Summer Pond (8x8)
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Summer Pond' 8x8".
As promised, this is the larger version of 'Summer Pond.' We took a look at the study in our previous blog post. I intend to present a study and a larger version of one of my paintings each week in this blog for a while. I discuss my painting process in today's video. My narration is following along with the paintings progress, so please check that out.
I was speaking with a friend of mine in my studio the other day and he somewhat jokingly asked me why I do not paint palm trees. There are several reasons that I don't paint palm trees, among them is the fact that I don't actually care to paint very specific trees, but in the case of palms the real reason I don't like to paint them is that to get a palm tree across I feel it needs to be well delineated.
This leads us to the topic for today's blog post which is indication versus delineation. What I like to do with my painting is to indicate the forms of clouds, hills, trees, roads and other features of the landscape. I like to work in a loose fractured manner that is still highly indicative of the forms being portrayed. However, when I do not care to do, is to delineate. By delineate, I mean to define things in a detailed manner.
I excelled at delineation for the majority of my life as an artist. I always had a great love for accuracy in draftsmanship and detail in rendering. I would work very hard to get every aspect of my subject as accurate as possible. After many years of toiling in this way, it dawned on me that this approach was not actually serving my art very well. From that point forward, I began to concentrate more on other aspects of my work like, stylization and composition of forms. When I started painting I had the added element of color as well.
Volumes have been written about the differences between fine art and illustration. I have worked in the past, for many years as a commercial illustrator and in my view, the main difference between them, is that illustrators concern themselves with the application of technique and ability to whatever subject matter they are being commissioned to portray, whereas fine art painting is mostly concerned with the creation of a work of art. I would never say that illustration does not qualify as art, what I'm trying to say is that illustration is different from fine art in its primary intentions.
When I am creating a landscape painting, I want the viewer to be very clear about what they are looking at and yet, I also want there to be an aspect of loose, flowing energy that pulls everything together, creating a whole picture rather than a collection of rendered parts. This can sometimes give my paintings a diffused quality, in that individual elements of the scene are not excessively detailed or delineated.
The predominant way that I go about working with intention instead of delineation in my painting is by working with mass/form, starting with my drawing stage, I use a large brush to roughly indicate the shapes in my painting. I carry this through to the finished stages. The main difference in my approach being, while I am finishing a painting, I tend to concentrate more on tone,texture and feel since the main forms have been well established by that point.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Summer Pond'; as I stated in the video I'm quite fond of this small painting and it resides in my family's personal collection. Currently it's hanging in my living room with a lot of other paintings of my own and other artists.
The thing I am most pleased about with this painting is the complementary coloration in the sky where the blues offset the oranges. I was going through a really big phase of orange and blue skies at the time that I painted this back in January 2014.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Summer Pond by M Francis McCarthy, 8x8, Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
As promised, this is the larger version of 'Summer Pond.' We took a look at the study in our previous blog post. I intend to present a study and a larger version of one of my paintings each week in this blog for a while. I discuss my painting process in today's video. My narration is following along with the paintings progress, so please check that out.
I was speaking with a friend of mine in my studio the other day and he somewhat jokingly asked me why I do not paint palm trees. There are several reasons that I don't paint palm trees, among them is the fact that I don't actually care to paint very specific trees, but in the case of palms the real reason I don't like to paint them is that to get a palm tree across I feel it needs to be well delineated.
This leads us to the topic for today's blog post which is indication versus delineation. What I like to do with my painting is to indicate the forms of clouds, hills, trees, roads and other features of the landscape. I like to work in a loose fractured manner that is still highly indicative of the forms being portrayed. However, when I do not care to do, is to delineate. By delineate, I mean to define things in a detailed manner.
I excelled at delineation for the majority of my life as an artist. I always had a great love for accuracy in draftsmanship and detail in rendering. I would work very hard to get every aspect of my subject as accurate as possible. After many years of toiling in this way, it dawned on me that this approach was not actually serving my art very well. From that point forward, I began to concentrate more on other aspects of my work like, stylization and composition of forms. When I started painting I had the added element of color as well.
Volumes have been written about the differences between fine art and illustration. I have worked in the past, for many years as a commercial illustrator and in my view, the main difference between them, is that illustrators concern themselves with the application of technique and ability to whatever subject matter they are being commissioned to portray, whereas fine art painting is mostly concerned with the creation of a work of art. I would never say that illustration does not qualify as art, what I'm trying to say is that illustration is different from fine art in its primary intentions.
When I am creating a landscape painting, I want the viewer to be very clear about what they are looking at and yet, I also want there to be an aspect of loose, flowing energy that pulls everything together, creating a whole picture rather than a collection of rendered parts. This can sometimes give my paintings a diffused quality, in that individual elements of the scene are not excessively detailed or delineated.
The predominant way that I go about working with intention instead of delineation in my painting is by working with mass/form, starting with my drawing stage, I use a large brush to roughly indicate the shapes in my painting. I carry this through to the finished stages. The main difference in my approach being, while I am finishing a painting, I tend to concentrate more on tone,texture and feel since the main forms have been well established by that point.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Summer Pond'; as I stated in the video I'm quite fond of this small painting and it resides in my family's personal collection. Currently it's hanging in my living room with a lot of other paintings of my own and other artists.
The thing I am most pleased about with this painting is the complementary coloration in the sky where the blues offset the oranges. I was going through a really big phase of orange and blue skies at the time that I painted this back in January 2014.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Summer Pond (Detail) |