Coming out of the Glade 5x7
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Coming out of the Glade' 5x7.
I painted this study about a year ago in October 2014. In today's video narration I philosophize about time, art, the reasons why I create, and how time and consciousness are encapsulated within an oil painting. If that sounds interesting to you please check out today's video.
In the midst of my general rambling on today's video, I mention how when I make a mark with my brush it is sometimes modulated or modified afterwards. There are four different ways that I might go about doing this:
I utilize all of these approaches. Often there is not a lot of conscious thought before deciding which approach would be most effective, it is more interactive and intuitive than thought out.
I have seen different painters do different things to modify their brushstrokes. Some of them put a piece of paper over the top the painting and lightly rub it, or they use the side of a large clean brush to gently soften their brushwork.
The point of doing any of these techniques is to make sure that all of your brushstrokes are working together to create the desired effect in your painting. If every brushstroke has a sharp defined edge the painting can be quite uncomfortable to look at. Some of the brushwork has to be softened, this is very important to the overall success of the painting.
I mentioned several ways that I like to effect changes on my initial brushwork above. One of the common mistakes that amateurs make, is to over blend their brushstrokes to the point that their paintings have a extremely soft, almost greasy appearance. It's this sort of painting that gives oil paint a bad name. It is so easy to do this with oil paint because it stays wet for longer than most other mediums.
If I feel areas of a painting are over blended, I am most likely going to do some repainting to reintroduce character to those areas. What is ideal is to have all of your brushstrokes creating a cohesive lattice that is not too tight or too loose. Blending is best accomplished by mixing intermediate colors as opposed to feathering two colors together. Not to say that there are not times when working wet into wet gives you good results by moving wet paint into wet paint.
On the video I specifically mentioned the use of paper towel, You will notice while watching the videos I've made of my painting processes that I do this quite a lot and, in the finishing stages of my painting many of the strokes that I'm laying down are daubed with a paper towel before I move on to the next passage. I don't know what I would do without paper towels! I sometimes wonder what the Masters in the past used instead, I guess it would've had to have been rags of some type.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Coming out of the Glade' 5 x 7; I'm quite happy with this study and I'm also happy with the larger version of the motif that we will be discussing on Saturday. I'm always interested in transitions from light into dark or vice a versa and I think that 'Coming out of the Glade' is effective because we are naturally drawn along the path to the well lit area that is in the distance.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Coming out of the Glade by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
I painted this study about a year ago in October 2014. In today's video narration I philosophize about time, art, the reasons why I create, and how time and consciousness are encapsulated within an oil painting. If that sounds interesting to you please check out today's video.
In the midst of my general rambling on today's video, I mention how when I make a mark with my brush it is sometimes modulated or modified afterwards. There are four different ways that I might go about doing this:
- After making my initial mark, I can hit it a second time with a brush that has less paint.
- After making my initial mark ,I can lightly touch it with my finger.
- I can put down my brush and use a pallet knife to gently scratch or squiggle at the brushwork I've just painted.
- After doing several brushstrokes I can use a paper towel to daub at the painting.
I utilize all of these approaches. Often there is not a lot of conscious thought before deciding which approach would be most effective, it is more interactive and intuitive than thought out.
I have seen different painters do different things to modify their brushstrokes. Some of them put a piece of paper over the top the painting and lightly rub it, or they use the side of a large clean brush to gently soften their brushwork.
The point of doing any of these techniques is to make sure that all of your brushstrokes are working together to create the desired effect in your painting. If every brushstroke has a sharp defined edge the painting can be quite uncomfortable to look at. Some of the brushwork has to be softened, this is very important to the overall success of the painting.
I mentioned several ways that I like to effect changes on my initial brushwork above. One of the common mistakes that amateurs make, is to over blend their brushstrokes to the point that their paintings have a extremely soft, almost greasy appearance. It's this sort of painting that gives oil paint a bad name. It is so easy to do this with oil paint because it stays wet for longer than most other mediums.
If I feel areas of a painting are over blended, I am most likely going to do some repainting to reintroduce character to those areas. What is ideal is to have all of your brushstrokes creating a cohesive lattice that is not too tight or too loose. Blending is best accomplished by mixing intermediate colors as opposed to feathering two colors together. Not to say that there are not times when working wet into wet gives you good results by moving wet paint into wet paint.
On the video I specifically mentioned the use of paper towel, You will notice while watching the videos I've made of my painting processes that I do this quite a lot and, in the finishing stages of my painting many of the strokes that I'm laying down are daubed with a paper towel before I move on to the next passage. I don't know what I would do without paper towels! I sometimes wonder what the Masters in the past used instead, I guess it would've had to have been rags of some type.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Coming out of the Glade' 5 x 7; I'm quite happy with this study and I'm also happy with the larger version of the motif that we will be discussing on Saturday. I'm always interested in transitions from light into dark or vice a versa and I think that 'Coming out of the Glade' is effective because we are naturally drawn along the path to the well lit area that is in the distance.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Coming out of the Glade by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 (Detail) |
Approaching Weather 8x10
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Approaching Weather' 8x10.
Last week we talked a lot about dry brushing and that is one of the reasons why I wanted to present this painting to you guys this week. If you watch the video, especially the last portion, you'll get a good sense of how I use dry brush in my painting, so please check the video out.
On today's video I was discussing my new reference set up in my studio. Not all of you watch the videos so I thought I might discuss my approach to displaying my reference in today's blog post.
When I first started painting, I would take photos with my Canon powershot and then I would print them out using my HP inkjet printer. I would use these printouts as reference for my paintings. The only thing that changed when I came to New Zealand was that I purchased a Epson printer that gave me very nice results. The other thing that's been changing is I have been progressively modifying my reference using Photoshop since I came to New Zealand, to the point that today, my painting reference resembles very little the original photo. I've talked about this in a previous blog post somewhere in One Hundred days of Tonalism.
Speaking of the 100 days of Tonalism project is the reason why I started to use a Sony 5x7" digital frame that I had purchased several years ago in order to display images from my commercial art portfolio. As it turns out, I did not use it as much as I though I would.
