Day Fifty Six: In the Pasture by George Inness
Hello and welcome to day 56 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'In the Pasture' by George Inness.
Those of you that have been following this series are by now well aware of George Inness. For the last couple studies that we've done of Inness' paintings, I have been reading from a very good book about him. Tonight we will resume with this reading so please check out the video in today's blog post.
Continuing on with our recent assay regarding my Tonalist painting process; yesterday we were discussing weeding out paintings that are going nowhere also known as "duds". As I promised, today I would like to discuss the intuitive or conscious and unconscious processes involved in my painting workflow.
One of the reasons that I like to work in a methodical step-by-step manner is that I feel it gives me more free reign to allow unconscious elements into my work that will interact with the conscious elements. Many of the decisions that I make while working on a series of paintings are actually quite arbitrary. Some of these arbitrary decisions can be:
With all decisions, it's important to work in a timely manner. There is a constant interplay in each of our lives between conscious and unconscious, directed and arbitrary thoughts feelings and actions. When it comes to actually doing the paintings themselves, it is always an interplay between directed/conscious brushwork and indirect/unconscious brushwork. I notice many times while working that I will feel an intuitive push or pull to do things, like add a color that is not in my reference or hold my brush in a different way than I had been.
There is a multitude of small decisions that go into any given painting, starting with some of the bigger ones like what size or format to make it and going from there to deciding to glaze or not. Bit by bit each small decision adds up to the finished painting. Most people are unaware of the thousands of decisions that go into creating a landscape painting. It would be very difficult to make every one of these decisions in a conscious manner, and that is where intuition comes in.
The best way to develop your intuition as an artist is to use it. When you feel an inner prompting however small, or quiet that prompting maybe, you should act on it. This is the only way that I know of how to build the intuition up into a vital powerhouse. By trusting in, and using your intuition it becomes like a muscle in your body, with use, it develops.
I've heard many musicians in interviews refer to how they are essentially channeling their music while playing. What is sometimes not well known is that the ability to channel music or art in a way that is beautiful and appropriate only comes after many hours of dedication and practice.
One of the affectations of some modern artists is the belief that training the eye and hand to produce art is actually an impediment to creating inspired artwork. In reality it is the opposite that is true without some training and practice, what you will be able to express with your art will be extremely limited, no matter how powerful your intuitive process.
To sum up, landscape painting is a magical process when done well. And to do it well you must engage both conscious thought with direct action and unconscious intuition/inspiration.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'In the Pasture' by George Inness; My reference image for this study is incredibly small. One of the great things about using a digital photo frame for my painting reference is that this is not too big of an impediment anymore.
In actual fact, having very small references not often a real problem when it comes to creating paintings, unless what you are trying to do is extremely detailed work.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - In the Pasture by George Inness, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'In the Pasture' by George Inness.
Those of you that have been following this series are by now well aware of George Inness. For the last couple studies that we've done of Inness' paintings, I have been reading from a very good book about him. Tonight we will resume with this reading so please check out the video in today's blog post.
Continuing on with our recent assay regarding my Tonalist painting process; yesterday we were discussing weeding out paintings that are going nowhere also known as "duds". As I promised, today I would like to discuss the intuitive or conscious and unconscious processes involved in my painting workflow.
One of the reasons that I like to work in a methodical step-by-step manner is that I feel it gives me more free reign to allow unconscious elements into my work that will interact with the conscious elements. Many of the decisions that I make while working on a series of paintings are actually quite arbitrary. Some of these arbitrary decisions can be:
- Should I paint the scene big or small?
- Square or rectangle?
- What order should I paint the scenes in a series?
With all decisions, it's important to work in a timely manner. There is a constant interplay in each of our lives between conscious and unconscious, directed and arbitrary thoughts feelings and actions. When it comes to actually doing the paintings themselves, it is always an interplay between directed/conscious brushwork and indirect/unconscious brushwork. I notice many times while working that I will feel an intuitive push or pull to do things, like add a color that is not in my reference or hold my brush in a different way than I had been.
There is a multitude of small decisions that go into any given painting, starting with some of the bigger ones like what size or format to make it and going from there to deciding to glaze or not. Bit by bit each small decision adds up to the finished painting. Most people are unaware of the thousands of decisions that go into creating a landscape painting. It would be very difficult to make every one of these decisions in a conscious manner, and that is where intuition comes in.
The best way to develop your intuition as an artist is to use it. When you feel an inner prompting however small, or quiet that prompting maybe, you should act on it. This is the only way that I know of how to build the intuition up into a vital powerhouse. By trusting in, and using your intuition it becomes like a muscle in your body, with use, it develops.
I've heard many musicians in interviews refer to how they are essentially channeling their music while playing. What is sometimes not well known is that the ability to channel music or art in a way that is beautiful and appropriate only comes after many hours of dedication and practice.
One of the affectations of some modern artists is the belief that training the eye and hand to produce art is actually an impediment to creating inspired artwork. In reality it is the opposite that is true without some training and practice, what you will be able to express with your art will be extremely limited, no matter how powerful your intuitive process.
To sum up, landscape painting is a magical process when done well. And to do it well you must engage both conscious thought with direct action and unconscious intuition/inspiration.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'In the Pasture' by George Inness; My reference image for this study is incredibly small. One of the great things about using a digital photo frame for my painting reference is that this is not too big of an impediment anymore.
In actual fact, having very small references not often a real problem when it comes to creating paintings, unless what you are trying to do is extremely detailed work.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, In the Pasture by George Inness |