Day Seventy Five: Solitude by Granville Redmond
Hello and welcome to Day 75 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Solitude' by Granville Redmond.
We've done a couple of studies of Granville Redmond's work in this series. Granville Redmond was deaf, he was also known as an actor in a few Charlie Chaplin movies. His Tonalist work is fairly well known in California where he resided for most of his life. Today's video features a track from my album 'Just Be' so please check that out.
We've completed our recent assay regarding my Tonalist painting process with yesterday's post. However, there is one aspect of my process that we haven't gone into yet and that is framing.
Tonalist paintings going back in the 19th century were typically framed with gold leaf frames. These frames would vary in the level of ornateness, but for the most part tended to be more ornate types of moldings. Much of the reason for this use of gold leaf frames back then, was because these paintings were designed to stimulate a spiritual response in their viewers and were often placed in people's homes in spots of importance.
I have a deep and abiding love of ornate gold leaf picture frames. For the last several years that is what I have framed my work with predominantly. Recently however, I have been making a shift into a more transitional/contemporary style of molding. The reason for this is, in the area where I live very few people have the types of homes that would support an ornate gold leaf frame. For that reason I've made a move into a more contemporary style.
I'm not sure if I mentioned yet or not that while my first color pass is drying in the area of my studio dedicated to drying paintings I very much like to put some sort of frame on each painting so that I can visualize the painting completed. At first, this idea might seem to be not too important but I believe that it helps a lot with visualizing how the painting should proceed. The addition of a frame creates a border that makes the painting separate from what is going on around it. This is very useful in assisting to reveal any problems that the painting might have that need to be addressed before it is finished.
Oil paintings deserve to be framed. Many artists in the area where I live favor what is called a gallery stretched canvas. This is a canvas that has been stretched on a deeper stretcher bar so that it comes off the wall about 1 inch or so. It's no secret why this is a popular way of presenting paintings, it happens to be the cheapest option available to any artist to have no frame at all, just a bare canvas against a wall.
Since I paint on panel an option like this isn't really open to me. Not only that, I feel that if I'm charging hundreds of dollars for a painting that it should be presented in a nice frame.
Speaking of nice frames, the wrong frame can easily skunk a sale. The wrong color, the wrong style or the wrong moulding width, all of these are factors that can preclude a buyer from actually buying a painting. This is why I started to use a very nice but simple black molding with subtle orange accents to present my work. I've had a lot of favorable response to this particular framing approach.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Solitude' by Granville Redmond; I quite like the composition of this scene. Granville has also used a unique semi monochromatic approach to his colors in his painting.
I enjoyed working with the limited palette of cerulean blue, phthalo green and ivory black.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Solitude by Granville Redmond, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'Solitude' by Granville Redmond.
We've done a couple of studies of Granville Redmond's work in this series. Granville Redmond was deaf, he was also known as an actor in a few Charlie Chaplin movies. His Tonalist work is fairly well known in California where he resided for most of his life. Today's video features a track from my album 'Just Be' so please check that out.
We've completed our recent assay regarding my Tonalist painting process with yesterday's post. However, there is one aspect of my process that we haven't gone into yet and that is framing.
Tonalist paintings going back in the 19th century were typically framed with gold leaf frames. These frames would vary in the level of ornateness, but for the most part tended to be more ornate types of moldings. Much of the reason for this use of gold leaf frames back then, was because these paintings were designed to stimulate a spiritual response in their viewers and were often placed in people's homes in spots of importance.
I have a deep and abiding love of ornate gold leaf picture frames. For the last several years that is what I have framed my work with predominantly. Recently however, I have been making a shift into a more transitional/contemporary style of molding. The reason for this is, in the area where I live very few people have the types of homes that would support an ornate gold leaf frame. For that reason I've made a move into a more contemporary style.
I'm not sure if I mentioned yet or not that while my first color pass is drying in the area of my studio dedicated to drying paintings I very much like to put some sort of frame on each painting so that I can visualize the painting completed. At first, this idea might seem to be not too important but I believe that it helps a lot with visualizing how the painting should proceed. The addition of a frame creates a border that makes the painting separate from what is going on around it. This is very useful in assisting to reveal any problems that the painting might have that need to be addressed before it is finished.
Oil paintings deserve to be framed. Many artists in the area where I live favor what is called a gallery stretched canvas. This is a canvas that has been stretched on a deeper stretcher bar so that it comes off the wall about 1 inch or so. It's no secret why this is a popular way of presenting paintings, it happens to be the cheapest option available to any artist to have no frame at all, just a bare canvas against a wall.
Since I paint on panel an option like this isn't really open to me. Not only that, I feel that if I'm charging hundreds of dollars for a painting that it should be presented in a nice frame.
Speaking of nice frames, the wrong frame can easily skunk a sale. The wrong color, the wrong style or the wrong moulding width, all of these are factors that can preclude a buyer from actually buying a painting. This is why I started to use a very nice but simple black molding with subtle orange accents to present my work. I've had a lot of favorable response to this particular framing approach.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Solitude' by Granville Redmond; I quite like the composition of this scene. Granville has also used a unique semi monochromatic approach to his colors in his painting.
I enjoyed working with the limited palette of cerulean blue, phthalo green and ivory black.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Solitude by Granville Redmond |
Day Forty Four: Moonlit Pond by Granville Redmond.
Hello and welcome to day 44 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Moonlit Pond' by Granville Redmond.
Granville Redmond lived from 1871 to 1935. He was considered to be both a Tonalist and an Impressionist. A point of interest about Granville is that he was deaf, also he was a friend of Charlie Chaplin and acted in several of his movies. I will read some biographical information about Granville in today's video so be sure to check that out.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Moonlit Pond' by Granville Redmond. In my studio work there have been three or four paintings I have done in the last several years that have been what I would term to be blue paintings. I can't say as I've managed to do one that I feel is as successful as Granville's painting we are discussing today.
I have no idea what his inspiration was or how he actually accomplished his painting. Regarding my study, I basically painted my board a medium shade of blue and then proceeded to work down in value and up in value, keeping my chroma in the blue range.
Overall I'd say I'm very happy with the way the study turned out and in fact this is actually the second instance of this painting that I've done as I sold the first study.
 |
| Painted after - Moonlit Pond by Granville Redmond., Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'Moonlit Pond' by Granville Redmond.
Granville Redmond lived from 1871 to 1935. He was considered to be both a Tonalist and an Impressionist. A point of interest about Granville is that he was deaf, also he was a friend of Charlie Chaplin and acted in several of his movies. I will read some biographical information about Granville in today's video so be sure to check that out.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Moonlit Pond' by Granville Redmond. In my studio work there have been three or four paintings I have done in the last several years that have been what I would term to be blue paintings. I can't say as I've managed to do one that I feel is as successful as Granville's painting we are discussing today.
I have no idea what his inspiration was or how he actually accomplished his painting. Regarding my study, I basically painted my board a medium shade of blue and then proceeded to work down in value and up in value, keeping my chroma in the blue range.
Overall I'd say I'm very happy with the way the study turned out and in fact this is actually the second instance of this painting that I've done as I sold the first study.
 |
| Original painting, Moonlit Pond by Granville Redmond. |