Until, it occurred to me that it might be far more economical and expedient to display my reference images for the hundred days of Tonalism project on this frame, rather than going to the time and expense of printing each image out on my Epson inkjet printer.
The Epson is a very good printer, however the cartridges that it uses are very expensive and they do not seem to last very long either. I knew that if my idea of using the digital frame would work that it could be a real godsend. As it turns out, the digital frame actually gave me a superior result to printing the reference, in that the colors were nicely saturated and the digital frame also exhibited crisp detail.
I've been using this digital frame for the last nine months now quite happily. Recently though, it occurred to me that it would be nice to have my reference images bigger especially as I'm working on larger and larger paintings these days. I was disappointed to find out that most local retail outlets no longer were carrying a good selection of digital frames. The one that I did find at Noel Leeming was shoddy and disappointing so I returned it. I then decided to purchase one at an online site here in New Zealand called Trade Me, that too was disappointing.
I have been using a monitor in my studio with a desktop computer that ceased functioning last week. In the process of unplugging everything I noticed that it had a USB port and so I took the USB stick out of my small digital frame and pluged it into this monitor and lo and behold it functions very nicely as a digital frame.
I've used it so far for three initial color passes on some fairly large paintings and I'm really happy with it. Today I was using it to do some very small studies and I wouldn't say it was quite as comfortable, but in some ways I think I just need to learn to adapt.
What I like about the larger digital frame is that it is very much like looking out a window to the landscape I'm painting beyond. I don't necessarily want the larger digital frame so that I can make out detail more clearly. The truth is that this particular monitor is not exhibiting a finer degree of detail than what I was using but it is bigger. It also has good color quality and gives me the ability to make adjustments to the colors as needed so for me it's working really well.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Approaching Weather'; as I mentioned in the previous blog post featuring the study for this painting, I do not usually paint such idiosyncratic trees. I prefer my trees to be interestingly shaped but not too much so.
This tree certainly has an unique shape but in many ways this painting is more about the sky than the tree as so many of my paintings are. You'd be amazed how many people come into my studio and mentioned trees, and how much I must love them. Truth be told, my favorite thing to paint is skies and that was definitely the case with 'Approaching Weather'.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Approaching Weather by M Francis McCarthy, 8x10 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Last week we talked a lot about dry brushing and that is one of the reasons why I wanted to present this painting to you guys this week. If you watch the video, especially the last portion, you'll get a good sense of how I use dry brush in my painting, so please check the video out.
On today's video I was discussing my new reference set up in my studio. Not all of you watch the videos so I thought I might discuss my approach to displaying my reference in today's blog post.
When I first started painting, I would take photos with my Canon powershot and then I would print them out using my HP inkjet printer. I would use these printouts as reference for my paintings. The only thing that changed when I came to New Zealand was that I purchased a Epson printer that gave me very nice results. The other thing that's been changing is I have been progressively modifying my reference using Photoshop since I came to New Zealand, to the point that today, my painting reference resembles very little the original photo. I've talked about this in a previous blog post somewhere in One Hundred days of Tonalism.
Speaking of the 100 days of Tonalism project is the reason why I started to use a Sony 5x7" digital frame that I had purchased several years ago in order to display images from my commercial art portfolio. As it turns out, I did not use it as much as I though I would.
Until, it occurred to me that it might be far more economical and expedient to display my reference images for the hundred days of Tonalism project on this frame, rather than going to the time and expense of printing each image out on my Epson inkjet printer.
The Epson is a very good printer, however the cartridges that it uses are very expensive and they do not seem to last very long either. I knew that if my idea of using the digital frame would work that it could be a real godsend. As it turns out, the digital frame actually gave me a superior result to printing the reference, in that the colors were nicely saturated and the digital frame also exhibited crisp detail.
I've been using this digital frame for the last nine months now quite happily. Recently though, it occurred to me that it would be nice to have my reference images bigger especially as I'm working on larger and larger paintings these days. I was disappointed to find out that most local retail outlets no longer were carrying a good selection of digital frames. The one that I did find at Noel Leeming was shoddy and disappointing so I returned it. I then decided to purchase one at an online site here in New Zealand called Trade Me, that too was disappointing.
I have been using a monitor in my studio with a desktop computer that ceased functioning last week. In the process of unplugging everything I noticed that it had a USB port and so I took the USB stick out of my small digital frame and pluged it into this monitor and lo and behold it functions very nicely as a digital frame.
I've used it so far for three initial color passes on some fairly large paintings and I'm really happy with it. Today I was using it to do some very small studies and I wouldn't say it was quite as comfortable, but in some ways I think I just need to learn to adapt.
What I like about the larger digital frame is that it is very much like looking out a window to the landscape I'm painting beyond. I don't necessarily want the larger digital frame so that I can make out detail more clearly. The truth is that this particular monitor is not exhibiting a finer degree of detail than what I was using but it is bigger. It also has good color quality and gives me the ability to make adjustments to the colors as needed so for me it's working really well.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Approaching Weather'; as I mentioned in the previous blog post featuring the study for this painting, I do not usually paint such idiosyncratic trees. I prefer my trees to be interestingly shaped but not too much so.
This tree certainly has an unique shape but in many ways this painting is more about the sky than the tree as so many of my paintings are. You'd be amazed how many people come into my studio and mentioned trees, and how much I must love them. Truth be told, my favorite thing to paint is skies and that was definitely the case with 'Approaching Weather'.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Approaching Weather by M Francis McCarthy (Detail) |
Approaching Weather 5x7
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's study is 'Approaching Weather' 5x7.
As promised, this is a very recent set of paintings that I am presenting this week. I completed the larger 8x10 version of 'Approaching Weather' about two months ago and the study that we are doing today was done back in June. I'm talking about this painting on todays video and also reflecting somewhat on the changes in my painting approach this year, so please check it out.
