine art, the intention behind the creation of an illustration is usually commercially driven and this greatly affects the art created.
Underlying any work of art is intention. Intention is the force that drives the work through all of the myriad stages it goes through from conception to completion. Inspiration, is a byproduct of my intention to create a painting that is beautiful and emotionally cogent. For this reason, I do not always succeed as often at creating something great while pursuing fine art landscape painting as I did when I was a commercial illustrator.
You will often hear me talking on the videos about the relative success I had in the studio on that day or week. This is very different than my life in the studio as a commercial illustrator where I felt that I was always building on a previous success. Because I was solving commercial problems with limited schedules, I would use almost any sort of tool at my disposal to get the job done.
Another significant difference between illustration and fine art is that illustration greatly relies on style and technique to get across the meaning and significance of the artwork created. While this could also be true of fine art, I would argue that the fine artist style should ideally be created as a byproduct of the inspiration, driving the artwork rather than the other way around. We had a blog post about this topic recently and I conveyed some of my ideas about "style" there.
The one strong consistent aspect between being an illustrator and now working as a fine artist is that I have always strived to create the most excellent art that I was able to in the moment. As a fine artist though I will not cheat in any significant way. By cheating I mean copying the style or intent of another artist. There is no motive to do this because I am endeavoring to express what is individually unique about myself using oil paint and paint brushes and I have unlimited time to do that.
These are some of my thoughts on this topic. I may get into this again at a later date.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study of "The Pond" by Camille Corot; as I mentioned in the video, I have removed the figure from Camille's original design, also I have forced it into a square shape. For most of the square-shaped motifs in the 25 days of Tonalism project, this has been the case.
It's interesting how few artists have utilized the square format for landscape painting as opposed to the more traditional rectangle. In the case of this painting, it looks like Camille was working with a proportion of 3x4, so not too hard to add a little bit of sky at the top. I like the square format quite a lot and use it for about one-third of my paintings.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - 'The Pond' by Camille Corot, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Our video features the progression of this study from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
While narrating today's video, I touched upon the concept of inspiration versus illustration. For those of you that do not know, I worked as a commercial illustrator for 13 years. I was employed full-time to create illustrations for all sorts of merchandise but mostly T-shirts. I consider this one of the best learning situations I've ever been in because I was forced to work quickly to produce excellent illustrations that had immediate impact and appealed to a retail market.
Inspiration versus illustration is a challenging topic to address, mostly because I am talking about subtle internal processes. This is something I think about quite often and I feel it's worthwhile to try and express the differences and distinctions that I see between illustration and fine art.
Creating an illustration is much like creating any other work of art, in that it requires intention, research and execution. The primary difference is that an illustration is created for a specific purpose like a design or to sell a product. While you can create exquisite and moving art as an illustrator that might qualify as fine art, the intention behind the creation of an illustration is usually commercially driven and this greatly affects the art created.
Underlying any work of art is intention. Intention is the force that drives the work through all of the myriad stages it goes through from conception to completion. Inspiration, is a byproduct of my intention to create a painting that is beautiful and emotionally cogent. For this reason, I do not always succeed as often at creating something great while pursuing fine art landscape painting as I did when I was a commercial illustrator.
You will often hear me talking on the videos about the relative success I had in the studio on that day or week. This is very different than my life in the studio as a commercial illustrator where I felt that I was always building on a previous success. Because I was solving commercial problems with limited schedules, I would use almost any sort of tool at my disposal to get the job done.
Another significant difference between illustration and fine art is that illustration greatly relies on style and technique to get across the meaning and significance of the artwork created. While this could also be true of fine art, I would argue that the fine artist style should ideally be created as a byproduct of the inspiration, driving the artwork rather than the other way around. We had a blog post about this topic recently and I conveyed some of my ideas about "style" there.
The one strong consistent aspect between being an illustrator and now working as a fine artist is that I have always strived to create the most excellent art that I was able to in the moment. As a fine artist though I will not cheat in any significant way. By cheating I mean copying the style or intent of another artist. There is no motive to do this because I am endeavoring to express what is individually unique about myself using oil paint and paint brushes and I have unlimited time to do that.
These are some of my thoughts on this topic. I may get into this again at a later date.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study of "The Pond" by Camille Corot; as I mentioned in the video, I have removed the figure from Camille's original design, also I have forced it into a square shape. For most of the square-shaped motifs in the 25 days of Tonalism project, this has been the case.
It's interesting how few artists have utilized the square format for landscape painting as opposed to the more traditional rectangle. In the case of this painting, it looks like Camille was working with a proportion of 3x4, so not too hard to add a little bit of sky at the top. I like the square format quite a lot and use it for about one-third of my paintings.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Camille Corot 'The Pond' |
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| Painted after - 'The Pond' by Camille Corot (Detail 1) |
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| Painted after - 'The Pond' by Camille Corot (Detail 2) |
#2 Camille Corot "The Valley" - 25 Days of Tonalism
Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
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| Painted after - "The Valley" by Camille Corot, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's painting is a study painted after Camille Corot called "The Valley. It is the second study in our 25 days of Tonalism and features a blog post and video each week of me making a study after a Tonalist Masters painting.
Our video today features the progression of this study from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
How do you get glowing color in a painting?
