River Sunset 14x20
Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'River Sunset' 14x20.
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.
Yesterday we were talking about influence by other artists on this blog. Today I would like to talk about style which is a topic that is directly related. I know I've talked about style before on this blog so feel free to do a search if you would like to see my previous views on this subject.
I relate artistic style and influence very closely together. Young artists and amateurs are always very interested and enamored by style. Style is one of the aspects of a painting that we can most readily perceive and sort of hang our hat on. As you mature as an artist style becomes less and less relevant to you. Style becomes something that is just a part of your process and your personality. This is appropriate and desirable.
While I was employed as a commercial illustrator, I was often required to ape the style of other artists. As an intellectual exercise this can be quite fun but it is not very satisfying from the standpoint of being a true artist. There is no way to copyright a style and it can be especially harsh for the artist who is being knocked off to see replicants of his approach in the marketplace.
When you set out to learn painting you are obviously going to be attracted to different styles by the different artists you admire. If you're somebody who is just starting out I think it's absolutely fine to do your best to duplicate what they are doing by making studies after their paintings. When you actively copy another artists style as a mature/professional artist it is essentially a criminal act. Not criminal in the eyes of the law but morally bankrupt.
When I do my studies after the Masters, I think it is okay to make them because most of the artists are for one, long dead and two, they were all traditional Tonalist or Barbizon painters and so already working in the type of style that I do in my own work.
By the way, it's important if you do make a study after another artists painting to always attribute them clearly on the back of the work itself so that people in the future are aware that you were making a study after another artist and not creating a completely original work.
When I am making studies after the paintings of Masters I am not concerned with duplicating their style. What I am mostly after is getting to the deep inner core of their work, and hopefully absorbing some of that goodness into my own work. I put my focus mostly on getting the composition and colors right and not so much their particular approach to brushwork and paint handling (the most defining of "style"). Another thing that precludes me from directly copying their particular approach is that I am painting my studies very small and they generally worked much larger.
You can sum all the above in a nutshell, I would say that young artists and amateurs are very interested in style and professional artists just find it difficult to escape.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'River Sunset' 14x20; this painting was painted over the top of a less successful work that I did recently. I am happier with 'River Sunset' than I was with that other painting, though there are a few areas that I feel could be better.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| 'River Sunset' by M Francis McCarthy, 14x20 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.
Yesterday we were talking about influence by other artists on this blog. Today I would like to talk about style which is a topic that is directly related. I know I've talked about style before on this blog so feel free to do a search if you would like to see my previous views on this subject.
I relate artistic style and influence very closely together. Young artists and amateurs are always very interested and enamored by style. Style is one of the aspects of a painting that we can most readily perceive and sort of hang our hat on. As you mature as an artist style becomes less and less relevant to you. Style becomes something that is just a part of your process and your personality. This is appropriate and desirable.
While I was employed as a commercial illustrator, I was often required to ape the style of other artists. As an intellectual exercise this can be quite fun but it is not very satisfying from the standpoint of being a true artist. There is no way to copyright a style and it can be especially harsh for the artist who is being knocked off to see replicants of his approach in the marketplace.
When you set out to learn painting you are obviously going to be attracted to different styles by the different artists you admire. If you're somebody who is just starting out I think it's absolutely fine to do your best to duplicate what they are doing by making studies after their paintings. When you actively copy another artists style as a mature/professional artist it is essentially a criminal act. Not criminal in the eyes of the law but morally bankrupt.
When I do my studies after the Masters, I think it is okay to make them because most of the artists are for one, long dead and two, they were all traditional Tonalist or Barbizon painters and so already working in the type of style that I do in my own work.
By the way, it's important if you do make a study after another artists painting to always attribute them clearly on the back of the work itself so that people in the future are aware that you were making a study after another artist and not creating a completely original work.
When I am making studies after the paintings of Masters I am not concerned with duplicating their style. What I am mostly after is getting to the deep inner core of their work, and hopefully absorbing some of that goodness into my own work. I put my focus mostly on getting the composition and colors right and not so much their particular approach to brushwork and paint handling (the most defining of "style"). Another thing that precludes me from directly copying their particular approach is that I am painting my studies very small and they generally worked much larger.
You can sum all the above in a nutshell, I would say that young artists and amateurs are very interested in style and professional artists just find it difficult to escape.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'River Sunset' 14x20; this painting was painted over the top of a less successful work that I did recently. I am happier with 'River Sunset' than I was with that other painting, though there are a few areas that I feel could be better.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| 'River Sunset' by M Francis McCarthy, 14x20 (Detail) |
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| 'River Sunset' by M Francis McCarthy, 14x20 (Detail 2) |