Day Thirty Four: Wayside pool by Alexander Helwig Wyant
Hello and welcome to day 34 of 100 days of tonalism.
Today's study is of 'Wayside Pool' by Alexander Helwig Wyant
Alexander Helwig Wyant was a Tonalist painter born in 1836 and died in 1892. He was a contemporary of George Inness and like George Inness, his style modulated over the years from a very detailed Hudson River School approach to a more diffuse and obfuscated Tonalist approach.
I will be covering some biographical information about Alexander Helwig Wyant in today's video so check that out if you'd like to learn more about him. Also, there is a great site dedicated to his work here.
Over the last several weeks we've been discussing different defining aspects of Tonalism and today, I'd like to discuss painting in a Minor key versus painting in a Major key. As in music, Major keys tend to be more bright, celebratory, and open. Whereas music in Minor keys is more moody, poetic and dark. For the purposes of art you could consider Impressionism Major and Tonalism Minor equivalents.
One of the first things that I did after deciding to work in a more Tonalist style was to darken the pallet of my paintings significantly. Prior to that I was working with a more impressionistic style which tends to be brighter and higher key.
I am sometimes asked by people who come to visit my studio why I tend to favor a more dark approach to landscape subjects. I always answer that it's much like music in that, most songs you hear on the radio are not happy songs, they tend to have a bit of melancholy. Also it is quite difficult to achieve a poetic result in a bright painting just as it is difficult to get a melancholic approach across in a song by a marching band.
Sometime around late 2012 after having visited the Louvre in Paris and studying the work of Master painters there, it also dawned on me that even if a painting is quite dark that you should have spots of intense light to create an interesting contrast. Prior to that I was usually keeping the overall key of my work very low and avoiding strong contrasts.
At that time I also kept the chroma of my colors fairly muted. This is something you'll see in evidence in quite a few Tonalist paintings. However this is not true of all tonal paintings. A good example of a Tonalist painter that used strong chroma would be George Inness himself who is a preeminent Tonalist painter.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Wayside Pool' by Alexander Helwig Wyant, I really like the original painting by Alexander and I quite enjoyed doing a study from it. One of the things I concentrated on was getting that fresh morning quality into the study. This painting is also very similar in composition to the sort of thing I like to do on a regular basis.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
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| Painted after - Wayside pool by Alexander Helwig Wyant, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is of 'Wayside Pool' by Alexander Helwig Wyant
Alexander Helwig Wyant was a Tonalist painter born in 1836 and died in 1892. He was a contemporary of George Inness and like George Inness, his style modulated over the years from a very detailed Hudson River School approach to a more diffuse and obfuscated Tonalist approach.
I will be covering some biographical information about Alexander Helwig Wyant in today's video so check that out if you'd like to learn more about him. Also, there is a great site dedicated to his work here.
Over the last several weeks we've been discussing different defining aspects of Tonalism and today, I'd like to discuss painting in a Minor key versus painting in a Major key. As in music, Major keys tend to be more bright, celebratory, and open. Whereas music in Minor keys is more moody, poetic and dark. For the purposes of art you could consider Impressionism Major and Tonalism Minor equivalents.
One of the first things that I did after deciding to work in a more Tonalist style was to darken the pallet of my paintings significantly. Prior to that I was working with a more impressionistic style which tends to be brighter and higher key.
I am sometimes asked by people who come to visit my studio why I tend to favor a more dark approach to landscape subjects. I always answer that it's much like music in that, most songs you hear on the radio are not happy songs, they tend to have a bit of melancholy. Also it is quite difficult to achieve a poetic result in a bright painting just as it is difficult to get a melancholic approach across in a song by a marching band.
Sometime around late 2012 after having visited the Louvre in Paris and studying the work of Master painters there, it also dawned on me that even if a painting is quite dark that you should have spots of intense light to create an interesting contrast. Prior to that I was usually keeping the overall key of my work very low and avoiding strong contrasts.
At that time I also kept the chroma of my colors fairly muted. This is something you'll see in evidence in quite a few Tonalist paintings. However this is not true of all tonal paintings. A good example of a Tonalist painter that used strong chroma would be George Inness himself who is a preeminent Tonalist painter.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Wayside Pool' by Alexander Helwig Wyant, I really like the original painting by Alexander and I quite enjoyed doing a study from it. One of the things I concentrated on was getting that fresh morning quality into the study. This painting is also very similar in composition to the sort of thing I like to do on a regular basis.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
 |
| Original painting, Wayside pool by Alexander Helwig Wyant |