I've been asked this question by people that read to my blog here and also on YouTube. I have a lot of different techniques for arriving at glowing color. I got to thinking about this topic during our last day of Tonalism that featured a painting by Frank Peyraud. His painting was absolutely glowing and reminded me of my own work in the way that he had saturated his color and also contrasted it with strong dark areas.
I have a lot of different strategies for trying to achieve glowing color and I utilize most of them in each painting I do.
The first and most essential technique is that I work on a burnt sienna colored painting surface (ground) this sets up an interesting juxtaposition of colors from the very first brushstroke I place. When I paint a patch of blue (or any other complementary color) against the burnt sienna it has a vibrancy and intensity that would be difficult to achieve if I were working directly over white. Also, bits of the burnt sienna will tend to peek out in between areas of brushwork that do not completely overlap. This also creates vibrancy and contributes to an overall glowing quality.
Another way that I get a glowing quality in my work is to set it up in my initial painting reference to the best of my ability. This means ramping up certain colors and areas of contrast in Photoshop with the intention of executing the image in paint. Many times I will overdo it with the photo because I wish to have a lot of extra color input while painting. This is not full proof however, and there are times I have found myself painting desaturated and under toned work from reference that was highly saturated.
This leads us to the idea of saturation. Saturation means that the color is very vivid and intense. To get a quality of intense color you need to remember that not all of the colors in your painting can be highly saturated. You have to have areas with more grayish and dull color to offset the intense colors. In other words, if everything is saturated then nothing is saturated.
Another way that I get a glowing quality in my work is by deepening my shadow areas and forcing strong contrasts against the brighter and more saturated areas of my painting. This would typically be the sky, I'm well known for painting colorful skies. Like the saturation, and above, if everything in the painting was dark than there would be no contrast just as if everything was very bright nothing is going to resonate with light.
The last way that I try to get a glowing quality in my painting, is by injecting areas of intense lights into the sky. This seldom is as intense and bright as pure white from the tube but I will use quite a lot of yellow and white in certain areas to pump up the contrast to create an offset against the more pure and intense colors.
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study of 'The Valley' after Camille Corot; Camille often gets a great feeling of light in his paintings, however his colors are usually more subdued than the kind of thing that I do. Very often his paintings have a sort of silvery quality that is very beautiful. I often intend to work more in this sort of mode but forget while using my more colorful approach.
The thing I like best about this study is the composition and there's no question that Camille was an absolute Master of composition and probably one of the best that ever painted a landscape. I find it extremely educational and illuminating every time I do a study after one of his paintings.
Here are a few links featuring some sites relating to Camille Corot here and here.
Here are a few links featuring some sites relating to Camille Corot here and here.
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| Original painting, Camille Corot "The Valley" |
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| Painted after - "The Valley" by Camille Corot (Detail 1) |
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| Painted after - "The Valley" by Camille Corot (Detail 2) |
Day Ninety Seven: Le Monastere Derrier Les-Arbres by Camille Corot
Hello and welcome to day 97 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Le Monastere Derrier Les-Arbres' by Camille Corot.
Camile Corot was very influential on the Tonalist movement in American art. Camille was not actually a Tonalist painter himself, he was a member of the French Barbizon school. Today's video features a track from my album It Never Was, so please check that out.
I'd like to talk today about the concept of newness and modern art. Frankly, there is no such thing as newness in art. What passes for newness these days? Is it art that has been done over and over again for the last hundred years? The idea that the purpose of art is to shock, comment on societal ills or serve the whims of fashion is not new in any way, shape or form. Yet, these ideas are still passed off over and over again as fresh.
There is a conspiracy promulgated by art schools and the fine art establishment in general to keep artists from researching the true history of art, and also from developing a real skillset based on hours of experience drawing and painting. What is replacing this valid education based on experience, is some sort of idea that art should strike you like a lightning bolt out of the blue, that the less you know about (real) art the better you will be.
When people do not have a skill set based on actual experience most of their artistic output will be regurgitated from the work of others and not in a good way. What I mean is a lot of cribbing/stealing decorated with elusive,enigmatic titles and disguised as original work.
If the purpose of your work is to be clever and to receive accolades from the art establishment all you really need to do is learn how to do artspeak and kiss the asses of the local art establishment. I've talked about this negative idea called Modern art many times. I would apologize except for the fact that so many regular people have given up on fine art and just dismissed it (often deservedly) as vacant and lacking in true purpose or meaning.
When you see a painting of some colored dots assembled in rows above each other selling for 40 or $50,000 (that was not even painted by the artist whose name is going on the canvas), most normal people will disregard this as bogus and simply spend their time and attention in more fruitful pursuits, like sports, eating stuff or watching Netflix.
What's unfortunate about this state of affairs, is that fine art has the power and ability to spiritually uplift humanity and yet many worthy artists receive little support financially or emotionally from their communities. Perhaps the reason for this is that many of our museums are mostly full of claptrap instead of art of a moving and significant nature.
Getting back to our theme today. There is nothing new that has not already been done. Nothing. So what is a contemporary artist to do?
I believe that this question is best answered with self-examination and consideration of what has come before. When a cabinet maker creates a piece of furniture, he does not set out to create something new, he sets out to build something that is functional, useful and beautiful. I believe you can apply this same sort of criteria to the creation of fine art.
