Day Seventy: A Stormy Day by John Francis Murphy
Hello and welcome to day 70 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is of 'A Stormy Day' by John Francis Murphy.
This painting by Murphy is awesome, one of my all-time favorites. I was excited to try my hand at doing a study. I will be reading some biographical information about John Francis Murphy from the book A History of American Tonalism by David Cleveland on today's video narrations, so please check that out.
Continuing on with our current assay regarding my Tonalist painting process; I think we've covered the first color pass pretty well. This has been an overview and not a thorough in-depth analysis that I've been serializing in these blog posts. I have got into some good detail here and there in regards to my process and approach to painting. There's more to come as we go into the 2nd color stage over the next week.
Today I'd like to just talk about painting wet into wet since this is the main thing that distinguishes the first color pass from the second (and all of the related techniques and ways of applying paint). Many painters favor doing their entire paintings wet on wet this is referred to as painting Alla Prima. I believe that Alla Prima means 'all at once' in Italian.
There is an excellent book by Richard Schmid called Alla Prima that I have referenced on this blog in the past. Richard is one of the best landscape painters living and though, I would not consider him to be a Tonalist, he certainly understands what Tonalism is and how to do it. The reason I bring Richard Schmid up here, is that he is the preeminent Alla Prima painter, in that he paints almost entirely wet on wet. This book has some awesome chapters and instruction in painting with oils. I highly recommend purchasing it.
Getting back to my first color pass and painting wet into wet. You can get wonderful effects, blending, striations and modulations of color by working with wet paint into wet paint that could not be accomplished any other way. One of the wonderful things about working with oil paint, is that it stays quite wet on the painting until it is dry the next day. There is a certain characteristic to paintings done this way that is distinctive.
I enjoy working wet on wet and I always endeavor to make the painting as good as possible in the first color pass. There are times that I will hold back knowing that I will be doing a second color pass. I will hold off on putting in the lightest tones or, wait to paint certain passages that will require a lot of light over dark or dark over light painting.
Tomorrow we will start talking about my second color pass and getting into some of the techniques that I utilize to bring my painting to a nice finish.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'A Stormy Day' by John Francis Murphy; as I stated above this is one of my favorite paintings by J Francis Murphy. I love how dark, emotional and intense this painting is. His use of rich auburn reds and an entire range of interesting grays is masterful.
I spent some time in the second color pass of this study doing some textural work. This is something that J Francis Murphy was famous for and, I believe that this painting of his could be the pinnacle of his textural approach.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - A Stormy Day by John Francis Murphy, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood pane |
This painting by Murphy is awesome, one of my all-time favorites. I was excited to try my hand at doing a study. I will be reading some biographical information about John Francis Murphy from the book A History of American Tonalism by David Cleveland on today's video narrations, so please check that out.
Continuing on with our current assay regarding my Tonalist painting process; I think we've covered the first color pass pretty well. This has been an overview and not a thorough in-depth analysis that I've been serializing in these blog posts. I have got into some good detail here and there in regards to my process and approach to painting. There's more to come as we go into the 2nd color stage over the next week.
Today I'd like to just talk about painting wet into wet since this is the main thing that distinguishes the first color pass from the second (and all of the related techniques and ways of applying paint). Many painters favor doing their entire paintings wet on wet this is referred to as painting Alla Prima. I believe that Alla Prima means 'all at once' in Italian.
There is an excellent book by Richard Schmid called Alla Prima that I have referenced on this blog in the past. Richard is one of the best landscape painters living and though, I would not consider him to be a Tonalist, he certainly understands what Tonalism is and how to do it. The reason I bring Richard Schmid up here, is that he is the preeminent Alla Prima painter, in that he paints almost entirely wet on wet. This book has some awesome chapters and instruction in painting with oils. I highly recommend purchasing it.
Getting back to my first color pass and painting wet into wet. You can get wonderful effects, blending, striations and modulations of color by working with wet paint into wet paint that could not be accomplished any other way. One of the wonderful things about working with oil paint, is that it stays quite wet on the painting until it is dry the next day. There is a certain characteristic to paintings done this way that is distinctive.
I enjoy working wet on wet and I always endeavor to make the painting as good as possible in the first color pass. There are times that I will hold back knowing that I will be doing a second color pass. I will hold off on putting in the lightest tones or, wait to paint certain passages that will require a lot of light over dark or dark over light painting.
Tomorrow we will start talking about my second color pass and getting into some of the techniques that I utilize to bring my painting to a nice finish.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'A Stormy Day' by John Francis Murphy; as I stated above this is one of my favorite paintings by J Francis Murphy. I love how dark, emotional and intense this painting is. His use of rich auburn reds and an entire range of interesting grays is masterful.
I spent some time in the second color pass of this study doing some textural work. This is something that J Francis Murphy was famous for and, I believe that this painting of his could be the pinnacle of his textural approach.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, A Stormy Day by John Francis Murphy |