Day Sixty Four: Hidden Moon by Lowell Birge Harrison
Hello and welcome to day 64 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Hidden Moon' by Lowell Birge Harrison.
We've done a few studies after Harrison. As I stated in this previous blog posts he is well known for being an excellent landscape artist. Harrison is also a teacher. He wrote a book about landscape painting that is very good and has quite a lot of information about Tonalism and how to make Tonalist paintings. We have a music track today instead of narration, the song is 24th from my album The Light in Darkness.
Today, I would like to talk little bit about art philosophy. I think a lot about art, which might be a good thing since I spend most of my working life doing it. A lady came into my studio the other day who was also an artist. Her interest lay mainly in creating art that had a strong political message. This got me to thinking about how art/painting can basically serve one of two masters. Your work can serve beauty or your art can serve a message of some kind.
I don't claim for this to be a universally true law, but I do believe it is true for the most part. If your desire is for your art to serve beauty, then you have to open yourself up to many different aspects of painting. For example, it would be very beneficial to have some knowledge of the history of painting and of the beautiful works that have come before. Without this sort of knowledge you would be forced to reinvent the wheel and that could take a while. If creating beauty is the goal of your art, it's also important to know the essential rules of composition, color theory and, also to have a good working knowledge of your materials and what they can do.
Conversely, if your art is serving some sort of message you need not concern yourself with any of the above. As a matter of fact, it may serve your message far more to ignore the ideals of art theory and instead shock your audience with cleverness. For example you could put your own excrement in a can and label it "shit". Er, I think that's been done, and there is a message there, I'm just not sure what it is.
What I'm not saying is, that art that conveys a message cannot be beautiful. That is very possible. In the case of modern painting however, it's best to serve beauty or a message but not both.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Hidden Moon' by Lowell Birge Harrison ; This painting is almost an abstract. It's very mysterious and I like how he's made a painting thats almost completely sky. In fact, it's very hard to tell where the sky ends and the land begins.
I thought it would be fun to take a crack at doing a study. I did my study in two painting passes and I did quite a lot of glazing as well.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Hidden Moon by Lowell Birge Harrison , Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'Hidden Moon' by Lowell Birge Harrison.
We've done a few studies after Harrison. As I stated in this previous blog posts he is well known for being an excellent landscape artist. Harrison is also a teacher. He wrote a book about landscape painting that is very good and has quite a lot of information about Tonalism and how to make Tonalist paintings. We have a music track today instead of narration, the song is 24th from my album The Light in Darkness.
Today, I would like to talk little bit about art philosophy. I think a lot about art, which might be a good thing since I spend most of my working life doing it. A lady came into my studio the other day who was also an artist. Her interest lay mainly in creating art that had a strong political message. This got me to thinking about how art/painting can basically serve one of two masters. Your work can serve beauty or your art can serve a message of some kind.
I don't claim for this to be a universally true law, but I do believe it is true for the most part. If your desire is for your art to serve beauty, then you have to open yourself up to many different aspects of painting. For example, it would be very beneficial to have some knowledge of the history of painting and of the beautiful works that have come before. Without this sort of knowledge you would be forced to reinvent the wheel and that could take a while. If creating beauty is the goal of your art, it's also important to know the essential rules of composition, color theory and, also to have a good working knowledge of your materials and what they can do.
Conversely, if your art is serving some sort of message you need not concern yourself with any of the above. As a matter of fact, it may serve your message far more to ignore the ideals of art theory and instead shock your audience with cleverness. For example you could put your own excrement in a can and label it "shit". Er, I think that's been done, and there is a message there, I'm just not sure what it is.
 |
| Piero Manzoni, shit |
What I'm not saying is, that art that conveys a message cannot be beautiful. That is very possible. In the case of modern painting however, it's best to serve beauty or a message but not both.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Hidden Moon' by Lowell Birge Harrison ; This painting is almost an abstract. It's very mysterious and I like how he's made a painting thats almost completely sky. In fact, it's very hard to tell where the sky ends and the land begins.
I thought it would be fun to take a crack at doing a study. I did my study in two painting passes and I did quite a lot of glazing as well.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Hidden Moon by Lowell Birge Harrison |