If your intention is to uplift people's spirits and create beauty, you need to acquire the skills that will make this possible. You should study the work of the past Masters to accomplish this goal. By doing this and being true to who and what you are as a human being and an artist, your work will be fresh and new, There can only be one of each of us, but to create great work, that uniqueness must be educated, tested, toughened and most of all experienced.
I'm not saying that you should actively copy the work of past Masters unless you are doing so (as I am in this series) for the sake of education or illumination. I believe you should create from the heart and from the deepest recesses of your own being. And there is absolutely no problem with that creation being informed by the great work that has come before.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Le Monastere Derrier Les-Arbres' by Camille Corot; this was an interesting study to do/ One of the best parts of Camille's painting is the atmospheric quality. I did my best to get this across in my study as well as the muted taupe and silver quality of his painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Le Monastere by Camille Corot, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Camile Corot was very influential on the Tonalist movement in American art. Camille was not actually a Tonalist painter himself, he was a member of the French Barbizon school. Today's video features a track from my album It Never Was, so please check that out.
I'd like to talk today about the concept of newness and modern art. Frankly, there is no such thing as newness in art. What passes for newness these days? Is it art that has been done over and over again for the last hundred years? The idea that the purpose of art is to shock, comment on societal ills or serve the whims of fashion is not new in any way, shape or form. Yet, these ideas are still passed off over and over again as fresh.
There is a conspiracy promulgated by art schools and the fine art establishment in general to keep artists from researching the true history of art, and also from developing a real skillset based on hours of experience drawing and painting. What is replacing this valid education based on experience, is some sort of idea that art should strike you like a lightning bolt out of the blue, that the less you know about (real) art the better you will be.
When people do not have a skill set based on actual experience most of their artistic output will be regurgitated from the work of others and not in a good way. What I mean is a lot of cribbing/stealing decorated with elusive,enigmatic titles and disguised as original work.
If the purpose of your work is to be clever and to receive accolades from the art establishment all you really need to do is learn how to do artspeak and kiss the asses of the local art establishment. I've talked about this negative idea called Modern art many times. I would apologize except for the fact that so many regular people have given up on fine art and just dismissed it (often deservedly) as vacant and lacking in true purpose or meaning.
When you see a painting of some colored dots assembled in rows above each other selling for 40 or $50,000 (that was not even painted by the artist whose name is going on the canvas), most normal people will disregard this as bogus and simply spend their time and attention in more fruitful pursuits, like sports, eating stuff or watching Netflix.
What's unfortunate about this state of affairs, is that fine art has the power and ability to spiritually uplift humanity and yet many worthy artists receive little support financially or emotionally from their communities. Perhaps the reason for this is that many of our museums are mostly full of claptrap instead of art of a moving and significant nature.
Getting back to our theme today. There is nothing new that has not already been done. Nothing. So what is a contemporary artist to do?
I believe that this question is best answered with self-examination and consideration of what has come before. When a cabinet maker creates a piece of furniture, he does not set out to create something new, he sets out to build something that is functional, useful and beautiful. I believe you can apply this same sort of criteria to the creation of fine art.
If your intention is to uplift people's spirits and create beauty, you need to acquire the skills that will make this possible. You should study the work of the past Masters to accomplish this goal. By doing this and being true to who and what you are as a human being and an artist, your work will be fresh and new, There can only be one of each of us, but to create great work, that uniqueness must be educated, tested, toughened and most of all experienced.
I'm not saying that you should actively copy the work of past Masters unless you are doing so (as I am in this series) for the sake of education or illumination. I believe you should create from the heart and from the deepest recesses of your own being. And there is absolutely no problem with that creation being informed by the great work that has come before.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Le Monastere Derrier Les-Arbres' by Camille Corot; this was an interesting study to do/ One of the best parts of Camille's painting is the atmospheric quality. I did my best to get this across in my study as well as the muted taupe and silver quality of his painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Le Monastere Derrier Les-Arbres by Camille Corot |
Day Ninety: Evening Distant Tower by Camille Corot
Hello and welcome to Day 90 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Evening Distant Tower' by Camille Corot.
We've done several studies after Camille in the series and though he was not actually a Tonalist painter he was extremely influential on Tonalism. For that reason I've included him in this series. Today's video features a track from my album The Lost Horizon, so please check that out.
We've been talking recently about my history as a artist and evolution to becoming a Tonalist landscape painter. I'm thinking that we may have covered most of the pertinent aspects of my journey. So today I'd like to discuss why I became attracted to doing actual physical oil paintings as opposed to working exclusively with digital media.
Digital media has taken over a lot of the artistic space that used to be dedicated to physical media. Much of this is in the form of movies and video games, but also in print media you see extensive manipulation of photographs and even hybrid artworks that are a combination of photography and painting.
As I've mentioned on this blog in the past I was very much into working with digital media and from 1995 to 2008 all the art that I did was created using a computer. I did do a lot of pen and ink work that was then scanned into the computer and colored, but ultimately all the finished artwork came out of an inkjet printer at the end of the day. There's absolutely nothing wrong with creating art this way but there are some major differences that people immersed in digital media to the exclusion of physical media may not be aware of.
One of the main differences, although it is subtle, is that artwork created with digital media has an ephemeral quality. This is because, for digital artwork to actually be displayed in the three dimensional physical world it must be printed on either paper or canvas. There is a lot of progress that's being made as far as printers being able to replicate the 3-D structure of actual paintings. It will be impossible to do this with two-dimensional art produced within the computer because, by its nature, it is always going to be flat.
