#19 Walter Clark 'Connecticut Landscape' - 25 Days of Tonalism
Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is a study after Walter Clark 'Connecticut 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.
Today, I would like to talk about the concept; how you start is how you finish. Forgive me if I've brought up this topic in the past. I'm pretty sure I've touched on it before, it is a very important aspect of painting.
Many painters (mainly amateur painters, but a surprising quantity of professionals as well), are content to paint on store-bought canvases pre-primed with acrylic gesso. While they may do some good paintings this way, I think that if they were to spend a bit more time in the selection of their painting substrate and preparation thereof, their painting would be substantially better.
In the studio, I've recently been doing new paintings over the top of some failed older paintings I had laying around. As I commented in today's video, I am totally stoked with the surface quality of these new paintings. There is really no comparison even to my normally prepared boards. There is a sort of the regular yet irregular textured quality, that in addition to the painting itself I just completed, creates a fantastic surface/quality,
Many artists like to paint on canvas and I would say if you are one of them you should perhaps try painting on wood. There are lots of different ways to prepare both canvas and wood for painting.
If you are painting on canvas I recommend doing a new layer of oil-based gesso on top of any pre-existing gesso. This is assuming that you are buying pre-stretched store-bought canvases. If you are, another good suggestion I have, would be instead, to invest in super high quality artist grade canvas, prepare the surface of that canvas with several layers of oil-based lead white gesso and stretch it yourself.
The main advantage that preparing your canvas with an oil based gesso, provides more flexibility in the paint film over time and also, if you are using the lead white you will be able to wipe your painting down to a white at any time with minimal surface staining. While acrylic gesso can suffice, it is just going to be only an adequate painting surface at best. If you are using acrylic gesso, make sure you put several coats down and sand in between coats, this will be better than just painting directly on the store-bought, prepared canvas.
When it comes to painting on wood panels, there are myriad ways that I have prepared these for painting. Initially, when I first started painting on wood, I did no preparation at all and just painted on the raw wood. The problem with this is that the raw wood will absorb the oil out of the paint over time and eventually the entire painting may become absorbed into the wood panel.
For this reason, I used an acrylic-based sanding sealer to seal my panels for quite a while. A few years ago I started using acrylic gesso that I have tinted with burnt sienna. This acrylic gesso is not white, it is transparent and therefore allows the tone of the wood panel to come through as well as providing a nice bright clean burnt sienna tone. When I have tried to do this with standard acrylic gesso what I got instead of burnt sienna was a warm pink due to the white pigmentation of standard acrylic gesso.
I've talked about my board preparation the past, so feel free to do a search here on the blog if you would like more information. Normally I apply this transparent gesso with the side of a large paintbrush to get a sort of spackle effect. I'm so keen on the results I'm getting over the top of old paintings that I'm starting to think of other ways to apply gesso to my wood panels. I will update you with the results of my experimentation in this area.
So to conclude, how you start is how you finish. The proper and creative preparation of your painting substrate will increase the quality and value of your work, sometimes in small ways and sometimes in major ways. Either way, it's worth taking the time.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted after Walter Clark 'Connecticut Landscape'; I'm happy with this small study, it's a bit brighter than I normally paint but the composition is strong and I think it's a nice motif. BTW, some links referring to Walter Clark here and here.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - ' Connecticut Landscape' by Walter Clark, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Today's painting is a study after Walter Clark 'Connecticut 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.
Today, I would like to talk about the concept; how you start is how you finish. Forgive me if I've brought up this topic in the past. I'm pretty sure I've touched on it before, it is a very important aspect of painting.
Many painters (mainly amateur painters, but a surprising quantity of professionals as well), are content to paint on store-bought canvases pre-primed with acrylic gesso. While they may do some good paintings this way, I think that if they were to spend a bit more time in the selection of their painting substrate and preparation thereof, their painting would be substantially better.
In the studio, I've recently been doing new paintings over the top of some failed older paintings I had laying around. As I commented in today's video, I am totally stoked with the surface quality of these new paintings. There is really no comparison even to my normally prepared boards. There is a sort of the regular yet irregular textured quality, that in addition to the painting itself I just completed, creates a fantastic surface/quality,
Many artists like to paint on canvas and I would say if you are one of them you should perhaps try painting on wood. There are lots of different ways to prepare both canvas and wood for painting.
If you are painting on canvas I recommend doing a new layer of oil-based gesso on top of any pre-existing gesso. This is assuming that you are buying pre-stretched store-bought canvases. If you are, another good suggestion I have, would be instead, to invest in super high quality artist grade canvas, prepare the surface of that canvas with several layers of oil-based lead white gesso and stretch it yourself.
The main advantage that preparing your canvas with an oil based gesso, provides more flexibility in the paint film over time and also, if you are using the lead white you will be able to wipe your painting down to a white at any time with minimal surface staining. While acrylic gesso can suffice, it is just going to be only an adequate painting surface at best. If you are using acrylic gesso, make sure you put several coats down and sand in between coats, this will be better than just painting directly on the store-bought, prepared canvas.
When it comes to painting on wood panels, there are myriad ways that I have prepared these for painting. Initially, when I first started painting on wood, I did no preparation at all and just painted on the raw wood. The problem with this is that the raw wood will absorb the oil out of the paint over time and eventually the entire painting may become absorbed into the wood panel.
For this reason, I used an acrylic-based sanding sealer to seal my panels for quite a while. A few years ago I started using acrylic gesso that I have tinted with burnt sienna. This acrylic gesso is not white, it is transparent and therefore allows the tone of the wood panel to come through as well as providing a nice bright clean burnt sienna tone. When I have tried to do this with standard acrylic gesso what I got instead of burnt sienna was a warm pink due to the white pigmentation of standard acrylic gesso.
I've talked about my board preparation the past, so feel free to do a search here on the blog if you would like more information. Normally I apply this transparent gesso with the side of a large paintbrush to get a sort of spackle effect. I'm so keen on the results I'm getting over the top of old paintings that I'm starting to think of other ways to apply gesso to my wood panels. I will update you with the results of my experimentation in this area.
So to conclude, how you start is how you finish. The proper and creative preparation of your painting substrate will increase the quality and value of your work, sometimes in small ways and sometimes in major ways. Either way, it's worth taking the time.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted after Walter Clark 'Connecticut Landscape'; I'm happy with this small study, it's a bit brighter than I normally paint but the composition is strong and I think it's a nice motif. BTW, some links referring to Walter Clark here and here.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original Painting 'Connecticut Landscape' by Walter Clark |
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| ' Connecticut Landscape' by Walter Clark, Study by M Francis McCarthy (Detail) |
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| ' Connecticut Landscape' by Walter Clark, Study by M Francis McCarthy (Detail 2) |