Spring Countryside 5x7
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's study is 'Spring Countryside' 5x7.
Our video features the progression of this study from its initial early stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so check it out.
I've just completed a recent series of 10 paintings and was doing some photography last night. While working on my photos on the computer I decided that the theme of today's blog post would be "I wish I were a better painter." It's true, I wish I was.
It's not for lack of trying that I end up feeling this way a lot of the time. I think it's just part of the process. I am somewhat comforted when I see that someone like George Inness often did paintings that were less than stellar, this is small consolation.
Many times when I look at my recent paintings as photographs on my computer (especially at thumbnail sizes), I can see problems and issues that escaped my vigilant attention in the studio. One thing that is consistent is that the insight I gleaned from looking at the photographs on the computer does mirror intuitive stimuli I was receiving in the studio. This prodding from the intuitive part of my being is not a function of the intellect but something much deeper.
Regardless, I am sometimes unable to respond and react to these intuitive prodding's while the painting is fresh. However, this has been improving. There is at least one painting in my recent series that I stopped from being an abject failure. There is another that I believe can be fixed. Part of the problem that I'm running into is that when I work at larger sizes I lose a lot of the immediacy and fracture in the brushwork that makes the smaller paintings more alluring to me.
I guess I could just not deal with it and continue to paint small paintings, but it's clear to me that this is the area where I can progress the most right now. So I'm working on it. Either way, I wish I was a better painter and I'm pretty sure any of you reading this blog post that are painters, probably wish the same for yourselves. It is difficult when we see someone like Richard Schmidt (who seems to be a complete and total genius) does not produce bad work. The truth could be that we are just not seeing his bad work and it feels better to believe that. So I think I will.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Spring Countryside' 5x7; as I stated on the video today, this motif is quite different for me and is not often in the past that I pursued Hillside type motives. I generally prefer to have a central focus of a tree or some other object. Many times the focus of my paintings would be lights in the sky.
I would say the focus of this painting is the overall feeling and atmosphere of the scene itself, there is no one set of trees that stands out as being more important than any other. I strove to achieve a unity in this painting and for that reason kept the sky fairly simple and free of the usual pyrotechnics that I enjoy painting.
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| Spring Countryside by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this study from its initial early stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so check it out.
I've just completed a recent series of 10 paintings and was doing some photography last night. While working on my photos on the computer I decided that the theme of today's blog post would be "I wish I were a better painter." It's true, I wish I was.
It's not for lack of trying that I end up feeling this way a lot of the time. I think it's just part of the process. I am somewhat comforted when I see that someone like George Inness often did paintings that were less than stellar, this is small consolation.
Many times when I look at my recent paintings as photographs on my computer (especially at thumbnail sizes), I can see problems and issues that escaped my vigilant attention in the studio. One thing that is consistent is that the insight I gleaned from looking at the photographs on the computer does mirror intuitive stimuli I was receiving in the studio. This prodding from the intuitive part of my being is not a function of the intellect but something much deeper.
Regardless, I am sometimes unable to respond and react to these intuitive prodding's while the painting is fresh. However, this has been improving. There is at least one painting in my recent series that I stopped from being an abject failure. There is another that I believe can be fixed. Part of the problem that I'm running into is that when I work at larger sizes I lose a lot of the immediacy and fracture in the brushwork that makes the smaller paintings more alluring to me.
I guess I could just not deal with it and continue to paint small paintings, but it's clear to me that this is the area where I can progress the most right now. So I'm working on it. Either way, I wish I was a better painter and I'm pretty sure any of you reading this blog post that are painters, probably wish the same for yourselves. It is difficult when we see someone like Richard Schmidt (who seems to be a complete and total genius) does not produce bad work. The truth could be that we are just not seeing his bad work and it feels better to believe that. So I think I will.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Spring Countryside' 5x7; as I stated on the video today, this motif is quite different for me and is not often in the past that I pursued Hillside type motives. I generally prefer to have a central focus of a tree or some other object. Many times the focus of my paintings would be lights in the sky.
I would say the focus of this painting is the overall feeling and atmosphere of the scene itself, there is no one set of trees that stands out as being more important than any other. I strove to achieve a unity in this painting and for that reason kept the sky fairly simple and free of the usual pyrotechnics that I enjoy painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Spring Countryside (Detail) |