Another difference that is even more subtle, has to do with consciousness and how consciousness inter-penetrates with physical media like oil paintings. This applies not just to good art but to all art created in physical 3-D reality. Every painting that you see reflects the consciousness of the artist which has been recorded stroke by stroke in paint. Even parts of the painting that have been completely covered have an affect on the consciousness level of the artwork.
This is not to say that artwork created with a computer is lacking in consciousness, just that the rendering of that work on to a piece of paper or canvas is not the same thing as an actual surface that has been lovingly painted and imprinted by the artists mind and hand.
When we look at a painting by one of the Masters, such as any of the paintings that I've done studies of in this series, we are connecting with that artist through time and space. This occurs even with the flat representation of their artwork on the computer screen or book, but far more so if you are fortunate enough to interact with their work in a museum or gallery setting.
For example, the post I made yesterday about values; it wasn't until going to the Louvre in Paris that I noticed some things about masterful oil painting that had never occurred to me when looking at these works in books or on a computer screen. There is really no way to compare human perception of a physical painting with the interaction that goes on with a facsimile via print or screen.There's a deeper level of perception and enjoyment beyond digital printouts.
As I stated above, the differences can be subtle, but so much of what makes art great rather than merely good is subtle. At the end of the day I feel the true purpose of art is to move the viewer emotionally and there's no question that a physical painting can do that far more than any reproduction.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Evening Distant Tower' by Camille Corot; I really enjoyed doing this study after Camille's painting. This seems to be a bit more sepia toned than much of his other work I've seen, which tends to have more of a silvery gray quality.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Evening Distant Tower by Camille Corot , Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'Evening Distant Tower' by Camille Corot.
We've done several studies after Camille in the series and though he was not actually a Tonalist painter he was extremely influential on Tonalism. For that reason I've included him in this series. Today's video features a track from my album The Lost Horizon, so please check that out.
We've been talking recently about my history as a artist and evolution to becoming a Tonalist landscape painter. I'm thinking that we may have covered most of the pertinent aspects of my journey. So today I'd like to discuss why I became attracted to doing actual physical oil paintings as opposed to working exclusively with digital media.
Digital media has taken over a lot of the artistic space that used to be dedicated to physical media. Much of this is in the form of movies and video games, but also in print media you see extensive manipulation of photographs and even hybrid artworks that are a combination of photography and painting.
As I've mentioned on this blog in the past I was very much into working with digital media and from 1995 to 2008 all the art that I did was created using a computer. I did do a lot of pen and ink work that was then scanned into the computer and colored, but ultimately all the finished artwork came out of an inkjet printer at the end of the day. There's absolutely nothing wrong with creating art this way but there are some major differences that people immersed in digital media to the exclusion of physical media may not be aware of.
One of the main differences, although it is subtle, is that artwork created with digital media has an ephemeral quality. This is because, for digital artwork to actually be displayed in the three dimensional physical world it must be printed on either paper or canvas. There is a lot of progress that's being made as far as printers being able to replicate the 3-D structure of actual paintings. It will be impossible to do this with two-dimensional art produced within the computer because, by its nature, it is always going to be flat.
Another difference that is even more subtle, has to do with consciousness and how consciousness inter-penetrates with physical media like oil paintings. This applies not just to good art but to all art created in physical 3-D reality. Every painting that you see reflects the consciousness of the artist which has been recorded stroke by stroke in paint. Even parts of the painting that have been completely covered have an affect on the consciousness level of the artwork.
This is not to say that artwork created with a computer is lacking in consciousness, just that the rendering of that work on to a piece of paper or canvas is not the same thing as an actual surface that has been lovingly painted and imprinted by the artists mind and hand.
When we look at a painting by one of the Masters, such as any of the paintings that I've done studies of in this series, we are connecting with that artist through time and space. This occurs even with the flat representation of their artwork on the computer screen or book, but far more so if you are fortunate enough to interact with their work in a museum or gallery setting.
For example, the post I made yesterday about values; it wasn't until going to the Louvre in Paris that I noticed some things about masterful oil painting that had never occurred to me when looking at these works in books or on a computer screen. There is really no way to compare human perception of a physical painting with the interaction that goes on with a facsimile via print or screen.There's a deeper level of perception and enjoyment beyond digital printouts.
As I stated above, the differences can be subtle, but so much of what makes art great rather than merely good is subtle. At the end of the day I feel the true purpose of art is to move the viewer emotionally and there's no question that a physical painting can do that far more than any reproduction.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Evening Distant Tower' by Camille Corot; I really enjoyed doing this study after Camille's painting. This seems to be a bit more sepia toned than much of his other work I've seen, which tends to have more of a silvery gray quality.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Evening Distant Tower by Camille Corot |
Day Eighty Four: Remembrance of Lake Garda by Camille Corot
Hello and welcome to day eighty four of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Remembrance of Lake Garda' by Camille Corot.
As I've written in previous blog posts where we featured paintings by Camille, he is not actually a Tonalist painter. He is a member of the Barbizon school. He is in this series because his influence on Tonalism was extensive and also because I wanted to learn more about how he put paintings together. Today's video features a track off my album The Light in Darkness.
