Morning Trail 10x14
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Morning Trail' 10x14.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its earliest understudy/drawing stages on up through the final brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
On today's video I was discussing what's happening for me in the studio these days. I've been finishing up a pass of 10 new paintings, but I've also been engaged with revisiting and repainting about 25 older paintings.
If you check out my old blog here you'll find that I wrote quite a lot about revising paintings there. Back in late 2012 early 2013, after returning from a long vacation, I saw quite a few things wrong with some of the paintings that were waiting for me when I got home. So, then I set about redoing quite a few paintings and I wrote about it extensively.
There have been occasions since then where I have revisited and redone one or two paintings here and there, but for the most part, I've been mostly plowing ahead with new work. There is a very interesting quality that you can achieve when working on top of an old painting that is impossible to get with a new painting.
One of my big heroes, George Inness was famous for repainting many of his works and not only that, he would often do entirely new paintings over the paintings of his friends and family. It's very interesting to have a structure underneath a new or partially new motif. You get a very different quality in the brushwork than when working on a fresh ground/surface.
Many times when I am reworking a painting I will just do things directly from my imagination, but in this current bunch of old paintings that I'm working on, I have chosen to do some creative free compositing using high-quality photographs of the old paintings. In Photoshop, I am adding trees or paths, perhaps a new sky or some other element. In some cases, I have composited trees from old Master paintings on top of my own painting to utilize as reference for my reworking. This is not something I've ever tried before but it is helping me achieve a very interesting result.
Many artists use reference for their work. It is one of the most important aspects of my painting practice. I find paintings done strictly from the imagination become too samey. For this reason I generally utilize manipulated photographs as reference. Or, in this case, I am using re-composited reference images added to the photograph of my painting.
It's very important to approach your reference with a creative and correct attitude. The idea is not to lavishly copy your reference image detail for detail, or note for note in every individual aspect. The best approach is to use it as just that, a reference, to stimulate your own personal, subjective creativity not to be a human copy machine.
In the case of my current batch of re-paintings, I'm getting a very interesting quality that is desirable. It's hard to describe the effect but I could easily point out paintings that I've done that were repainted over older scenes in a lineup because of this quality.
In some cases I am leaving much of the old painting there, perhaps just exchanging a new clump of trees for an old one. In other cases, I am leaving almost nothing of the original motif. Even in those instances you would be surprised how much of the original painting is peeking through here and there.
There is one particular scene that features a clump of trees on a beach that had some grasses in front of it and a hillside in the background. I worked so hard on this painting. Unfortunately it never really came together. It had nice color and texture but real issues in the composition especially in the clump of trees. For this particular painting, I've removed almost every aspect of the original except for portions of the sky.
There's a lot of value in repainting over unsuccessful older work and I highly advise you to try it if you never have. You might be pleasantly surprised that the good result you get, and the best part is you are getting rid of an unsuccessful old work and replacing it with something new that is hopefully more outstanding.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Morning Trail 10x14. As I stated in our previous blog posts that featured the study, I am happy with this painting and I feel it is a successful piece. The real star of the scene would be the striated colors in the sky but there is also a good sense of movement and I also appreciate the overall simplicity of this motif.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Morning Trail by M Francis McCarthy, 10x14 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its earliest understudy/drawing stages on up through the final brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
On today's video I was discussing what's happening for me in the studio these days. I've been finishing up a pass of 10 new paintings, but I've also been engaged with revisiting and repainting about 25 older paintings.
If you check out my old blog here you'll find that I wrote quite a lot about revising paintings there. Back in late 2012 early 2013, after returning from a long vacation, I saw quite a few things wrong with some of the paintings that were waiting for me when I got home. So, then I set about redoing quite a few paintings and I wrote about it extensively.
There have been occasions since then where I have revisited and redone one or two paintings here and there, but for the most part, I've been mostly plowing ahead with new work. There is a very interesting quality that you can achieve when working on top of an old painting that is impossible to get with a new painting.
One of my big heroes, George Inness was famous for repainting many of his works and not only that, he would often do entirely new paintings over the paintings of his friends and family. It's very interesting to have a structure underneath a new or partially new motif. You get a very different quality in the brushwork than when working on a fresh ground/surface.
Many times when I am reworking a painting I will just do things directly from my imagination, but in this current bunch of old paintings that I'm working on, I have chosen to do some creative free compositing using high-quality photographs of the old paintings. In Photoshop, I am adding trees or paths, perhaps a new sky or some other element. In some cases, I have composited trees from old Master paintings on top of my own painting to utilize as reference for my reworking. This is not something I've ever tried before but it is helping me achieve a very interesting result.
Many artists use reference for their work. It is one of the most important aspects of my painting practice. I find paintings done strictly from the imagination become too samey. For this reason I generally utilize manipulated photographs as reference. Or, in this case, I am using re-composited reference images added to the photograph of my painting.
It's very important to approach your reference with a creative and correct attitude. The idea is not to lavishly copy your reference image detail for detail, or note for note in every individual aspect. The best approach is to use it as just that, a reference, to stimulate your own personal, subjective creativity not to be a human copy machine.
In the case of my current batch of re-paintings, I'm getting a very interesting quality that is desirable. It's hard to describe the effect but I could easily point out paintings that I've done that were repainted over older scenes in a lineup because of this quality.
In some cases I am leaving much of the old painting there, perhaps just exchanging a new clump of trees for an old one. In other cases, I am leaving almost nothing of the original motif. Even in those instances you would be surprised how much of the original painting is peeking through here and there.
There is one particular scene that features a clump of trees on a beach that had some grasses in front of it and a hillside in the background. I worked so hard on this painting. Unfortunately it never really came together. It had nice color and texture but real issues in the composition especially in the clump of trees. For this particular painting, I've removed almost every aspect of the original except for portions of the sky.
There's a lot of value in repainting over unsuccessful older work and I highly advise you to try it if you never have. You might be pleasantly surprised that the good result you get, and the best part is you are getting rid of an unsuccessful old work and replacing it with something new that is hopefully more outstanding.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Morning Trail 10x14. As I stated in our previous blog posts that featured the study, I am happy with this painting and I feel it is a successful piece. The real star of the scene would be the striated colors in the sky but there is also a good sense of movement and I also appreciate the overall simplicity of this motif.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Morning Trail by M Francis McCarthy, 10x14 (Detail) |