Day Thirty One: Sunset after a Storm by Charles Harry Eaton
Hello and welcome to day 31 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is of Sunset after a Storm' by Charles Harry Eaton.
We've covered Charles Harry Eaton before on day 13. I read some biographical information about him on today's video so go check that out. Also, here is a link to his page on artsy with some zoomable images of his work.
Today I'd like to discuss the quality of edges in Tonalist painting. Typically the edges where forms meet each other (like where the shape of a tree might interact with the sky) will be refracted and somewhat diffused in Tonalist works. This is one of the primary characteristics of tonalism that gives it a dreamlike/poetic quality.
The foremost progenitor of this sort of technique was Camille Corot. He was an absolute Master of injecting atmosphere into his tree forms. Most accomplished Tonalist painters have mastered this aspect of getting atmospheric edges into their work. In my own journey as a painter, this is something that I had to learn the hard way through experience over time.
Good edges is not a quality that is often evidenced in photos unless it is installed in the darkroom. Typically you will just see the edges of trees strongly silhouetted against the much brighter sky, this is how cameras see but it is not how humans see.
There is a tendency for the some landscape artists to paint their trees and skies in the same way. For that reason many modern landscape paintings suffer and compare poorly to works of the past Masters. Without having this edges issue called into your awareness, you can, as an artist, happily and faithfully reproduce photographs without really seeing the absence of artistic edges in your own work.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Sunset After a Storm' by Charles Harry Eaton, this was a really fun painting to do and I'm quite pleased with the way that the study turned out. Charles has done something here that I generally strive to avoid in that he has run the dark masses of the clouds directly into the predominant tree shape in the landscape.
I prefer to keep strong horizontal cloud forms from running directly into my trees. Generally I will soften them or obfuscate the edges so that this is not an issue. However, it works very well in this painting and for that reason I was happy to execute the study. Also Charles Harry Eaton has done a great job with the colors in the sky and I was attracted to this painting because of the combination of blue and orange that he used.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
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| Painted after - After a Storm by Charles Harry Eaton, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is of Sunset after a Storm' by Charles Harry Eaton.
We've covered Charles Harry Eaton before on day 13. I read some biographical information about him on today's video so go check that out. Also, here is a link to his page on artsy with some zoomable images of his work.
Today I'd like to discuss the quality of edges in Tonalist painting. Typically the edges where forms meet each other (like where the shape of a tree might interact with the sky) will be refracted and somewhat diffused in Tonalist works. This is one of the primary characteristics of tonalism that gives it a dreamlike/poetic quality.
The foremost progenitor of this sort of technique was Camille Corot. He was an absolute Master of injecting atmosphere into his tree forms. Most accomplished Tonalist painters have mastered this aspect of getting atmospheric edges into their work. In my own journey as a painter, this is something that I had to learn the hard way through experience over time.
Good edges is not a quality that is often evidenced in photos unless it is installed in the darkroom. Typically you will just see the edges of trees strongly silhouetted against the much brighter sky, this is how cameras see but it is not how humans see.
There is a tendency for the some landscape artists to paint their trees and skies in the same way. For that reason many modern landscape paintings suffer and compare poorly to works of the past Masters. Without having this edges issue called into your awareness, you can, as an artist, happily and faithfully reproduce photographs without really seeing the absence of artistic edges in your own work.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Sunset After a Storm' by Charles Harry Eaton, this was a really fun painting to do and I'm quite pleased with the way that the study turned out. Charles has done something here that I generally strive to avoid in that he has run the dark masses of the clouds directly into the predominant tree shape in the landscape.
I prefer to keep strong horizontal cloud forms from running directly into my trees. Generally I will soften them or obfuscate the edges so that this is not an issue. However, it works very well in this painting and for that reason I was happy to execute the study. Also Charles Harry Eaton has done a great job with the colors in the sky and I was attracted to this painting because of the combination of blue and orange that he used.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
 |
| Original painting, Sunset after a Storm by Charles Harry Eaton |