Continuing on with our current discussion regarding my personal history as a Tonalist landscape painter; as I was saying in our last blog post it was in 2009 that I had become inspired by exposure to actual Tonalist paintings that I saw at the de Young Museum.
From this point forward I started digging into what Tonalism was and how I could manage to do paintings in this manner. I was off to a good start by using wood panels. They already gave my paintings a more interesting surface finish than a standard canvas board would.
The next discovery that I made was lead white paint. On the surface it might seem that white is white but the reality is that there are three white pigments currently in use by artists. These are lead white, titanium white and zinc white.
Lead white has been in use by human beings to make art since before time was measured. As a matter of fact, on the scale that is used to assign codes to pigments, lead white is PB1. In other words, lead white is the first pigment that is named. Lead has fallen out of favor in recent times for two reasons. The first being that it was a common ingredient in house paints for many years and when lead white starts peeling off of a house, the chips taste sweet. Unfortunately children will often eat these lead chips and as we all know it's not very good for human consumption in any way.
The second reason that lead white has fallen out of favor was the invention of titanium white. Titanium white is a very opaque and cool white. This is the primary pigment that you will get in any tube of white paint that is not labeled in any way. The third white that is used these days is zinc white. Zinc white is far more transparent and translucent than titanium white and for this reason it is often mixed with titanium white (it is in many tubes of paint that are labeled as just titanium white). There is a huge problem with zinc white though, and that it is very prone to cracking. I try to use it not at all in my work.
The reason why lead white is important to our discussion of Tonalism and Tonalist landscape painting is that lead white has properties that are very unique especially in comparison to the now more popular titanium white. Where titanium white is cool lead white is warm. Where titanium white mixed with other colors will give a chalky feeling, lead white is far more friendly and easy to use. Lead white has many unique properties and I highly recommend that if you are a painter that you try out the tube.
Personally, I like to mix my lead white with titanium white. This way I get the best of both worlds. I get the coverage of titanium white and the warm, yielding on chalkiness of lead white. I came up with the idea to mix them together several years ago, when it occurred to me that I would have to use quite a lot of lead white paint to get coverage in certain areas of my painting. If I had to choose between the two, I would choose lead white every time. It's just more giving and cooperative than titanium white.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Remembrance of Lake Garda'; I'm very pleased with the way the study turned out, my actual reference image was very lo rez (see below) and for that reason I could make out almost no detail. I really enjoy Corot's composition here and I was glad that I was able to pull off a good study from the limited reference that I had to hand.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Remembrance of Lake Garda by Camille Corot, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
As I've written in previous blog posts where we featured paintings by Camille, he is not actually a Tonalist painter. He is a member of the Barbizon school. He is in this series because his influence on Tonalism was extensive and also because I wanted to learn more about how he put paintings together. Today's video features a track off my album The Light in Darkness.
Continuing on with our current discussion regarding my personal history as a Tonalist landscape painter; as I was saying in our last blog post it was in 2009 that I had become inspired by exposure to actual Tonalist paintings that I saw at the de Young Museum.
From this point forward I started digging into what Tonalism was and how I could manage to do paintings in this manner. I was off to a good start by using wood panels. They already gave my paintings a more interesting surface finish than a standard canvas board would.
The next discovery that I made was lead white paint. On the surface it might seem that white is white but the reality is that there are three white pigments currently in use by artists. These are lead white, titanium white and zinc white.
Lead white has been in use by human beings to make art since before time was measured. As a matter of fact, on the scale that is used to assign codes to pigments, lead white is PB1. In other words, lead white is the first pigment that is named. Lead has fallen out of favor in recent times for two reasons. The first being that it was a common ingredient in house paints for many years and when lead white starts peeling off of a house, the chips taste sweet. Unfortunately children will often eat these lead chips and as we all know it's not very good for human consumption in any way.
The second reason that lead white has fallen out of favor was the invention of titanium white. Titanium white is a very opaque and cool white. This is the primary pigment that you will get in any tube of white paint that is not labeled in any way. The third white that is used these days is zinc white. Zinc white is far more transparent and translucent than titanium white and for this reason it is often mixed with titanium white (it is in many tubes of paint that are labeled as just titanium white). There is a huge problem with zinc white though, and that it is very prone to cracking. I try to use it not at all in my work.
The reason why lead white is important to our discussion of Tonalism and Tonalist landscape painting is that lead white has properties that are very unique especially in comparison to the now more popular titanium white. Where titanium white is cool lead white is warm. Where titanium white mixed with other colors will give a chalky feeling, lead white is far more friendly and easy to use. Lead white has many unique properties and I highly recommend that if you are a painter that you try out the tube.
Personally, I like to mix my lead white with titanium white. This way I get the best of both worlds. I get the coverage of titanium white and the warm, yielding on chalkiness of lead white. I came up with the idea to mix them together several years ago, when it occurred to me that I would have to use quite a lot of lead white paint to get coverage in certain areas of my painting. If I had to choose between the two, I would choose lead white every time. It's just more giving and cooperative than titanium white.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Remembrance of Lake Garda by Camille Corot |
Day Sixty One: Leaning Tree Trunk by Camille Corot
Hello and welcome to day 61 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today study is the 'Leaning Tree Trunk' by Camille Corot.
As I've indicated in previous blog posts where we featured paintings by Camille, he is not actually a Tonalist painter. He is a member of the Barbizon school. He is in this series because his influence on Tonalism was extensive and also because I wanted to learn more about how he put paintings together. Today's video features a track off my album All is One.
