River at Dawn 11x14
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'River at Dawn' 11x14.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about "Synthetic Painting". The word synthetic in modern parlance has a meaning somewhat equivalent to plastic. My particular use of the word instead refers to synthesis.
Here is a definition that I just pulled off of Google:
Synthesis
1. the combination of components or elements to form a connected whole. Example: "the synthesis of intellect and emotion showed in his work"
It is important here to be clear which meaning of the word I mean and this definition is apt.
In my work I synthesize many different aspects and emotions into a Gestalt, something that is larger than its constituent parts. I use inspiration from nature in the form of a base photograph. I may then utilize other photographs in the assembly of a composite reference image. I push and pull this reference image in many different directions. I try to imbue an extra big dollop of emotion into each scene that I do.
What I do is fine art landscape painting, not illustration. That said, I was a commercial illustrator for quite a few years and one thing that I learned to the core of my being, was that the old maxim "garbage in garbage out" was always true when it came to creating a work of art.
When given an assignment, the first thing I would do would be to dedicate as much time as possible to the collection and organization of a large body of reference materials that I could use as inspiration for my assignment.
There are lots of times when I found a few great things early in the process that would be sufficient for the reference requirements of the illustration. However, I would usually continue to push on in the hopes that I might find something even better.
The reason that I did this was because having something excellent to refer to when creating work of art is absolutely essential. If you are attempting to create something awesome while referring to source material that is mundane, mendacity will be the only possible result.
As you can see the way that I work is almost entirely synthetic. I collect reference, composite it and then execute my painting in a series of organized, yet inspired movements in my studio.
As I pointed out in our previous blog post, this is one of the primary reasons that I am working indoors. Were I after a natural type of effect (like most Impressionist painters are), I would work outdoors in the daylight.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about "River at Dawn 11x14; this is a recent painting that I'm very happy with, that is one of the reasons I am sharing it with you today. As I stated in the video, I painted this much more thickly than most of my previous work.
There are both upsides and downsides to working very thickly and I discuss this in the video as well. Suffice to say, between painting thickly and thinly, I am searching for a happy medium these days.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| River at Dawn by M Francis McCarthy, 11x14 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about "Synthetic Painting". The word synthetic in modern parlance has a meaning somewhat equivalent to plastic. My particular use of the word instead refers to synthesis.
Here is a definition that I just pulled off of Google:
Synthesis
1. the combination of components or elements to form a connected whole. Example: "the synthesis of intellect and emotion showed in his work"
It is important here to be clear which meaning of the word I mean and this definition is apt.
In my work I synthesize many different aspects and emotions into a Gestalt, something that is larger than its constituent parts. I use inspiration from nature in the form of a base photograph. I may then utilize other photographs in the assembly of a composite reference image. I push and pull this reference image in many different directions. I try to imbue an extra big dollop of emotion into each scene that I do.
What I do is fine art landscape painting, not illustration. That said, I was a commercial illustrator for quite a few years and one thing that I learned to the core of my being, was that the old maxim "garbage in garbage out" was always true when it came to creating a work of art.
When given an assignment, the first thing I would do would be to dedicate as much time as possible to the collection and organization of a large body of reference materials that I could use as inspiration for my assignment.
There are lots of times when I found a few great things early in the process that would be sufficient for the reference requirements of the illustration. However, I would usually continue to push on in the hopes that I might find something even better.
The reason that I did this was because having something excellent to refer to when creating work of art is absolutely essential. If you are attempting to create something awesome while referring to source material that is mundane, mendacity will be the only possible result.
As you can see the way that I work is almost entirely synthetic. I collect reference, composite it and then execute my painting in a series of organized, yet inspired movements in my studio.
As I pointed out in our previous blog post, this is one of the primary reasons that I am working indoors. Were I after a natural type of effect (like most Impressionist painters are), I would work outdoors in the daylight.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about "River at Dawn 11x14; this is a recent painting that I'm very happy with, that is one of the reasons I am sharing it with you today. As I stated in the video, I painted this much more thickly than most of my previous work.
There are both upsides and downsides to working very thickly and I discuss this in the video as well. Suffice to say, between painting thickly and thinly, I am searching for a happy medium these days.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| River at Dawn 11x14 (Detail 1) |
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| River at Dawn 11x14 (Detail 2) |