Late Afternoon Road 8x10
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Late Afternoon Road' 8x10.
In today's video narration, I am basically just rambling about things I have on my mind at the moment. It seems that is a pattern I've been settling into for the videos. Feel free to mute the volume if this is distracting or annoying to you. For my part, I think it's preferable to releasing the videos completely silent. Though I've done a lot of music that I could use instead, most of it is not eight minutes long. So if you're interested in hearing a bit of a ramble while seeing how this painting was created, please check out today's video.
A few days ago on Wednesdays blog post, I posted my notes from the book Landscape Painting by Birge Harrison. The reason I'm making notes from this book is that I intend to use (or more accurately re-use) many of his ideas in my own book. The reason for this is that Birge Harrison basically gives us a thorough examination and explanation of why Tonalism is superior to the modes of landscape painting that preceded, and ran concurrently with it.
I will not be copying his book, but I do intend to expound upon and incorporate many of his ideas into a my modern book on how to create Tonalist paintings. I will not be posting up any my notes from that research today, mostly because they are on my wife's computer and she is busy delivering a baby right now.
He has a chapter about a concept that he calls refraction. This is something that I would like to talk about today. Refraction is also referred to in his book as "Lost Edges". The concept of refraction basically refers to the way that the human eye blurs everything it is perceiving that is not actually directly in its field of focus. Many people are not aware that they only perceive a very small section of their field of vision as being sharp with cleanly defined edges at any given time. What we perceive as being a reality with sharp edges is an image that is been created in the mind from a plethora of composite images collected in rapid succession by the retina.
The human eye cannot perceive everything within its field of vision in focus all at once. This is something that cameras are capable of doing, but not humans. It's very important to know this if you are a landscape painter otherwise you can create paintings that are uncomfortable to look at and that greatly resemble photographs.
This is something I've seen a lot of modern painters do and I blame poor arts education for this. Many representational artists have to teach themselves how to draw and paint because representational art fell out of favor for so many years. It is natural to assume that because something looks a certain way and it is in the photograph, that is correct to paint it the way the photograph depicts it. Because of this lack of proper education many artists have to reinvent the wheel if they wish to paint or, they do not even know what knowledge they are lacking.
The correct way to paint a landscape is to be aware of the concept of refraction and to apply it to the places where two masses of color meet (i.e. where a tree overlaps the sky) the exception to this, would be the focal point of interest in the scene which also is (generally) where the strongest amount of contrast in the painting would be.
Past Masters of refraction are Whistler and Corot. If you observe their paintings you will see that most objects are diffused with only certain elements being brought into a sharper focus. This is a technique that you can definitely get carried away with (to the point where the painting will come off like a poorly focused photograph if you're not careful), but in general, it's better to err on the side of more refraction rather than less. If everything in your painting is sharp and in focus, it's highly likely that your painting is a failure.
I've talked about this lost edges/refraction concept in the past but I have not use the term refraction. That is a term that Birge Harrison has coined and I think it is a good one. Many artists utilize refraction unconsciously in their painting and for the most part, I would say I do it almost automatically myself.
There are several ways to accomplish the softening of hard edges in a painting. You can brush the two colors together so that you create a blurred effect that way. Or, the way that I prefer to do it, by mixing an intermediate color and painting that over where the two masses meet. Another technique that I employ is using a palette knife to scratch a little bit away from the harsh edges that are overlapping, so that some diffusion is created. You can also create good effects by the way you drag your paintbrush across the painting surface.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Late Afternoon Road' 8x10; as I stated in the video I am happy with the way this painting turned out and it greatly resembles the 5x7 study which I am also happy with. I feel there is a good balance in this painting between sky and earth and also the composition is complementary and dynamic. I'm sure at some point in the future I will revisit this motif in a larger size.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Late Afternoon Road by M Francis McCarthy, 8x10 Oil Painting on Wood Pane |
In today's video narration, I am basically just rambling about things I have on my mind at the moment. It seems that is a pattern I've been settling into for the videos. Feel free to mute the volume if this is distracting or annoying to you. For my part, I think it's preferable to releasing the videos completely silent. Though I've done a lot of music that I could use instead, most of it is not eight minutes long. So if you're interested in hearing a bit of a ramble while seeing how this painting was created, please check out today's video.
A few days ago on Wednesdays blog post, I posted my notes from the book Landscape Painting by Birge Harrison. The reason I'm making notes from this book is that I intend to use (or more accurately re-use) many of his ideas in my own book. The reason for this is that Birge Harrison basically gives us a thorough examination and explanation of why Tonalism is superior to the modes of landscape painting that preceded, and ran concurrently with it.
I will not be copying his book, but I do intend to expound upon and incorporate many of his ideas into a my modern book on how to create Tonalist paintings. I will not be posting up any my notes from that research today, mostly because they are on my wife's computer and she is busy delivering a baby right now.
He has a chapter about a concept that he calls refraction. This is something that I would like to talk about today. Refraction is also referred to in his book as "Lost Edges". The concept of refraction basically refers to the way that the human eye blurs everything it is perceiving that is not actually directly in its field of focus. Many people are not aware that they only perceive a very small section of their field of vision as being sharp with cleanly defined edges at any given time. What we perceive as being a reality with sharp edges is an image that is been created in the mind from a plethora of composite images collected in rapid succession by the retina.
The human eye cannot perceive everything within its field of vision in focus all at once. This is something that cameras are capable of doing, but not humans. It's very important to know this if you are a landscape painter otherwise you can create paintings that are uncomfortable to look at and that greatly resemble photographs.
This is something I've seen a lot of modern painters do and I blame poor arts education for this. Many representational artists have to teach themselves how to draw and paint because representational art fell out of favor for so many years. It is natural to assume that because something looks a certain way and it is in the photograph, that is correct to paint it the way the photograph depicts it. Because of this lack of proper education many artists have to reinvent the wheel if they wish to paint or, they do not even know what knowledge they are lacking.
The correct way to paint a landscape is to be aware of the concept of refraction and to apply it to the places where two masses of color meet (i.e. where a tree overlaps the sky) the exception to this, would be the focal point of interest in the scene which also is (generally) where the strongest amount of contrast in the painting would be.
Past Masters of refraction are Whistler and Corot. If you observe their paintings you will see that most objects are diffused with only certain elements being brought into a sharper focus. This is a technique that you can definitely get carried away with (to the point where the painting will come off like a poorly focused photograph if you're not careful), but in general, it's better to err on the side of more refraction rather than less. If everything in your painting is sharp and in focus, it's highly likely that your painting is a failure.
I've talked about this lost edges/refraction concept in the past but I have not use the term refraction. That is a term that Birge Harrison has coined and I think it is a good one. Many artists utilize refraction unconsciously in their painting and for the most part, I would say I do it almost automatically myself.
There are several ways to accomplish the softening of hard edges in a painting. You can brush the two colors together so that you create a blurred effect that way. Or, the way that I prefer to do it, by mixing an intermediate color and painting that over where the two masses meet. Another technique that I employ is using a palette knife to scratch a little bit away from the harsh edges that are overlapping, so that some diffusion is created. You can also create good effects by the way you drag your paintbrush across the painting surface.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Late Afternoon Road' 8x10; as I stated in the video I am happy with the way this painting turned out and it greatly resembles the 5x7 study which I am also happy with. I feel there is a good balance in this painting between sky and earth and also the composition is complementary and dynamic. I'm sure at some point in the future I will revisit this motif in a larger size.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Late Afternoon Road (Detail) |