Day Thirty Three: Woodland Scene by George Inness
Hello and welcome to day 33 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is of 'Woodland Scene' by George Inness.
On today's video I read a passage from the book George Inness and the Science of Landscape. We discussed George Inness quite a lot on this blog and we will be discussing him a lot more in the future.
Today I would like to talk about reproductions of paintings. For example, the trend towards doing inkjet prints on canvas and in some cases, texturing those prints to resemble original oil paintings. Reproductions have a long, interesting history and relationship to art. They have certainly had their place for long time and I myself have owned many posters and reproductions of paintings that I enjoyed.
With the advent of computer technology and it's ready access on the desktop. It is easy for just about anybody now to print out any image that they find on the Internet and have it look pretty decent. Many artists take good photographs of their work and do the very same thing or, a have the prints done on canvas somewhere else.
While there's nothing intrinsically wrong with this, I believe the time has come for humanity at large to embrace affordable original artworks. I for one, do not especially believe in the validity of an art print market wherein the prints being sold are just inkjet reproductions of original paintings with a limited-edition assigned. There was a time when creating reproductions was a very laborious and time intensive process but that is not true any longer.
Mechanical reproduction of artwork these days is effortless and easy. Meanwhile, technology is replacing human industry almost anywhere you turn. It seems to me that the way forward for humanity is to embrace ideas like being an artist and creating one-of-a-kind works of art. Speaking for myself, I can say that after years of creating artwork on the computer and printing out the result, having the ability to paint with oil paint on an actual wood panels is a lot more valid and satisfying for me as an artist.
It makes me feel good to sell my artwork to somebody that appreciates it. I also have the satisfaction of knowing that what they're buying is a one-of-a-kind item that was created by me and is not a reproduction.
I have invested a lot of time in the studies of this series which are in a sense, copies of the originals. though in this case, I would argue that my intentions actually resulted in works of art. Unlike factories in China that are full of painters that will create exact copies of any painting you desire, my intention as an artist, was to impart my impression of each painting that I selected for this series. In the process, many wonderful small paintings were created. I have had some people that were interested in having larger versions of some of these images painted. but I have declined to accept these offered commissions because of the aforementioned reasons.
When it comes to creating art, intention is everything. Intention is the difference between somebody who is a professional and somebody who is an amateur. Intention is the difference between an artist who is commercial and one who is a fine artist. Intention means a lot.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Woodland Scene' by George Inness, as I stated in the video in many ways this painting is a mirror image of 'Summer Montclair' which was the first study I did in the series. The colors in 'Woodland Scene' are more subdued but the compositional motif is in strong evidence.
These compositional structures, were for the most part invented by George Inness. This is something he was able to do after a lifetime of landscape painting. So intensely had he internalized nature that he was able to create scenes like this out of his imagination.
I enjoyed painting this study and it went quite quickly. I'm very happy with the result and I learned quite a lot which I am putting to use in my own work.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
 |
| Painted after - Woodland Scene by George Inness, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is of 'Woodland Scene' by George Inness.
On today's video I read a passage from the book George Inness and the Science of Landscape. We discussed George Inness quite a lot on this blog and we will be discussing him a lot more in the future.
Today I would like to talk about reproductions of paintings. For example, the trend towards doing inkjet prints on canvas and in some cases, texturing those prints to resemble original oil paintings. Reproductions have a long, interesting history and relationship to art. They have certainly had their place for long time and I myself have owned many posters and reproductions of paintings that I enjoyed.
With the advent of computer technology and it's ready access on the desktop. It is easy for just about anybody now to print out any image that they find on the Internet and have it look pretty decent. Many artists take good photographs of their work and do the very same thing or, a have the prints done on canvas somewhere else.
While there's nothing intrinsically wrong with this, I believe the time has come for humanity at large to embrace affordable original artworks. I for one, do not especially believe in the validity of an art print market wherein the prints being sold are just inkjet reproductions of original paintings with a limited-edition assigned. There was a time when creating reproductions was a very laborious and time intensive process but that is not true any longer.
Mechanical reproduction of artwork these days is effortless and easy. Meanwhile, technology is replacing human industry almost anywhere you turn. It seems to me that the way forward for humanity is to embrace ideas like being an artist and creating one-of-a-kind works of art. Speaking for myself, I can say that after years of creating artwork on the computer and printing out the result, having the ability to paint with oil paint on an actual wood panels is a lot more valid and satisfying for me as an artist.
It makes me feel good to sell my artwork to somebody that appreciates it. I also have the satisfaction of knowing that what they're buying is a one-of-a-kind item that was created by me and is not a reproduction.
I have invested a lot of time in the studies of this series which are in a sense, copies of the originals. though in this case, I would argue that my intentions actually resulted in works of art. Unlike factories in China that are full of painters that will create exact copies of any painting you desire, my intention as an artist, was to impart my impression of each painting that I selected for this series. In the process, many wonderful small paintings were created. I have had some people that were interested in having larger versions of some of these images painted. but I have declined to accept these offered commissions because of the aforementioned reasons.
When it comes to creating art, intention is everything. Intention is the difference between somebody who is a professional and somebody who is an amateur. Intention is the difference between an artist who is commercial and one who is a fine artist. Intention means a lot.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Woodland Scene' by George Inness, as I stated in the video in many ways this painting is a mirror image of 'Summer Montclair' which was the first study I did in the series. The colors in 'Woodland Scene' are more subdued but the compositional motif is in strong evidence.
These compositional structures, were for the most part invented by George Inness. This is something he was able to do after a lifetime of landscape painting. So intensely had he internalized nature that he was able to create scenes like this out of his imagination.
I enjoyed painting this study and it went quite quickly. I'm very happy with the result and I learned quite a lot which I am putting to use in my own work.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
 |
| Original painting, Woodland Scene by George Inness |