Getting back to our current assay of my Tonalist painting process; today I'd like to discuss scraping down oil paint peaks. Many painters use canvas quite happily without much concern in regards to the surface quality of their work. This seems to be the rule these days. After visiting several excellent museums that featured Tonalist and Hudson River school paintings. I began my quest to have a more museum like surface in my work. There are several things that I do in my process to contribute to an interesting surface quality.
Creating a beautiful surface quality starts with the grain of the wood panel I am using. The gesso texture I add also contributes quite a lot. Lastly, the way I apply my paint is perhaps the greatest factor in how the surface of my painting will look. If I lay my paint on very thinly, there will not be much deviation from the texture of the panel. Conversely, if I apply my paint very thickly, there will be a lot of peaks and valleys in the paint. My preference is for something between these two extremes. I like some variation of the surface but I do not like intense peaks that catch the light and therefore are distracting.
About a year and a half ago I began using a small palette knife to scrape away these peaks. I first scrape the peaks away from my dried drawing stage, removing excess paint from the thicker areas. After that, I will scrape the peaks off of my dried first color pass.
This is fairly easy to do and also quite easy to mess up. I have to be extremely conscious and careful while doing this scraping. If I momentarily lose control of the knife it will gouge into the paint surface and sometimes all the way down to the panel itself. While this is not something that I cannot fix, I don't like it. I find that it's all about the angle that I'm holding the knife and also about not trying to take off too much paint all in one go, direction is also a factor in avoiding those gouges.
I keep a paper towel on my work surface and I wipe off the scraped paint onto it as I work. This is important to do, sometimes there will be small amounts of wet paint inside of the peaks that will smear onto other areas if I'm not careful.
"Scraping down," as I call it actually takes me a while to do, but I feel that it adds quite a lot to the painting. Not having the peaks that catch the light really makes it easier to look at and enjoy the painting.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Leaning Tree Trunk' by Camille Corot; I'm told that Corot favored the square format but I've not seen many other landscape painters use it.
I enjoyed rendering the atmospheric edges of Corot's trees. He was the Master of getting atmospheric quality into a landscape painting. I learned a lot by doing this study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 | |
|
As I've indicated in previous blog posts where we featured paintings by Camille, he is not actually a Tonalist painter. He is a member of the Barbizon school. He is in this series because his influence on Tonalism was extensive and also because I wanted to learn more about how he put paintings together. Today's video features a track off my album All is One.
Getting back to our current assay of my Tonalist painting process; today I'd like to discuss scraping down oil paint peaks. Many painters use canvas quite happily without much concern in regards to the surface quality of their work. This seems to be the rule these days. After visiting several excellent museums that featured Tonalist and Hudson River school paintings. I began my quest to have a more museum like surface in my work. There are several things that I do in my process to contribute to an interesting surface quality.
Creating a beautiful surface quality starts with the grain of the wood panel I am using. The gesso texture I add also contributes quite a lot. Lastly, the way I apply my paint is perhaps the greatest factor in how the surface of my painting will look. If I lay my paint on very thinly, there will not be much deviation from the texture of the panel. Conversely, if I apply my paint very thickly, there will be a lot of peaks and valleys in the paint. My preference is for something between these two extremes. I like some variation of the surface but I do not like intense peaks that catch the light and therefore are distracting.
About a year and a half ago I began using a small palette knife to scrape away these peaks. I first scrape the peaks away from my dried drawing stage, removing excess paint from the thicker areas. After that, I will scrape the peaks off of my dried first color pass.
This is fairly easy to do and also quite easy to mess up. I have to be extremely conscious and careful while doing this scraping. If I momentarily lose control of the knife it will gouge into the paint surface and sometimes all the way down to the panel itself. While this is not something that I cannot fix, I don't like it. I find that it's all about the angle that I'm holding the knife and also about not trying to take off too much paint all in one go, direction is also a factor in avoiding those gouges.
I keep a paper towel on my work surface and I wipe off the scraped paint onto it as I work. This is important to do, sometimes there will be small amounts of wet paint inside of the peaks that will smear onto other areas if I'm not careful.
"Scraping down," as I call it actually takes me a while to do, but I feel that it adds quite a lot to the painting. Not having the peaks that catch the light really makes it easier to look at and enjoy the painting.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Leaning Tree Trunk' by Camille Corot; I'm told that Corot favored the square format but I've not seen many other landscape painters use it.
I enjoyed rendering the atmospheric edges of Corot's trees. He was the Master of getting atmospheric quality into a landscape painting. I learned a lot by doing this study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Leaning Tree Trunk by Camille Corot |
Day Fifty Two: A Torrent in Romagna by Camille Corot
Hello and welcome to day 52 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'A Torrent in Romagna' by Camille Corot.
Camille Corot was not actually a Tonalist painter, he was a painter of the Barbizon school. However, I consider it his style to be so influential on the movement of Tonalism that I've included quite a few of his paintings in this series. I will be reading some information about Camille Corot in today's video narration so please check that out.
Getting back to our current assay of my painting process; today I'd like to discuss texturing of my substrates. As I wrote in our last blog post, I paint exclusively on wood panels. At the 5x7 size that I do my studies, I have been texturizing my panels for many years. For the larger sizes that I paint I have been predominantly using a sanding sealer tinted with burnt sienna to coat my boards, sanding in between each coat. I've been preparing my boards for my larger paintings in this way for quite a while.
