Day Four: Stormy Day by George Inness
Welcome to day four of 100 days of tonalism.
Painted after - Stormy Day by George Inness, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel
Today's study is 'Stormy Day' by George Inness.
I discuss this in the video but George does something in this painting that I rarely do and that is; paint a strong diagonal. I tend to prefer things relatively flat, although this study has given me some insight into ways I could approach hillsides in the future.
We've got another George Inness today folks. A second tier work by George but still handsome in my view. I appreciate the chances that George Inness takes in his work. He is not afraid to fail and is always very earnest about his painting. For my part, I always strive for authenticity but I think my background as a commercial illustrator for 15 years has forced me to take fewer chances than a painter like Inness.
In a way, this 100 days of tonalism project has meant that I have painted lots of scenes in ways that were odd or semi-uncomfortable for me. Not too uncomfortable mind you, after all, I did choose these 100 images from thousands of potential paintings
Sorry the audio is not super inspiring folks. I'm basically doing it as I go, no real time to polish it. Hopefully you will enjoy my candour and quick on the fly narration.
Cheers
M Francis McCarthy
A bit about 'Stormy Day' by George Inness. This is the first study in the series that I painted pretty roughly. The second color pass really helped pull it together. I only did a second color pass on about sixty of the series. As it stood I was really becoming conscious of how much time this project was biting out of my own work.
Two things I like about this painting are; The colors and the unique patterning of the dark shapes. Overall I'm pretty happy with it. Like several previous paintings it appears I sucked a lot of yellow out. This is largely intuitive on my part but also with the awareness that many oil paintings will go yellow over the years mostly due to varnishing. This can also occur when a painting has been in a very dark space for a while.
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Original painting - Stormy Day by George Inness