Landscape Painting Thoughts

Lately I've gotten around to sorting through years of photos of paintings in progress, reference pics and photos of failed attempts as well. What a ton of work it's been!

That work is going into a major update to my website landscapepainter.co.nz. I've tried a few online web services but I've settled on Ezgenerator. It's template driven but very flexible in it's own way. Can't say I enjoy doing the web work but needs must.

It will pay off for this blog too as I've discovered many litle forgotten gems that I'll be sharing as we progress along here at blog central.

M Francis McCarthy with a painting by George Inness

Me and my hero's work at the de Young museum in San Francisco, California. They have a nice wing of great American Landscape Painting that was a big influence on me after I saw the original works on display there.

Pond Reflections 6x8 by M Francis McCarthy

I started painting in a Impressionist vein. "Pond Reflections" reflects this style. As I've said before, I believe that many landscape painters are working in an Impressionist manner whether they are aware of it or not.

I know I was in the period I painted this. This painting was done with a super limited pallet of Cad Yellow, Alizarin Crimson, Ultramarine Blue and Titanium white. I was influenced in that color pallet by Kevin Macpherson who has written a few great books on Painting: Landscape Painting Inside & Out  and Fill Your Oil Paintings with Light & Color. I recommend both of these books highly.

Hey, if your a real serious M Francisophile you can check out my first long abandoned blog The Rebel Artist. I keep it up just for fun. It documents a pretty good chunk of my early painting progression and I still like a lot of those paintings and will probably revisit a few of the motifs before I'm done landscape painting.

Cheers.