Day Forty: River landscape by Frederick William Kost

Hello and welcome today 40 of 100 days of Tonalism.

Painted after - River landscape by Frederick William Kost, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel

Today's study is of River landscape by Frederick William Kost.

I'm not finding a lots of biographical information about Frederick online. I have found some very basic information on Artsy. Frederick William Kost was born in 1861 and died in 1923 and so was active through the period of time that tonalism was en vogue. I will read what biographical information I have about him on today's video so be sure to check that out.



We been discussing different aspects of Tonalism over the last several weeks.Today I'd like to discuss glazing. Glazing is a technique whereby you add a small amount of oil color to refined linseed oil or varnish and then rub that over the surface of your dry painting.

If you're a painter and you've not tried this technique I highly recommend it, especially if you're after a Tonalist feel in your work. One thing to keep in mind when doing glazing is that you need to have your initial lay in lighter than you wish the finished painting to be, because glazing can darken the painting quite a lot.

I like to glaze with colors like transparent earth yellow from Gamblin, black or sometimes burnt sienna. I will generally do some glazing especially with black before I go in for a second color pass on a painting. I'm particularly fond of using black up at the top of the sky and in trees. I really like the way that it makes the brushstrokes stand out in relief. This is a technique that is guaranteed to give your painting an old world quality.

When I glaze with transparent earth yellow it is generally over lighter areas in the painting like clouds. It is possible with this method to get delicate subtle warm whites that are impossible to paint in an opaque fashion.

George Innes was famous for his use of glazing and he used it to very good effect in many of his works. I guess a caveat is in order in regards to glazing. It is easy to overdo it, with the end result being a painting that is muddy and overly dark. As far as glazing goes, a little bit goes a long way. For this reason I like to do my glazing before I go in with additional colors on top. This creates a rich spectrum of differentiated colors and textures that is quite pleasing. I often combine glazing with a bit of dry brushwork in my second color pass. Perhaps will discuss dry brush tomorrow.

Cheers,

M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz

A bit about river landscape by Frederick William Kost, this painting by Frederick has a phenomenal composition that is about as good as it gets. Because of this my study fell together very easily and was quite relaxing to do. 

Another thing that is nice about this painting is the warm brown tones that Frederick used. I really enjoyed doing the study and I'm quite happy with the way that it turned out. A point of difference between my study and Kost's original is that I left quite a bit of my warm red underpinning peeking through. I'm pretty sure that he utilized some sort of brown for his underpainting, although without access to his original I can't be sure.

To see more of my work, visit my site here


Original painting, River landscape by Frederick William Kost

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Day Forty One: Autumn Sunset by John Enneking

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Day Thirty Nine: Landscape by Unknown