Day Thirty One: Sunset after a Storm by Charles Harry Eaton
 |
| Painted after - After a Storm by Charles Harry Eaton, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is of Sunset after a Storm' by Charles Harry Eaton.
We've covered Charles Harry Eaton before on day 13. I read some biographical information about him on today's video so go check that out. Also, here is a link to his page on artsy with some zoomable images of his work.
Today I'd like to discuss the quality of edges in Tonalist painting. Typically the edges where forms meet each other (like where the shape of a tree might interact with the sky) will be refracted and somewhat diffused in Tonalist works. This is one of the primary characteristics of tonalism that gives it a dreamlike/poetic quality.
The foremost progenitor of this sort of technique was Camille Corot. He was an absolute Master of injecting atmosphere into his tree forms. Most accomplished Tonalist painters have mastered this aspect of getting atmospheric edges into their work. In my own journey as a painter, this is something that I had to learn the hard way through experience over time.
Good edges is not a quality that is often evidenced in photos unless it is installed in the darkroom. Typically you will just see the edges of trees strongly silhouetted against the much brighter sky, this is how cameras see but it is not how humans see.
There is a tendency for the some landscape artists to paint their trees and skies in the same way. For that reason many modern landscape paintings suffer and compare poorly to works of the past Masters. Without having this edges issue called into your awareness, you can, as an artist, happily and faithfully reproduce photographs without really seeing the absence of artistic edges in your own work.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Sunset After a Storm' by Charles Harry Eaton, this was a really fun painting to do and I'm quite pleased with the way that the study turned out. Charles has done something here that I generally strive to avoid in that he has run the dark masses of the clouds directly into the predominant tree shape in the landscape.
I prefer to keep strong horizontal cloud forms from running directly into my trees. Generally I will soften them or obfuscate the edges so that this is not an issue. However, it works very well in this painting and for that reason I was happy to execute the study. Also Charles Harry Eaton has done a great job with the colors in the sky and I was attracted to this painting because of the combination of blue and orange that he used.
To see more of my work, visit my site here.
 |
| Original painting, Sunset after a Storm by Charles Harry Eaton |
Day Thirteen: Gloaming by Charles Harry Eaton
Hello and welcome to day thirteen of 100 days of tonalism.
Painted after - Gloaming by Charles Harry Eaton, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel
Today's study is of 'Gloaming' by Charles Harry Eaton.
Just researching Charles, He's not a painter that I'm super familiar with but after scanning Google and his site on Artsy, I can say, I really like what I've seen of his work. I can see he has a similar approach to composition as I do and his work really resonates. There's some biographical info on Artsy, doesn't say when he was born but he died in 1901.
I've been using this blog as a bit of a soapbox for the last few days. I hope you don't mind. I could write (actually rewrite) more biographical stuff on the artists whose work I've done studies of ,but I'm not an art historian, I am a painter. I have a lot of opinions about art that are quite easy for me to communicate. Feel free to skip my diatribes and coast around the net gathering your own information should the work of any of these artists surprise or inspire you.
Ok, we were talking yesterday about the idea of evolution in art.
When I first started painting I just got some paints, brushes and some photo reference and just got to it. I had a few books as well that helped me jump in. What I didn't have was a truly good understanding of the history of Landscape painting or, a great sense of the giants whose shoulders I'd need to stand on to become a great painter.
I've written elsewhere about my discovery of the great American painters and, by extension the various European schools. Today I want to talk about my decision to try and capture some of the feel and surface quality of the masters in my own work. I made this decision because their work moved me deeply. I was filled with their reverence for painting almost as soon as I saw some of these great works in person. So I changed course, I had no choice because, what I saw at the museum had a quality missing from 95% of the contemporary paintings I was looking at.
We'll continue talking about this progression that I had as a painter tomorrow.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
A Bit about 'Gloaming' by Charles Harry Eaton. I mention on the video the issues I have with Charles composition on this painting. I decided to go after it any way. Sometimes intuition must overrule the intellect. Painting is very much a collaboration between the mind, the intuition and the universe. All three must come together to create anything worthwhile. A good artist knows how to go with the flow.
I like the greens/reds juxtaposition of the trees and grass in this painting and it's another study that I went in quite thinly with the paint, at least at first. As I progressed I got a bit thicker with the paint.
You might think that this is breaking the thin over thick rule but it isn't, because most of the painting is wet on wet, so the paint film will dry as a whole. Also drying time is sped up because I use Alkyd mediums.
To see more of my work, visit my site
.
Original Painting,
Gloaming by Charles Harry Eaton