River Glow 14x14
Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'River Glow' 14x14.
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.
I have a list of topics on my desk that I make notes on when I think of something that would be good to write a blog about. Usually, I get through all the topics on the list but occasionally there is a topic that I never actually get to and just end up carrying through from list to list. Today's topic is one of those topics.
Why is it so dark?
I get asked this question by visitors to my studio occasionally. While it seems to be a simple question that would ideally elicit a simple answer, the reasons why some of the paintings are dark is not always simple to me.
Our vision/perception of the reality around us is completely subjective. As an artist, it's very important to be aware of this and it is one of the reasons that creating art is interesting and valuable to society because it shows us how other people see things.
Our perception of a unified view in front of us is actually being created from many discrete perceptions that are collected and then composited by our brains into a cohesive scene. This process is automatic and therefore not usually acknowledged or recognized by most people. It is just taken for granted that things look the way they look and that's how it is.
This is not a problem because for the most part we are perceiving the important things the same. If there is a tree in front of us we will go around it etc. So, how does this lead us to today's theme of why is that painting so dark?
If you are looking at the sunset, the sky is illuminated and the objects in front of it are naturally going to be darker. However, because of the nature of human vision/perception we can draw more light into the shadow areas. For this reason we perceive light in the sky and light in the foliage at the same time. By the way, there are ways that you can accomplish this with photography (HDR) but it's interesting to note that photographs treated this way often appear to be very artificial and synthetic in a bad way.
Because I like to paint pictures with bright colorful skies and I want to have a natural sort of feeling, I must necessarily make the objects offset against those skies darker. In actuality, the objects in my reference are usually much darker than how I rendered them in my painting. I am lightening things up quite a lot but it's important as an artist to recognize where you can get too carried away and move into a sort of HDR type of landscape painting that looks gaudy and unreal.
This is not as much of a problem if you are painting scenes in bright daylight. There is direct light from the sun and refracted light all around that is creating many different light effects. At its core, Impressionism deals with this sort of light. Tonalism on the other hand (at least as I practice it), focuses primarily on late afternoon or twilight. While there is a lots of light around in the scene it is not from one direct source like the sun, it is from the entire sky being illuminated. The reflected light from the sky illuminates objects but in a less direct way.
I guess you could say many of my paintings are dark because I am painting darker times of the day. That would be a good approximation of a simple answer. I'm glad we worked this out today here on the blog. Next time someone comes into the studio that's what I'll tell them.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'River Glow' 14x14; this painting is was created from reference composited from some photos I took on my recent trip through England and California. I am very happy with it and it's reflective of the direction I would like my work to go in 2017.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
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| 'River Glow' by M Francis McCarthy,14x14 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.
I have a list of topics on my desk that I make notes on when I think of something that would be good to write a blog about. Usually, I get through all the topics on the list but occasionally there is a topic that I never actually get to and just end up carrying through from list to list. Today's topic is one of those topics.
Why is it so dark?
I get asked this question by visitors to my studio occasionally. While it seems to be a simple question that would ideally elicit a simple answer, the reasons why some of the paintings are dark is not always simple to me.
Our vision/perception of the reality around us is completely subjective. As an artist, it's very important to be aware of this and it is one of the reasons that creating art is interesting and valuable to society because it shows us how other people see things.
Our perception of a unified view in front of us is actually being created from many discrete perceptions that are collected and then composited by our brains into a cohesive scene. This process is automatic and therefore not usually acknowledged or recognized by most people. It is just taken for granted that things look the way they look and that's how it is.
This is not a problem because for the most part we are perceiving the important things the same. If there is a tree in front of us we will go around it etc. So, how does this lead us to today's theme of why is that painting so dark?
If you are looking at the sunset, the sky is illuminated and the objects in front of it are naturally going to be darker. However, because of the nature of human vision/perception we can draw more light into the shadow areas. For this reason we perceive light in the sky and light in the foliage at the same time. By the way, there are ways that you can accomplish this with photography (HDR) but it's interesting to note that photographs treated this way often appear to be very artificial and synthetic in a bad way.
Because I like to paint pictures with bright colorful skies and I want to have a natural sort of feeling, I must necessarily make the objects offset against those skies darker. In actuality, the objects in my reference are usually much darker than how I rendered them in my painting. I am lightening things up quite a lot but it's important as an artist to recognize where you can get too carried away and move into a sort of HDR type of landscape painting that looks gaudy and unreal.
This is not as much of a problem if you are painting scenes in bright daylight. There is direct light from the sun and refracted light all around that is creating many different light effects. At its core, Impressionism deals with this sort of light. Tonalism on the other hand (at least as I practice it), focuses primarily on late afternoon or twilight. While there is a lots of light around in the scene it is not from one direct source like the sun, it is from the entire sky being illuminated. The reflected light from the sky illuminates objects but in a less direct way.
I guess you could say many of my paintings are dark because I am painting darker times of the day. That would be a good approximation of a simple answer. I'm glad we worked this out today here on the blog. Next time someone comes into the studio that's what I'll tell them.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'River Glow' 14x14; this painting is was created from reference composited from some photos I took on my recent trip through England and California. I am very happy with it and it's reflective of the direction I would like my work to go in 2017.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
 |
| 'River Glow' 14x14 (Detail 1) |
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| 'River Glow' 14x14 (Detail 2) |