I've discussed dry brushing on this blog in the past and I also talked about it on today's video. The main thing I was reflecting on the video narration, was the level of finish that I bring to a painting. There is a sometimes a not too fine line that you can cross while painting. On the one side of that line is work that is overdone, over detailed and overworked. On the good side of the line however, there is a luminescent beautiful finish. My goal as an artist is to have that luminescent finish without overdoing the painting.
Back in 2012/2013, in a lot of the work I was doing, I was striving to have an immediate quality and yet still achieve a good finish (in other words, have my cake and eat it too). Many of those paintings were successful, but for the most part I've been moving into doing a third color pass on most of my larger pieces these days. And, in the second color pass I am relying more heavily on glazing, scumbling and dry brushing rather than excessive amounts of brushwork.
One of the big changes in my work that came out of the hundred days of Tonalism series was that I started texturing my larger panels. In the past I've only textured my 5x7s. The reason for now texturing my larger panels is to more readily accommodate dry brushing. With a textured board, I can get a nice stipple effect by lightly dragging the side of my brush across the painting. I've been doing this on and off for many years but it was while doing the hundred days of Tonalism that a lot of the real potential of this technique became clearer to me.
One of the reasons why I am sharing 'Approaching Weather' today is to show a bit of that technique. It will be more evident in the larger work (coming up in a few days) than today's 5x7, but I do some dry brushing here as well.
Sometimes when we look at the work of the Masters, we imagine that the paintings that they did came to them easily and naturally as the by product of years of being a Master. I think the reality is that they had to struggle just as we do now. I've read in the biography of George Inness, written by his son, that he would utilize any technique he could to get the results he was after and that it wasn't always easy for him. George Inness is by far the greatest landscape painter that ever lived, if he struggled, I don't feel so bad.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
 |
| Approaching Weather by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7, Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
As promised, this is a very recent set of paintings that I am presenting this week. I completed the larger 8x10 version of 'Approaching Weather' about two months ago and the study that we are doing today was done back in June. I'm talking about this painting on todays video and also reflecting somewhat on the changes in my painting approach this year, so please check it out.
I've discussed dry brushing on this blog in the past and I also talked about it on today's video. The main thing I was reflecting on the video narration, was the level of finish that I bring to a painting. There is a sometimes a not too fine line that you can cross while painting. On the one side of that line is work that is overdone, over detailed and overworked. On the good side of the line however, there is a luminescent beautiful finish. My goal as an artist is to have that luminescent finish without overdoing the painting.
Back in 2012/2013, in a lot of the work I was doing, I was striving to have an immediate quality and yet still achieve a good finish (in other words, have my cake and eat it too). Many of those paintings were successful, but for the most part I've been moving into doing a third color pass on most of my larger pieces these days. And, in the second color pass I am relying more heavily on glazing, scumbling and dry brushing rather than excessive amounts of brushwork.
One of the big changes in my work that came out of the hundred days of Tonalism series was that I started texturing my larger panels. In the past I've only textured my 5x7s. The reason for now texturing my larger panels is to more readily accommodate dry brushing. With a textured board, I can get a nice stipple effect by lightly dragging the side of my brush across the painting. I've been doing this on and off for many years but it was while doing the hundred days of Tonalism that a lot of the real potential of this technique became clearer to me.
One of the reasons why I am sharing 'Approaching Weather' today is to show a bit of that technique. It will be more evident in the larger work (coming up in a few days) than today's 5x7, but I do some dry brushing here as well.
Sometimes when we look at the work of the Masters, we imagine that the paintings that they did came to them easily and naturally as the by product of years of being a Master. I think the reality is that they had to struggle just as we do now. I've read in the biography of George Inness, written by his son, that he would utilize any technique he could to get the results he was after and that it wasn't always easy for him. George Inness is by far the greatest landscape painter that ever lived, if he struggled, I don't feel so bad.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
 |
| Approaching Weather 5x7 (Detail) |
Arcadian Road (10x14)
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is Arcadian Road 10x14".
As promised we are getting into the larger version of 'Arcadian Road' today. The speed of the video is about 14 times faster than I painted. That seems a bit fast, but I like to keep the length of the videos around seven or eight minutes so that is what determines how fast I render each video.
I was talking today on the video narration about my ground color. In painting, the word "ground" refers to the color of the surface you are painting on, whether it is watercolor, oils or acrylic. It is very helpful to start on a toned surface as opposed to painting directly on white. Many artists do not actually think about this, but it is one of the foundational decisions that you make when approaching a painting. If you're using white, that means that the way you paint each shape must overlap so that no little bits of white canvas show through. I think this has a definite impact on the way a painting looks.
My ground color of choice is burnt sienna. This is a technique that I picked up from Birge Harrison in his book about landscape painting. Tonalism ran concurrently with Impressionism. Both styles of painting achieve a vibrational quality. Vibration is accomplished in Impressionism predominately by placing strong primary colors adjacent to each other and thus the colors are mixed in the eye of the viewer. Tonalism achieves vibration by the use of a orangish red ground color that peaks out from behind brushstrokes and bleeds through thinner passages. The use of an orangish red also creates vibration when colors like green are put on top of it, (because green is a complementary of red).
There are times when I make exceptions to the use of burnt sienna as my ground color. So far the main exception is when I'm doing a nocturne (night scene). With these type of paintings I have been using a cobalt blue that is mixed with a bit of black. This is the technique that I employed for the blue paintings that were in the (recently completed) 100 days of Tonalism series. I have also been using a blue ground in my own work recently. So far, I think it works pretty well, but I am also contemplating doing nocturnes in the future with a neutral 50% gray tone as the ground. I'm sure at some point I'll get around to showing some of that work on this blog or my website, so stay tuned for that.
Having a toned board is absolutely essential for me in that it creates harmony quite readily. I have a good mastery of my color mixes and a sound approach to color theory, but starting with a toned ground means that all of this knowledge is enhanced. If I had to, I could do paintings on a white canvas and still get a decent painting but I won't be doing that anytime soon because I can get a better result using my orangish red ground color.