Recently, I began texturizing the boards I use for my larger works as well. This is one of the changes in my working approach that came about because of my doing this series. The reason that I decided to texturize the substrate of my larger paintings is that I really enjoyed using the texture to pull off small bits of paint in the second color pass stages, while doing the studies for this series. So, it occurred to me that it would give me another arrow in my quiver in regards to painting my larger work.
I have experimented with different types of texturing applied in different ways to my boards, especially early on in my painting journey. For quite a while now I have settled on an approach whereby I use transparent acrylic gesso that has burnt sienna acrylic paint added to it. This mixture is fairly thick yet still viscous. After selecting and sanding my boards for a new series of works I will then apply this gesso mixture.
My preferred method for application is as follows: I place the board on a piece of newsprint, flat on my work surface. I then dip the tip of a 2 inch house painting type brush into my gesso mixture. Depending on the size of the board I will generally get about a half-inch of gesso on to the brush. I then began applying the gesso to my board covering it quickly with even strokes. Because I do not wish to have brush strokes in my texture, what I do next, is wipe the excess gesso off of the brush.
I then pick up the board and while holding it, I start using the flat side of the brush to smack the surface of the board. Working quickly in a circular motions I cover the entire board with this texture. I take great care at this stage to avoid any obvious directional patterns that may adversely affect my later painting. The point of applying texture is to give me a surface that is subtle, yet uniform that I can use to pull paint off the brush, generally at the later stages of my painting.
I learned a long time ago not to leave the little peaks of the gesso/paint mixture too high. I've tried many different approaches to even out these peaks. What I have settled on recently, is to let the board dry a little bit and then I will go over it again with the same brush that has been mostly wiped off. This breaks up the larger peaks into a far smaller and more manageable texture.
I will repeat this process with all 14 or 15 boards in the series that I am doing and then I will let them dry overnight. Acrylic gesso dries fairly rapidly, I'm sure that if I needed to I could probably begin painting right away, however I prefer to make sure that the gesso texture is 100% dry before working over the top of it in oils.
Generally before I do my drawings with oil paints on the freshly prepared boards, I will give them a very light sanding with sandpaper, to knock back the pointiest parts of the texture.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'A Torrent in Romagna' by Camille Corot; I quite like the composition of this painting by Camille. I did have to work a bit harder on this one, than on some of the others, because there is some very subtle areas in the painting especially around the the river and horizon.
Overall I'm very happy with the way the study turned out and I really appreciate getting the chance to absorb more of Camille Corot's amazing style. Hopefully I can incorporate the best aspects of what he did into my own work.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - A Torrent in Romagna by Camille Corot, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'A Torrent in Romagna' by Camille Corot.
Camille Corot was not actually a Tonalist painter, he was a painter of the Barbizon school. However, I consider it his style to be so influential on the movement of Tonalism that I've included quite a few of his paintings in this series. I will be reading some information about Camille Corot in today's video narration so please check that out.
Getting back to our current assay of my painting process; today I'd like to discuss texturing of my substrates. As I wrote in our last blog post, I paint exclusively on wood panels. At the 5x7 size that I do my studies, I have been texturizing my panels for many years. For the larger sizes that I paint I have been predominantly using a sanding sealer tinted with burnt sienna to coat my boards, sanding in between each coat. I've been preparing my boards for my larger paintings in this way for quite a while.
Recently, I began texturizing the boards I use for my larger works as well. This is one of the changes in my working approach that came about because of my doing this series. The reason that I decided to texturize the substrate of my larger paintings is that I really enjoyed using the texture to pull off small bits of paint in the second color pass stages, while doing the studies for this series. So, it occurred to me that it would give me another arrow in my quiver in regards to painting my larger work.
I have experimented with different types of texturing applied in different ways to my boards, especially early on in my painting journey. For quite a while now I have settled on an approach whereby I use transparent acrylic gesso that has burnt sienna acrylic paint added to it. This mixture is fairly thick yet still viscous. After selecting and sanding my boards for a new series of works I will then apply this gesso mixture.
My preferred method for application is as follows: I place the board on a piece of newsprint, flat on my work surface. I then dip the tip of a 2 inch house painting type brush into my gesso mixture. Depending on the size of the board I will generally get about a half-inch of gesso on to the brush. I then began applying the gesso to my board covering it quickly with even strokes. Because I do not wish to have brush strokes in my texture, what I do next, is wipe the excess gesso off of the brush.
I then pick up the board and while holding it, I start using the flat side of the brush to smack the surface of the board. Working quickly in a circular motions I cover the entire board with this texture. I take great care at this stage to avoid any obvious directional patterns that may adversely affect my later painting. The point of applying texture is to give me a surface that is subtle, yet uniform that I can use to pull paint off the brush, generally at the later stages of my painting.
I learned a long time ago not to leave the little peaks of the gesso/paint mixture too high. I've tried many different approaches to even out these peaks. What I have settled on recently, is to let the board dry a little bit and then I will go over it again with the same brush that has been mostly wiped off. This breaks up the larger peaks into a far smaller and more manageable texture.
