North of Town 5x7
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's study is North of Town 5x7.
Our video today shows the progression of this study from its initial drawing stages, through to the final color pass and glazes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check the video out.
I was talking on the video about how last night I was reviewing on my iPad the 500 or so paintings I've done since coming out here to New Zealand. I find it useful sometimes to scan over my previous work because I may gain insights, other useful information, or most importantly, see things that I didn't see before.
Sadly, every time I do this, I tend to notice more paintings that are not as good as I thought they were at the time that I finished painting them. This is something I think that happens to every painter. Generally speaking, the ones that stood out as being very good works after I completed them are still good. It's that middle section of work that tends to reveal issues and problems over time.
This is an interesting phenomenon. It would be great (I think?), if every painting that I did was absolutely outstanding. Closer to the truth is that there are excellent paintings, middling paintings and dogs. I'm getting better at avoiding the dogs altogether and I'm also improving the quality of the middling paintings and perhaps even achieving more excellent paintings.
One of the reasons that I decided to dedicate the last years of my artistic life as a visual artist to landscape painting, was that I knew it was extremely hard to master and that I would never be bored. That has held true since I started on this landscape painting journey back in 2008/2009.
I have noticed that when a painting of mine has issues it is almost invariably because of its composition. There are many aspects of a painting that every artist needs to consider; composition, color, texture, size and variation of values to name a few. Any one of these aspects that are neglected can lead to a poor painting. Usually the way that I fail when I fail is due to composition.
Composition is a harsh mistress and doubly so when you are using photographic reference. Because photographs just copy nature without any editing, it is very rare that any given photograph will create a perfect painting. It does happen and it is possible but highly unlikely.
All paintings must be designed by the artist. You cannot just copy what is there in the photograph or if painting outdoors, just copy nature itself. Trees must be moved, roads that are straight made curved and skies manipulated to accentuate the composition. Everything that is in the painting must serve the composition or be eliminated.
I feel that the exercise I did last year of the hundred days of Tonalism project really helped me in this area quite a lot. For that reason and also to fill those little spare bits of time in the studio I am going to be undertaking another 25 Tonalist studies.
I'm not intending to dedicate my full painting schedule to this project as I did with the hundred days of Tonalism, but I'm going to work on the studies here and there over time. When I have finished doing five paintings or so, I may do some photography so that I can present them on this blog sooner.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
A bit about 'North of Town' 5x7; I'm happy with the little study and its larger sibling that we will be discussing on Tuesday. I went with a very muted Tonalist pallet here and the sky has less color and dynamics than I usually incorporate into my work. The reason for this is that I wanted to put the emphasis on the silhouettes of the trees against the simpler sky because I felt they created a pleasing composition.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| North of Town by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video today shows the progression of this study from its initial drawing stages, through to the final color pass and glazes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check the video out.
I was talking on the video about how last night I was reviewing on my iPad the 500 or so paintings I've done since coming out here to New Zealand. I find it useful sometimes to scan over my previous work because I may gain insights, other useful information, or most importantly, see things that I didn't see before.
Sadly, every time I do this, I tend to notice more paintings that are not as good as I thought they were at the time that I finished painting them. This is something I think that happens to every painter. Generally speaking, the ones that stood out as being very good works after I completed them are still good. It's that middle section of work that tends to reveal issues and problems over time.
This is an interesting phenomenon. It would be great (I think?), if every painting that I did was absolutely outstanding. Closer to the truth is that there are excellent paintings, middling paintings and dogs. I'm getting better at avoiding the dogs altogether and I'm also improving the quality of the middling paintings and perhaps even achieving more excellent paintings.
One of the reasons that I decided to dedicate the last years of my artistic life as a visual artist to landscape painting, was that I knew it was extremely hard to master and that I would never be bored. That has held true since I started on this landscape painting journey back in 2008/2009.
I have noticed that when a painting of mine has issues it is almost invariably because of its composition. There are many aspects of a painting that every artist needs to consider; composition, color, texture, size and variation of values to name a few. Any one of these aspects that are neglected can lead to a poor painting. Usually the way that I fail when I fail is due to composition.
Composition is a harsh mistress and doubly so when you are using photographic reference. Because photographs just copy nature without any editing, it is very rare that any given photograph will create a perfect painting. It does happen and it is possible but highly unlikely.
All paintings must be designed by the artist. You cannot just copy what is there in the photograph or if painting outdoors, just copy nature itself. Trees must be moved, roads that are straight made curved and skies manipulated to accentuate the composition. Everything that is in the painting must serve the composition or be eliminated.
I feel that the exercise I did last year of the hundred days of Tonalism project really helped me in this area quite a lot. For that reason and also to fill those little spare bits of time in the studio I am going to be undertaking another 25 Tonalist studies.
I'm not intending to dedicate my full painting schedule to this project as I did with the hundred days of Tonalism, but I'm going to work on the studies here and there over time. When I have finished doing five paintings or so, I may do some photography so that I can present them on this blog sooner.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
A bit about 'North of Town' 5x7; I'm happy with the little study and its larger sibling that we will be discussing on Tuesday. I went with a very muted Tonalist pallet here and the sky has less color and dynamics than I usually incorporate into my work. The reason for this is that I wanted to put the emphasis on the silhouettes of the trees against the simpler sky because I felt they created a pleasing composition.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| North of Town by M Francis McCarthy (Detail) |