As I stated in the video narration the use of the burnt sienna ground was one of the few bits of information I held back on sharing in my first blog M Francis McCarthy here on blogger. Back then, I felt I had to keep something in reserve and truth be told, the use of burnt sienna as a ground color is one of the most important ingredients to achieving Tonalist painting. It's possible to do a Tonalist painting without it, but so much easier with that red ground as a base.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Arcadian Road'; I mentioned last week that I have painted this scene before. The title of that painting was country road and it looks quite a bit different than this painting even though I used the same photographic reference. This is something that I am fascinated by and I imagine I will probably do another version of this painting again at some point, and it too will no doubt be quite a bit different than the ones that preceded it.
Painting can be a very deep and engrossing way of being. The painting changes as the artist changes and that is one of the great things about art.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Arcadian Road by M Francis McCarthy, 10x14, Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
As promised we are getting into the larger version of 'Arcadian Road' today. The speed of the video is about 14 times faster than I painted. That seems a bit fast, but I like to keep the length of the videos around seven or eight minutes so that is what determines how fast I render each video.
I was talking today on the video narration about my ground color. In painting, the word "ground" refers to the color of the surface you are painting on, whether it is watercolor, oils or acrylic. It is very helpful to start on a toned surface as opposed to painting directly on white. Many artists do not actually think about this, but it is one of the foundational decisions that you make when approaching a painting. If you're using white, that means that the way you paint each shape must overlap so that no little bits of white canvas show through. I think this has a definite impact on the way a painting looks.
My ground color of choice is burnt sienna. This is a technique that I picked up from Birge Harrison in his book about landscape painting. Tonalism ran concurrently with Impressionism. Both styles of painting achieve a vibrational quality. Vibration is accomplished in Impressionism predominately by placing strong primary colors adjacent to each other and thus the colors are mixed in the eye of the viewer. Tonalism achieves vibration by the use of a orangish red ground color that peaks out from behind brushstrokes and bleeds through thinner passages. The use of an orangish red also creates vibration when colors like green are put on top of it, (because green is a complementary of red).
There are times when I make exceptions to the use of burnt sienna as my ground color. So far the main exception is when I'm doing a nocturne (night scene). With these type of paintings I have been using a cobalt blue that is mixed with a bit of black. This is the technique that I employed for the blue paintings that were in the (recently completed) 100 days of Tonalism series. I have also been using a blue ground in my own work recently. So far, I think it works pretty well, but I am also contemplating doing nocturnes in the future with a neutral 50% gray tone as the ground. I'm sure at some point I'll get around to showing some of that work on this blog or my website, so stay tuned for that.
Having a toned board is absolutely essential for me in that it creates harmony quite readily. I have a good mastery of my color mixes and a sound approach to color theory, but starting with a toned ground means that all of this knowledge is enhanced. If I had to, I could do paintings on a white canvas and still get a decent painting but I won't be doing that anytime soon because I can get a better result using my orangish red ground color.
As I stated in the video narration the use of the burnt sienna ground was one of the few bits of information I held back on sharing in my first blog M Francis McCarthy here on blogger. Back then, I felt I had to keep something in reserve and truth be told, the use of burnt sienna as a ground color is one of the most important ingredients to achieving Tonalist painting. It's possible to do a Tonalist painting without it, but so much easier with that red ground as a base.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Arcadian Road'; I mentioned last week that I have painted this scene before. The title of that painting was country road and it looks quite a bit different than this painting even though I used the same photographic reference. This is something that I am fascinated by and I imagine I will probably do another version of this painting again at some point, and it too will no doubt be quite a bit different than the ones that preceded it.
Painting can be a very deep and engrossing way of being. The painting changes as the artist changes and that is one of the great things about art.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Arcadian Road 10 x 14 (Detail) |
Arcadian Road (5x7 Study)
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today study is of 'Arcadian Road' (5x7 Study).
In today's video narration I ramble, sometimes interestingly, so please check the video out.
I woke up last night to go to the bathroom and a thought occurred to me that a good subject to talk about on this blog, would be my history in manufacturing and how it has influenced my approach to landscape painting. In my 20s and early 30s, I had a job as a manager for a company that manufactured decorative art for the hospitality industry. Basically, this was a framing job but on a more extensive scale than most retail mom and pop frame shops.
We would have to ship hundreds or sometimes thousands of framed pictures every month. Some of this art was created in-house but most of it was framed posters that had mats, glass and molding. I was quite adept at all of the ins and outs of the manufacturing process. Being of a philosophical bent, I was inclined to apply some creativity to what I was doing every day. One important thing about the place I was working, was that we had a strong emphasis on quality and creating a quality product. This instilled in me at a young age an ability to achieve productivity with quality.
This leads us to the question of how this manufacturing job influenced what I do now with my landscape painting. In a recent review of a show of my work at the Hangar Gallery in Kamo, the reviewer mentioned in his review (after talking with me) that he felt I had almost a production line approach to my work, I had told him that I would do all my drawings for a series, then my first color stage and finally my last color stage, moving through each painting in the series until all the paintings were completed. In that article he compared me to a Damian Hirst. An artist I feel I am miles from in attitude and approach. However I can see where he was coming from, in that I do have a manufacturing influence in my history and it does inform how I do art now.
After many years as a commercial illustrator creating art with digital media that was then printed on T-shirts, mugs or other merchandise, I was very inclined to start working on actual physical paintings. I've written about this on this blog and elsewhere.
A physical painting is an object. It is an art object and though there are many philosophical, emotional and spiritual qualities invested in a painting, at the end of the day it is still an object. This object status in art is a bit more evident with sculpture, however, painting certainly qualifies as well even though paintings depict a two-dimensional scene they are a three-dimensional object existing in time and space.
In my view, no reproduction can capture the actual quality of a real painting that has been invested with time, effort and concentration. Everything that goes into a painting leaves a trace on the surface of the work. The resulting effect is a sort of glow. It's a bit hard to describe this attribute because it's a subtle quality that the original work has, that is lacking in reproductions.
There is a strong aspect of craft in what I do, although it is not craft alone that makes it art. This is where the term fine art comes into play. Something cannot be fine unless it evidences a high level of craft and yet some things can have a great deal craft in them and not be fine art.
