Day Eighty Seven: After a Rainy Day by Thomas Burton
Hello and welcome to day 87 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today study is of 'After a Rainy Day' by Thomas Burton.
Thomas Burton was an English artist and not actually a Tonalist however I felt that this particular scene evidenced many qualities of Tonalism and that why I included it in this series. I will be reading some biographical information about Thomas Burton in today's video narration, so please check that out.
We been talking over the last several weeks about my progression as a Tonalist landscape painter. We've talked about proportions and surface quality. Today I like to talk about about edges. We had one post in this series already where I was speaking about edges but I thought it would be good to maybe talk today about my struggle to get to the sort of fracture and diffused edges that are most apparent in the work of George Inness but also other Tonalist painters.
Someday I may try to incorporate all of this information that I've shared on this blog into a book on how to paint in a Tonalist way. No guarantees on that, but it's an idea that has crossed my mind. One of the reasons is that it would be cool, is that you would be able to look at photos of paintings from my earliest attempts at Tonalism to go along with the text. For now you will have to use your imagination.
One of the main differences between Tonalist paintings and the way that I was working prior to that, are the softer more diffused edges that are essentially a part of the Tonalist style. My earliest attempts at working in this mode, I think I got my edges too soft. I would paint by building up the edges very gradually with quite small brushes. This is the way that I believe Camille Corot worked. I got some okay results working this way, however I was not satisfied.
After moving to New Zealand, my work became even softer to the point where almost no brushstrokes were actually in evidence. This was a result of doing multiple layers of oil paint with semi translucent amounts of pigment applied with small brushes. Eventually I abandoned that approach and started working with much larger brushes in a looser, more fractured way. We talked already about how I paint edges in one or two blog posts in this series, so I won't get too much into the mechanics here.
Today, I am interested in talking about nailing the mental/internal approach to edges which is not just affected by the brushes you use, it's actually controlled more by how you see. It's been several years since I've been here New Zealand working at this everyday and I feel that the edges that I get in my paintings now are quite good. Doing these small paintings has helped me even more with edges, in that it has given me the opportunity to study at the feet of the Masters directly by making studies from their paintings.
Having the right approach to edges is one of the most crucial aspects of getting a Tonalist effect. There are other major factors such as color which we will talk a bit more about tomorrow.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'After a Rainy Day' by Thomas Burton; this is one of the few nighttime scenes that I took on in this series. In the current paintings that I'm doing I am painting a couple of night scenes. It is a challenge to paint this type of scene.
It's very easy to take the way things look at night for granted, photographs do very poor job of capturing this look, There have been some painters that have absolutely nailed it though and I hope to one day be in that category.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Painted after - After a Rainy Day by Thomas Burton, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Thomas Burton was an English artist and not actually a Tonalist however I felt that this particular scene evidenced many qualities of Tonalism and that why I included it in this series. I will be reading some biographical information about Thomas Burton in today's video narration, so please check that out.
We been talking over the last several weeks about my progression as a Tonalist landscape painter. We've talked about proportions and surface quality. Today I like to talk about about edges. We had one post in this series already where I was speaking about edges but I thought it would be good to maybe talk today about my struggle to get to the sort of fracture and diffused edges that are most apparent in the work of George Inness but also other Tonalist painters.
Someday I may try to incorporate all of this information that I've shared on this blog into a book on how to paint in a Tonalist way. No guarantees on that, but it's an idea that has crossed my mind. One of the reasons is that it would be cool, is that you would be able to look at photos of paintings from my earliest attempts at Tonalism to go along with the text. For now you will have to use your imagination.
One of the main differences between Tonalist paintings and the way that I was working prior to that, are the softer more diffused edges that are essentially a part of the Tonalist style. My earliest attempts at working in this mode, I think I got my edges too soft. I would paint by building up the edges very gradually with quite small brushes. This is the way that I believe Camille Corot worked. I got some okay results working this way, however I was not satisfied.
After moving to New Zealand, my work became even softer to the point where almost no brushstrokes were actually in evidence. This was a result of doing multiple layers of oil paint with semi translucent amounts of pigment applied with small brushes. Eventually I abandoned that approach and started working with much larger brushes in a looser, more fractured way. We talked already about how I paint edges in one or two blog posts in this series, so I won't get too much into the mechanics here.
Today, I am interested in talking about nailing the mental/internal approach to edges which is not just affected by the brushes you use, it's actually controlled more by how you see. It's been several years since I've been here New Zealand working at this everyday and I feel that the edges that I get in my paintings now are quite good. Doing these small paintings has helped me even more with edges, in that it has given me the opportunity to study at the feet of the Masters directly by making studies from their paintings.
Having the right approach to edges is one of the most crucial aspects of getting a Tonalist effect. There are other major factors such as color which we will talk a bit more about tomorrow.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'After a Rainy Day' by Thomas Burton; this is one of the few nighttime scenes that I took on in this series. In the current paintings that I'm doing I am painting a couple of night scenes. It is a challenge to paint this type of scene.
It's very easy to take the way things look at night for granted, photographs do very poor job of capturing this look, There have been some painters that have absolutely nailed it though and I hope to one day be in that category.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, After a Rainy Day by Thomas Burton |