Day Thirty Eight: Summer Night by George Inness
Hello and welcome to day 38 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Summer Night' by George Inness
I have done many studies after George Inness in this series and there are many more to come. I will be getting into some quotes or additional biographical information about him in today's video, so please watch that if you would like to learn more about him.
Over the last several weeks we've been discussing different aspects of Tonalism that defined it as a style in landscape painting. Today I would like to discuss the use of warm undertones in the background color of the canvas and/or the underpainting itself.
When you put a cool color over a warm undertone it creates a vibrant effect. This is a technique that I initially picked up from a book by Birge Harrison called "Landscape Painting" (we will be doing a few paintings by Birge Harrison later in the series). I have referred to this book before and I highly recommend that any of you that are interested in learning more about painting landscapes check it out.
There are several contemporary artists that have utilized this technique. One that I know of is Thomas Kincaid. I can't say that I particularly like his work, but speaking as a painter I have to respect his technical ability and accomplishments. He realized that the use of a warm undertone followed by cool colors on top, creates an extra spark and sizzle in the painting and exploited this to great effect and tremendous success.
Prior to the Tonalist innovation of using warm red's or orange tones for the background color of their canvas', it was quite popular for artists to tone their canvas with colors like raw umber or van Dyck brown. Camille Corot was one of the artists known for doing this, but there are many many others including most of the great Dutch landscape painters.
While you can get a nice result working this way, what you do not get is a certain glow that you see in most Tonalist works. When I saw Camille's canvases at the Louvre in Paris they are remarkable for their soft paint handling and brushwork but because of the browned underpainting you can also see a tendency towards a sort of drab quality.
If you would like to see this principle in action you can watch any of the attached videos for the series and you will see that I'm starting each one with a burnt sienna underpainting that is done on top of a burnt sienna textured wood panel. There are times that I deviate from this especially in the series where I had some paintings that were almost exclusively blue or teal. In those cases having the orange/red color peeking through was not at all helpful.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Summer Night' by George Inness. I can't think of a previous time where I put a moon into a picture. While George uses this to great effect in many of his remarkable paintings, These days it can come off as a bit contrived or even clichéd. This may be a personal prejudice on my part.
I really enjoy doing this painting and I'm happy with the way the study turned out. It's quite pleasant in the way the mercurial greens are offset by the oranges and blues. The overall effect is striking and I learned a lot from the undertaking of this study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
 |
| Painted after - Summer Night by George Inness Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'Summer Night' by George Inness
I have done many studies after George Inness in this series and there are many more to come. I will be getting into some quotes or additional biographical information about him in today's video, so please watch that if you would like to learn more about him.
Over the last several weeks we've been discussing different aspects of Tonalism that defined it as a style in landscape painting. Today I would like to discuss the use of warm undertones in the background color of the canvas and/or the underpainting itself.
When you put a cool color over a warm undertone it creates a vibrant effect. This is a technique that I initially picked up from a book by Birge Harrison called "Landscape Painting" (we will be doing a few paintings by Birge Harrison later in the series). I have referred to this book before and I highly recommend that any of you that are interested in learning more about painting landscapes check it out.
There are several contemporary artists that have utilized this technique. One that I know of is Thomas Kincaid. I can't say that I particularly like his work, but speaking as a painter I have to respect his technical ability and accomplishments. He realized that the use of a warm undertone followed by cool colors on top, creates an extra spark and sizzle in the painting and exploited this to great effect and tremendous success.
Prior to the Tonalist innovation of using warm red's or orange tones for the background color of their canvas', it was quite popular for artists to tone their canvas with colors like raw umber or van Dyck brown. Camille Corot was one of the artists known for doing this, but there are many many others including most of the great Dutch landscape painters.
While you can get a nice result working this way, what you do not get is a certain glow that you see in most Tonalist works. When I saw Camille's canvases at the Louvre in Paris they are remarkable for their soft paint handling and brushwork but because of the browned underpainting you can also see a tendency towards a sort of drab quality.
If you would like to see this principle in action you can watch any of the attached videos for the series and you will see that I'm starting each one with a burnt sienna underpainting that is done on top of a burnt sienna textured wood panel. There are times that I deviate from this especially in the series where I had some paintings that were almost exclusively blue or teal. In those cases having the orange/red color peeking through was not at all helpful.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Summer Night' by George Inness. I can't think of a previous time where I put a moon into a picture. While George uses this to great effect in many of his remarkable paintings, These days it can come off as a bit contrived or even clichéd. This may be a personal prejudice on my part.
I really enjoy doing this painting and I'm happy with the way the study turned out. It's quite pleasant in the way the mercurial greens are offset by the oranges and blues. The overall effect is striking and I learned a lot from the undertaking of this study.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
 |
| Original painting, Summer Night by George Inness |