I will repeat this process with all 14 or 15 boards in the series that I am doing and then I will let them dry overnight. Acrylic gesso dries fairly rapidly, I'm sure that if I needed to I could probably begin painting right away, however I prefer to make sure that the gesso texture is 100% dry before working over the top of it in oils.
Generally before I do my drawings with oil paints on the freshly prepared boards, I will give them a very light sanding with sandpaper, to knock back the pointiest parts of the texture.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'A Torrent in Romagna' by Camille Corot; I quite like the composition of this painting by Camille. I did have to work a bit harder on this one, than on some of the others, because there is some very subtle areas in the painting especially around the the river and horizon.
Overall I'm very happy with the way the study turned out and I really appreciate getting the chance to absorb more of Camille Corot's amazing style. Hopefully I can incorporate the best aspects of what he did into my own work.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, A Torrent in Romagna by Camille Corot |
Day Twenty Six: Landscape by Camille Corot
Hello and welcome to day 26 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Landscape' by Camille Corot.
Another day another Corot. We've done a Camille Corot previously and I think we've five more to go. Camille Corot was actually a Barbizon painter, but he was such a huge influence (in my view) that I'm treating him as a Tonalist for this series. Another reason why he's in the series is that I wanted to learn as much as I could about how he painted.
 |
| Painted after - Landscape by Camille Corot , Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'Landscape' by Camille Corot.
Another day another Corot. We've done a Camille Corot previously and I think we've five more to go. Camille Corot was actually a Barbizon painter, but he was such a huge influence (in my view) that I'm treating him as a Tonalist for this series. Another reason why he's in the series is that I wanted to learn as much as I could about how he painted.
Even though all these studies are executed in my manner of painting, I feel that a part of the soul of each artist covered has been absorbed by me artistically. This project took up over three months of my working life but I saw it somewhat like an advanced course in Landscape painting and also a necessary part of my evolution as a painter.
Over the last few weeks I've been applying some of that hard won insight to a pile of also rans in my studio to good purpose, in that I'm reworking parts of the paintings that weren't right.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Landscape' by Camille Corot. Corot liked to put allegorical and mythological figures in his landscapes. I'm not into that aspect of his work though I'm certainly not dissing it either. For this series, I chose to remove almost all of the figures from the different studies that I've painted. Theres a lot more mood and atmosphere in this painting without the figures capering about.
I focused on getting the silvery quality that Corot is famous for and I really enjoyed doing this study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Landscape' by Camille Corot. Corot liked to put allegorical and mythological figures in his landscapes. I'm not into that aspect of his work though I'm certainly not dissing it either. For this series, I chose to remove almost all of the figures from the different studies that I've painted. Theres a lot more mood and atmosphere in this painting without the figures capering about.
I focused on getting the silvery quality that Corot is famous for and I really enjoyed doing this study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
 |
| Original painting, Landscape by Camille Corot |
Day Seventeen: Camille Corot Landscape
Hello and welcome to day 17 of 100 days of tonalism.
Painted after - Camille Corot Landscape Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel
Today's study is of: Camille Corot 'Landscape.'
Today we are doing our first study of a painting by Camille Corot. I selected seven paintings by Camille for this project. Camille Corot a was very influential painter of the 19th century. He was also a huge influence on George Inness and for that reason a huge influence on tonalism in general.
You will notice below that I removed the figures from Camille's painting. At the time that Camille Corot was painting, pure landscape art was not in favor and was being only being executed by the Dutch painters. The tradition of pure landscape painting for the rest of the West, began with the Hudson River school in America and extended into tonalism. In France many Impressionist painters also eschewed figures in their landscape paintings.
I think this points to the fact that, as human beings we consider other human beings to be the central focus in our art. For that reason prior to the late 1800s figures are generally prominent in almost any painted scene. Even in the work of George Inness we see small figures in evidence.
Early on in my painting career I experimented with figures in my landscape paintings but I always felt very unsatisfied. It seems that any figure, human or animal becomes the focal point of the painting should they be present, regardless of how large or small they are the painting. If figures are present, this automatically creates narrative in that the viewer is presented with many questions about the figures there. Questions like: Who is that? Why are they there? Where are they going? Where were they before? Etc.
This is the nature of narratives, we create stories very easily when we see people present in art. There's nothing wrong with narrative in art if that is appropriate for what you are trying to do. In my case I prefer to create a scene that is empty except for a pervasive sense of emotion and poetry that invites the viewer in. In this way the viewer can occupy the painting fully without the impediment of narrative to cloud their minds.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
A bit about 'Landscape' by Camille Corot: You can see from the video that this is one of the quicker paintings that I did in the series so far. This is because most of the tree is silhouetted against the bright sky and is quite dark, therefore lacking in a lot of objects to be rendered or details that need to be executed.
One of the main things I tried to accomplish with this study was to get the feeling of air into the trees. This is a hallmark of Camille Corot's style and something he did brilliantly. He did not execute his paintings quickly. Most of them he worked on for quite a while. You can see when you look at his actual paintings in real life that there are a lot of subtle modulations of values executed with a very small brush that give his work the shimmering silvery quality that he became so famous for.
The study is the shortcut approach I reckon. Basically I just used thin paint at the edges of the trees over my sienna ground to get an equivalent effect. All in all I am pretty happy with the results. I do feel that the figures that are present in the original were certainly central to the composition possibly because they were located in the center of the painting LOL!
Either way I learned a lot.
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