#17 Edward Mitchell Bannister, 'River Landscape' - 25 Days of Tonalism

Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.

Painted after - ' 'River Landscape' by Edward Bannister, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel

 Today's painting is a study after Edward Mitchell Bannister - 'River Landscape'.

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.

On today's video, I was talking about how I have been playing around recently with changing the ground color of my paintings. A couple of weeks ago I painted over the top of an old, unsuccessful painting with an application of Burnt Umber. This is a lot darker color than my usual Burnt Sienna.

I've been working with Burnt Sienna as a ground color for many years. Sometimes textured, sometimes not, sometimes lighter or darker but always Burnt Sienna. I got on to using Burnt Sienna as a underpainting color by Birge Harrison. Birge Harrison claims that the fundamental innovation of the Tonalists was the use of a red underpainting instead of a brown.

For the most part, I have been working this way and I have to agree with Mr. Harrison that it is very effective in that it helps create a strong vibration in the painting. This vibration is created from the little bits of Burnt Sienna that peek through the areas where the board is showing between brushstrokes.

I have worked over the top of failed paintings before. When I have, I have always just painted right over the top of the existing painting. The idea I had a couple weeks back was to cover the failed paintings surface with a layer of Burnt Umber prior to doing my new painting. 

After thinking about it, though I realized that I had recently read an article by a photographer who was trying to use some techniques developed by Leonardo da Vinci with his photography. In this article, he paraphrased a quote by Da Vinci stating that the artist should work on a blackened canvas. This was because he felt that all objects reveal themselves as light coming out of darkness.

I could not imagine actually painting on top of ivory black because it is such a cold and dull color. Burnt Umber, however, is really quite nice and though it is dark, it is rich and reddish. Also, because it is not as dark as black, I can draw with Ivory Black right on top and be able to see what I'm doing.

This leads me to another change I'm going to be making for this next pass of paintings. I'm going to be using Ivory Black as my darkest color instead of my usual Chromatic Black. I mix a Chromatic Black by adding two parts Alizarin Crimson to one part Pthalo Green. This gives me a dark color that is actually a very dark purple. It is darker in tone than Ivory Black.

I'm going to be using the Ivory Black on top of the Burnt Umber ground for this next pass of paintings because I feel like it's a good change right now. Sometimes it's good to change things up. Most Tonalist painters used Ivory Black and not Chromatic Black. This has never bothered me, the thing I like about Chromatic Black is that it has a different quality to it.

After doing some studies in the 25 days of Tonalism, I discovered that there were many times that the only way I could get a good approximation of the Master's painting that I was doing a study of, was by using Ivory Black. This is got me thinking it might be nice to try that on my own stuff for a while.

M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz

A bit about my study after Edward Mitchell Bannister- 'River Landscape'; as I stated in the video this is a painting I think is sort of odd but somehow I found myself doing a study of it anyway. I really enjoy Edward Mitchell Bannister's work and I've done quite a few studies after his paintings.

To see more of my work, visit my site here

Original painting' 'River Landscape' by Edward Mitchell Bannister

Painted after - ' 'River Landscape' by Edward Mitchell Bannister (Detail)

Painted after - ' 'River Landscape' by Edward Mitchell Bannister (Detail 2)