My particular method of doing 14 or more paintings in a series at a time might seem like it is a production line approach ,but the reality is that I am only working on one painting at any given time. All of my concentration and energy are going into that particular piece of art.
Approaching paintings in a serial manner is valuable is that it keeps me from belaboring or overworking the paintings that I am creating. I have taken what is most productive and creative from my years in manufacturing and applied it to what I do now,which is create fine art landscape paintings.
BTW I'm currently reading a book about Ernest Hemingway called Hemingway's Boat by Paul Hendrickson. This is a really excellent book that I highly recommend. In it, Ernest Hemingway has some great things to say about the creative process. One of the cool nuggets of information that he's imparted, is that an artist should always leave a bit undone at the end of a working session so that they have a thread that they can easily pick up next time they go to work. It occurred to me that this is one of the reasons why I take the approach to painting that I do with multiple paintings going on, there's always something in the works.
Another point that Hemingway made in this book, is that you want to work only when you are fresh and never overdo it. Pushing too hard will eliminate a lot of the "fine"from fine art and tends to yield work that is forced and pedestrian in nature, which is 100% the opposite of what I am trying to do.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Arcadian Road' (5x7 Study): I've painted this motif before back in 2011. I was pretty happy with that painting but I wanted to go after it again. This is my favorite type of motif and I'm pretty happy with the way this study turned out.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Arcadian Road by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Today study is of 'Arcadian Road' (5x7 Study).
In today's video narration I ramble, sometimes interestingly, so please check the video out.
I woke up last night to go to the bathroom and a thought occurred to me that a good subject to talk about on this blog, would be my history in manufacturing and how it has influenced my approach to landscape painting. In my 20s and early 30s, I had a job as a manager for a company that manufactured decorative art for the hospitality industry. Basically, this was a framing job but on a more extensive scale than most retail mom and pop frame shops.
We would have to ship hundreds or sometimes thousands of framed pictures every month. Some of this art was created in-house but most of it was framed posters that had mats, glass and molding. I was quite adept at all of the ins and outs of the manufacturing process. Being of a philosophical bent, I was inclined to apply some creativity to what I was doing every day. One important thing about the place I was working, was that we had a strong emphasis on quality and creating a quality product. This instilled in me at a young age an ability to achieve productivity with quality.
This leads us to the question of how this manufacturing job influenced what I do now with my landscape painting. In a recent review of a show of my work at the Hangar Gallery in Kamo, the reviewer mentioned in his review (after talking with me) that he felt I had almost a production line approach to my work, I had told him that I would do all my drawings for a series, then my first color stage and finally my last color stage, moving through each painting in the series until all the paintings were completed. In that article he compared me to a Damian Hirst. An artist I feel I am miles from in attitude and approach. However I can see where he was coming from, in that I do have a manufacturing influence in my history and it does inform how I do art now.
After many years as a commercial illustrator creating art with digital media that was then printed on T-shirts, mugs or other merchandise, I was very inclined to start working on actual physical paintings. I've written about this on this blog and elsewhere.
A physical painting is an object. It is an art object and though there are many philosophical, emotional and spiritual qualities invested in a painting, at the end of the day it is still an object. This object status in art is a bit more evident with sculpture, however, painting certainly qualifies as well even though paintings depict a two-dimensional scene they are a three-dimensional object existing in time and space.
In my view, no reproduction can capture the actual quality of a real painting that has been invested with time, effort and concentration. Everything that goes into a painting leaves a trace on the surface of the work. The resulting effect is a sort of glow. It's a bit hard to describe this attribute because it's a subtle quality that the original work has, that is lacking in reproductions.
There is a strong aspect of craft in what I do, although it is not craft alone that makes it art. This is where the term fine art comes into play. Something cannot be fine unless it evidences a high level of craft and yet some things can have a great deal craft in them and not be fine art.
My particular method of doing 14 or more paintings in a series at a time might seem like it is a production line approach ,but the reality is that I am only working on one painting at any given time. All of my concentration and energy are going into that particular piece of art.
Approaching paintings in a serial manner is valuable is that it keeps me from belaboring or overworking the paintings that I am creating. I have taken what is most productive and creative from my years in manufacturing and applied it to what I do now,which is create fine art landscape paintings.
BTW I'm currently reading a book about Ernest Hemingway called Hemingway's Boat by Paul Hendrickson. This is a really excellent book that I highly recommend. In it, Ernest Hemingway has some great things to say about the creative process. One of the cool nuggets of information that he's imparted, is that an artist should always leave a bit undone at the end of a working session so that they have a thread that they can easily pick up next time they go to work. It occurred to me that this is one of the reasons why I take the approach to painting that I do with multiple paintings going on, there's always something in the works.
Another point that Hemingway made in this book, is that you want to work only when you are fresh and never overdo it. Pushing too hard will eliminate a lot of the "fine"from fine art and tends to yield work that is forced and pedestrian in nature, which is 100% the opposite of what I am trying to do.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Arcadian Road' (5x7 Study): I've painted this motif before back in 2011. I was pretty happy with that painting but I wanted to go after it again. This is my favorite type of motif and I'm pretty happy with the way this study turned out.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Arcadian Road (detail) |
Summer Pond (8x8)
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Summer Pond' 8x8".
As promised, this is the larger version of 'Summer Pond.' We took a look at the study in our previous blog post. I intend to present a study and a larger version of one of my paintings each week in this blog for a while. I discuss my painting process in today's video. My narration is following along with the paintings progress, so please check that out.
I was speaking with a friend of mine in my studio the other day and he somewhat jokingly asked me why I do not paint palm trees. There are several reasons that I don't paint palm trees, among them is the fact that I don't actually care to paint very specific trees, but in the case of palms the real reason I don't like to paint them is that to get a palm tree across I feel it needs to be well delineated.
