Day Fifty Four: Wooded River Landscape by John Francis Murphy
Hello and welcome to day 54 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is of 'Wooded River Landscape' by John Francis Murphy.
Those of you that have been following this series are well aware of John Francis Murphy as he is one of my all-time favorite painters and after George Inness. is the preeminent Tonalist. I will be discussing some biographical information about John Francis Murphy in today's video narration, so please check that out.
Continuing on with our assay regarding my Tonalist painting process, today I would like to talk a bit about small studies. Sometime in 2011, I came across a video, or perhaps it was a blog post of a very good figure painter. One of the things that was unique about his process, was that he would do a very small color study of the figure that he was painting prior to starting the larger work. These studies of his were about 5x5, 5x7 in size and were lacking in any sort of detail including any distinct features of the person sitting for the portrait.
This got me thinking that doing studies for my landscape paintings might be a really cool idea. I had at that time been doing some plein air painting but I found that to be quite frustrating due to the very changeable weather here in Northland, New Zealand. I thought that having a study might serve the same sort of purpose as a plein air painting would, in that it would give me a chance to execute the motif quickly and with less detail than my larger painting, keeping things fresh, gestural and small.
From that time I did a small study for every painting that I did. My initial studies, were far less detailed and rendered than what I do these days. The reasons for this are many, but I suppose the main reason is that I sell a fair amount of my small studies. So, I like to take the same amount of care that I expand on my larger works. This is not to say that they take me the same amount of time as my larger works. The larger paintings take me quite a bit longer and, are generally speaking more involved .
I really enjoy doing studies at small sizes. The limitation of the small size means that I am more restricted as far as actual detail which leads to more expressive freedom. Also, I tend to use brushes that are quite large for the sizes I'm working. This definitely keeps me from overdoing things as there is only so much detail you can accomplish with a large brush on a small painting.
I do my small studies from the same photographic reference that I use for the larger works. One of the main uses of the studies in my process, is that when I am finishing my larger version of the motif,
I will refer to the study only, leaving the photograph aside (something I started doing about a year and a half ago and it works very well). This is one of my many strategies for avoiding the pitfalls of working with photographic reference. It is easier to avoid over detailing and over rendering my larger work when using only the study as my primary reference as I finish a painting.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Wooded River Landscape' by John Francis Murphy; this painting is classic Murphy. It also reminds me very much of the work of Dennis Sheehan who I know for a fact is very inspired and influenced by John Francis Murphy.
I enjoyed painting the warm inviting sky and I also utilized my patented green over burnt sienna wash technique successfully in this study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Wooded River Landscape by J Francis Murphy, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is of 'Wooded River Landscape' by John Francis Murphy.
Those of you that have been following this series are well aware of John Francis Murphy as he is one of my all-time favorite painters and after George Inness. is the preeminent Tonalist. I will be discussing some biographical information about John Francis Murphy in today's video narration, so please check that out.
Continuing on with our assay regarding my Tonalist painting process, today I would like to talk a bit about small studies. Sometime in 2011, I came across a video, or perhaps it was a blog post of a very good figure painter. One of the things that was unique about his process, was that he would do a very small color study of the figure that he was painting prior to starting the larger work. These studies of his were about 5x5, 5x7 in size and were lacking in any sort of detail including any distinct features of the person sitting for the portrait.
This got me thinking that doing studies for my landscape paintings might be a really cool idea. I had at that time been doing some plein air painting but I found that to be quite frustrating due to the very changeable weather here in Northland, New Zealand. I thought that having a study might serve the same sort of purpose as a plein air painting would, in that it would give me a chance to execute the motif quickly and with less detail than my larger painting, keeping things fresh, gestural and small.
From that time I did a small study for every painting that I did. My initial studies, were far less detailed and rendered than what I do these days. The reasons for this are many, but I suppose the main reason is that I sell a fair amount of my small studies. So, I like to take the same amount of care that I expand on my larger works. This is not to say that they take me the same amount of time as my larger works. The larger paintings take me quite a bit longer and, are generally speaking more involved .
I really enjoy doing studies at small sizes. The limitation of the small size means that I am more restricted as far as actual detail which leads to more expressive freedom. Also, I tend to use brushes that are quite large for the sizes I'm working. This definitely keeps me from overdoing things as there is only so much detail you can accomplish with a large brush on a small painting.
I do my small studies from the same photographic reference that I use for the larger works. One of the main uses of the studies in my process, is that when I am finishing my larger version of the motif,
I will refer to the study only, leaving the photograph aside (something I started doing about a year and a half ago and it works very well). This is one of my many strategies for avoiding the pitfalls of working with photographic reference. It is easier to avoid over detailing and over rendering my larger work when using only the study as my primary reference as I finish a painting.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Wooded River Landscape' by John Francis Murphy; this painting is classic Murphy. It also reminds me very much of the work of Dennis Sheehan who I know for a fact is very inspired and influenced by John Francis Murphy.
I enjoyed painting the warm inviting sky and I also utilized my patented green over burnt sienna wash technique successfully in this study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Wooded River Landscape by John Francis Murphy |