This leads us to the topic for today's blog post which is indication versus delineation. What I like to do with my painting is to indicate the forms of clouds, hills, trees, roads and other features of the landscape. I like to work in a loose fractured manner that is still highly indicative of the forms being portrayed. However, when I do not care to do, is to delineate. By delineate, I mean to define things in a detailed manner.
I excelled at delineation for the majority of my life as an artist. I always had a great love for accuracy in draftsmanship and detail in rendering. I would work very hard to get every aspect of my subject as accurate as possible. After many years of toiling in this way, it dawned on me that this approach was not actually serving my art very well. From that point forward, I began to concentrate more on other aspects of my work like, stylization and composition of forms. When I started painting I had the added element of color as well.
Volumes have been written about the differences between fine art and illustration. I have worked in the past, for many years as a commercial illustrator and in my view, the main difference between them, is that illustrators concern themselves with the application of technique and ability to whatever subject matter they are being commissioned to portray, whereas fine art painting is mostly concerned with the creation of a work of art. I would never say that illustration does not qualify as art, what I'm trying to say is that illustration is different from fine art in its primary intentions.
When I am creating a landscape painting, I want the viewer to be very clear about what they are looking at and yet, I also want there to be an aspect of loose, flowing energy that pulls everything together, creating a whole picture rather than a collection of rendered parts. This can sometimes give my paintings a diffused quality, in that individual elements of the scene are not excessively detailed or delineated.
The predominant way that I go about working with intention instead of delineation in my painting is by working with mass/form, starting with my drawing stage, I use a large brush to roughly indicate the shapes in my painting. I carry this through to the finished stages. The main difference in my approach being, while I am finishing a painting, I tend to concentrate more on tone,texture and feel since the main forms have been well established by that point.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Summer Pond'; as I stated in the video I'm quite fond of this small painting and it resides in my family's personal collection. Currently it's hanging in my living room with a lot of other paintings of my own and other artists.
The thing I am most pleased about with this painting is the complementary coloration in the sky where the blues offset the oranges. I was going through a really big phase of orange and blue skies at the time that I painted this back in January 2014.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Summer Pond by M Francis McCarthy, 8x8, Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
As promised, this is the larger version of 'Summer Pond.' We took a look at the study in our previous blog post. I intend to present a study and a larger version of one of my paintings each week in this blog for a while. I discuss my painting process in today's video. My narration is following along with the paintings progress, so please check that out.
I was speaking with a friend of mine in my studio the other day and he somewhat jokingly asked me why I do not paint palm trees. There are several reasons that I don't paint palm trees, among them is the fact that I don't actually care to paint very specific trees, but in the case of palms the real reason I don't like to paint them is that to get a palm tree across I feel it needs to be well delineated.
This leads us to the topic for today's blog post which is indication versus delineation. What I like to do with my painting is to indicate the forms of clouds, hills, trees, roads and other features of the landscape. I like to work in a loose fractured manner that is still highly indicative of the forms being portrayed. However, when I do not care to do, is to delineate. By delineate, I mean to define things in a detailed manner.
I excelled at delineation for the majority of my life as an artist. I always had a great love for accuracy in draftsmanship and detail in rendering. I would work very hard to get every aspect of my subject as accurate as possible. After many years of toiling in this way, it dawned on me that this approach was not actually serving my art very well. From that point forward, I began to concentrate more on other aspects of my work like, stylization and composition of forms. When I started painting I had the added element of color as well.
Volumes have been written about the differences between fine art and illustration. I have worked in the past, for many years as a commercial illustrator and in my view, the main difference between them, is that illustrators concern themselves with the application of technique and ability to whatever subject matter they are being commissioned to portray, whereas fine art painting is mostly concerned with the creation of a work of art. I would never say that illustration does not qualify as art, what I'm trying to say is that illustration is different from fine art in its primary intentions.
When I am creating a landscape painting, I want the viewer to be very clear about what they are looking at and yet, I also want there to be an aspect of loose, flowing energy that pulls everything together, creating a whole picture rather than a collection of rendered parts. This can sometimes give my paintings a diffused quality, in that individual elements of the scene are not excessively detailed or delineated.
The predominant way that I go about working with intention instead of delineation in my painting is by working with mass/form, starting with my drawing stage, I use a large brush to roughly indicate the shapes in my painting. I carry this through to the finished stages. The main difference in my approach being, while I am finishing a painting, I tend to concentrate more on tone,texture and feel since the main forms have been well established by that point.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Summer Pond'; as I stated in the video I'm quite fond of this small painting and it resides in my family's personal collection. Currently it's hanging in my living room with a lot of other paintings of my own and other artists.
The thing I am most pleased about with this painting is the complementary coloration in the sky where the blues offset the oranges. I was going through a really big phase of orange and blue skies at the time that I painted this back in January 2014.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Summer Pond (Detail) |
Summer Pond (Study)
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Summer Pond' 5x5 (study).
I wrapped up the 100 days of Tonalism series about five days ago. I've taken a nice break and caught up on other work. I've had it in my head that I would like to continue blogging and presenting videos of my work and my working process.
Today's video is about six times faster than I actually paint. I may change the video speed as I judge it appropriate for what I wish to talk about and the paintings that I am presenting. I have high resolution videos of my paintings going back for two years now, but it takes too long to upload these and I'm more comfortable with the sped up lower resolution video format for the purposes of this blog. At some point in the future I hope to have all of the high-rez versions of my painting sessions online.
As I stated in the video narration I started videotaping my work back in January 2014. My wife had given me a nice HD video camera for Christmas and I was keen to capture my process. The video you see accompanying today's blog post is one of my earlier attempts at videotaping. I do not keep the sound portion of the videos at all, so my archives do not include any sound. It's enough to record the brushstrokes for now. Most the time while I'm working I have either an audiobook, music or a podcast going in the background and I just don't think that's important to archive.
What I do enjoy capturing is the creation process of the painting. Even after all these years of doing landscape painting, I still consider it to be an almost mystical occurrence. You would think that painting would get easier with each successive year however, though the paintings may get better, the work really doesn't get much easier after the initial lessons have been learned.
Today's blog post is a bit rambling in nature, however I wanted to keep in touch with those of you that have followed my hundred days of Tonalism project and I really enjoy sharing my work and ideas about painting online. So stick with me and I'm sure if you are interested in painting, especially if you're interested in my painting, you will definitely pick up some good information.
As I stated on the video, I plan to do two paintings/blog posts each week of the same subject, the first painting will be my small study. I intend to do this midweek. The second post will be the larger version of the same motif, Most likely on Friday or the weekend. This is my current idea but I may change or modify things as we go along. As I stated at the end of the hundred days of Tonalism series, I want to keep this blog going for a while and this seems like a good way to do it.
Stay tuned for part two of 'Summer Pond' coming up in a few days.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Summer pond' 5x5; this motif is of a scene that is not that far from my home. I captured my photographic reference one day driving into town from a trip to Auckland. At the time that I did this painting which would have been January 2014 I was very interested in injecting color into my work. So you'll see a lot of orange and blue in the sky which at that time was a color combination that I was very fascinated with.
I'm quite happy with the way this small study worked out. 5x5 is a very small size to work and it's always a challenge to get any actual detail into the painting given that I'm using a pretty large brush. This is intentional and that I like the focus of my smaller studies to be on the color and composition.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Summer Pond by M Francis McCarthy, 5x5 study, Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
I wrapped up the 100 days of Tonalism series about five days ago. I've taken a nice break and caught up on other work. I've had it in my head that I would like to continue blogging and presenting videos of my work and my working process.
Today's video is about six times faster than I actually paint. I may change the video speed as I judge it appropriate for what I wish to talk about and the paintings that I am presenting. I have high resolution videos of my paintings going back for two years now, but it takes too long to upload these and I'm more comfortable with the sped up lower resolution video format for the purposes of this blog. At some point in the future I hope to have all of the high-rez versions of my painting sessions online.
As I stated in the video narration I started videotaping my work back in January 2014. My wife had given me a nice HD video camera for Christmas and I was keen to capture my process. The video you see accompanying today's blog post is one of my earlier attempts at videotaping. I do not keep the sound portion of the videos at all, so my archives do not include any sound. It's enough to record the brushstrokes for now. Most the time while I'm working I have either an audiobook, music or a podcast going in the background and I just don't think that's important to archive.
What I do enjoy capturing is the creation process of the painting. Even after all these years of doing landscape painting, I still consider it to be an almost mystical occurrence. You would think that painting would get easier with each successive year however, though the paintings may get better, the work really doesn't get much easier after the initial lessons have been learned.
Today's blog post is a bit rambling in nature, however I wanted to keep in touch with those of you that have followed my hundred days of Tonalism project and I really enjoy sharing my work and ideas about painting online. So stick with me and I'm sure if you are interested in painting, especially if you're interested in my painting, you will definitely pick up some good information.
As I stated on the video, I plan to do two paintings/blog posts each week of the same subject, the first painting will be my small study. I intend to do this midweek. The second post will be the larger version of the same motif, Most likely on Friday or the weekend. This is my current idea but I may change or modify things as we go along. As I stated at the end of the hundred days of Tonalism series, I want to keep this blog going for a while and this seems like a good way to do it.
Stay tuned for part two of 'Summer Pond' coming up in a few days.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Summer pond' 5x5; this motif is of a scene that is not that far from my home. I captured my photographic reference one day driving into town from a trip to Auckland. At the time that I did this painting which would have been January 2014 I was very interested in injecting color into my work. So you'll see a lot of orange and blue in the sky which at that time was a color combination that I was very fascinated with.
I'm quite happy with the way this small study worked out. 5x5 is a very small size to work and it's always a challenge to get any actual detail into the painting given that I'm using a pretty large brush. This is intentional and that I like the focus of my smaller studies to be on the color and composition.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
Day One Hundred: A Stream Through the Meadow by Arthur Parton
Hello and welcome to Day 100 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'A Stream Through the Meadow' by Arthur Parton.
Well, we've made it to the 100 and I'm proud to say without any gap or days missed. That wasn't always easy especially when I came down with a very nasty flu, however we made it!
Arthur Parton seems to be a popular 19th century painter, lesser known today. Born in 1842 and died in 1914, I've read some biographical information about him on today's video narration, so please check that out.
Just reading over some of my initial blog posts at the start of this series of 100 days of Tonalism; I set out to do four basic things:
I feel that I more than accomplished those aims and I'm very happy with the studies I've painted and satisfied with the writing on the blog and my video work. I would've liked to have been more authoritative in my knowledge of art history and I would've liked to have spent more time with the video narration and the writing that I've done.
However, I've done this blog and the attendant studies and videos in the same spirit that I produce all of my work, and that is through intellectual intention combined with intuition and perspiration. The creative process is intriguing to study in and of itself, and though I ponder it, I do not spend too much time engaged in that endeavor. I prefer to spend my time creating paintings, and I am happy to say that I do that every day and have through the writing of every post on this blog.
It would be disingenuous to say that this project has not affected the quantity of my own paintings that I could've accomplished. It has had a strong positive impact on my work though, and for that I am grateful. As I've stated on this blog previously, I am predominantly self educated having never attended art school or university.
This is one of the main reasons I decided to interrupt the usual work flow of my painting with a period of study and education. I've also succeeded in creating some beautiful studies, and hopefully the work I've done here will help to educate and inspire other artists,laypersons and art collectors to more fully understand and appreciate this compelling period in art history, as well as my contemporary take on Tonalism.
As I stated on today's video narration, I will be continuing this blog on a weekly basis. It occurred to me today that were I to consistently do this I would have another 56 blog posts in a year from now, with far less strain. I intend to put up some videos of my own Tonalist painting and I will be writing accompanying posts. We will probably get a lot deeper into some of the topics and issues that I've discussed on this blog so far, but with a bit more of a personal slant.
Thanks for staying with me this far and please tune in next week to see what I've hatched..
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about a 'Stream through the Meadow' by Arthur Parton; it occurs to me now that I might have selected perhaps an Inness or a Murphy, to end the series but they've had their day and this is Arthur's chance to shine.
I wasn't able to discover a whole lot of biographical information about Arthur online but what I did find I read in today's video. And I did notice that he was referred to as an Impressionist, however the study that we're doing after his painting today is clearly a Tonalist effort on his part.
This painting of his was selected because it is the type of composition that I enjoy painting in my own work. I like to paint a road, river or path that leads the viewer up into the painting and masses of trees on either side with a large expansive sky.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
Today's study is 'A Stream Through the Meadow' by Arthur Parton.
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| Painted after - A Stream Through the Meadow by Arthur Parton, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Well, we've made it to the 100 and I'm proud to say without any gap or days missed. That wasn't always easy especially when I came down with a very nasty flu, however we made it!
Arthur Parton seems to be a popular 19th century painter, lesser known today. Born in 1842 and died in 1914, I've read some biographical information about him on today's video narration, so please check that out.
Just reading over some of my initial blog posts at the start of this series of 100 days of Tonalism; I set out to do four basic things:
- Increase awareness of this vital and fascinating movement in painting.
- Help to expand the audience for my work.
- Expand the general public's awareness and appreciation of Tonalism.
- Generate income from the sale of these fine arts studies.
I feel that I more than accomplished those aims and I'm very happy with the studies I've painted and satisfied with the writing on the blog and my video work. I would've liked to have been more authoritative in my knowledge of art history and I would've liked to have spent more time with the video narration and the writing that I've done.
However, I've done this blog and the attendant studies and videos in the same spirit that I produce all of my work, and that is through intellectual intention combined with intuition and perspiration. The creative process is intriguing to study in and of itself, and though I ponder it, I do not spend too much time engaged in that endeavor. I prefer to spend my time creating paintings, and I am happy to say that I do that every day and have through the writing of every post on this blog.
It would be disingenuous to say that this project has not affected the quantity of my own paintings that I could've accomplished. It has had a strong positive impact on my work though, and for that I am grateful. As I've stated on this blog previously, I am predominantly self educated having never attended art school or university.
This is one of the main reasons I decided to interrupt the usual work flow of my painting with a period of study and education. I've also succeeded in creating some beautiful studies, and hopefully the work I've done here will help to educate and inspire other artists,laypersons and art collectors to more fully understand and appreciate this compelling period in art history, as well as my contemporary take on Tonalism.
As I stated on today's video narration, I will be continuing this blog on a weekly basis. It occurred to me today that were I to consistently do this I would have another 56 blog posts in a year from now, with far less strain. I intend to put up some videos of my own Tonalist painting and I will be writing accompanying posts. We will probably get a lot deeper into some of the topics and issues that I've discussed on this blog so far, but with a bit more of a personal slant.
Thanks for staying with me this far and please tune in next week to see what I've hatched..
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about a 'Stream through the Meadow' by Arthur Parton; it occurs to me now that I might have selected perhaps an Inness or a Murphy, to end the series but they've had their day and this is Arthur's chance to shine.
I wasn't able to discover a whole lot of biographical information about Arthur online but what I did find I read in today's video. And I did notice that he was referred to as an Impressionist, however the study that we're doing after his painting today is clearly a Tonalist effort on his part.
This painting of his was selected because it is the type of composition that I enjoy painting in my own work. I like to paint a road, river or path that leads the viewer up into the painting and masses of trees on either side with a large expansive sky.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Original painting, A Stream Through the Meadow by Arthur Parton |
Day Ninety Nine: October by George Inness
Hello and welcome to Day 99 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'October' by George Inness.
One more day to go and this is our last Inness. I knew I would enjoy making studies after Inness' paintings and I'm so glad that I've had the experience, though it was a lot of hard work. I will be reading from the book George Inness by Nicolai Cikovsky in today's video narration, so please check that out.
Well, we spent the last couple days talking about Modern art which might seem a little disingenuous as the name of the blog is Tonalist Paintings by M Francis McCarthy, and the series we are in is called 100 days of Tonalism.
The reasons I brought up Modern art here are because it has nearly the full attention and financial backing of the current art establishment. Representational art has been making some major inroads though and after 100 years of disparaging representational art, many artists are tired of the freak show and are looking for meaning beyond clever artspeak.
Today, since we have just one more post to go, I think I'll just talk about what attracted me to Tonalism and why I love it. I've always enjoyed art and when I was a young man I was captivated by the art of men like Frank Frazetta and all of the comic greats from my era. I had awareness of fine art as well and a deep respect for people like Michelangelo and Albrecht Durer. As I stated in a previous blog post it wasn't until sometime in the 80s that I began to visualize wanting to be a landscape painter. I've outlined most of that process of discovery fairly well elsewhere in this series of blog posts, so have a look for that if you are interested.
The major thing that has attracted me to Tonalist painting is the richness and strong emotive qualities of it. There are many ways to paint a landscape but after my initial exposure to Tonalism I felt I'd discovered the pinnacle of what had been accomplished by the great artists of the late 1800s and early 20th century. Sadly, as some of you know, much of this work was forgotten as were the artists that created it. This is changing and I'd like to think that my series here, 100 days of Tonalism is helping in that regard.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about a book called the Agony and the Ecstasy about Michelangelo. I read this book when I was a young man and it had a great impact on me. The main thing that struck me about Michelangelo was how passionate he was. At that time in Europe, art was primarily two-dimensional/flat in feel, and though there were plenty of representations of people, often times you could not clearly make out any real anatomy for all of the rendering of folds that was going on. The Europeans did have access to ancient statuary created by the Romans and the Greeks that depicted the human figure correctly and powerfully, but there was little understanding about anatomy in the pre renaissance or, how to accurately render it.
Because Michelangelo was aware of this huge disparity between, what had been in the past and how it surpassed art in his time, he was curious about how to create anatomical art himself that would match or, even surpass the achievements of the Greeks and Romans. He set about teaching himself anatomy studiously even to the point where he would dissect corpses (an act that was illegal in his day).
The reason I bring up Michelangelo in regards to Tonalism is that I see the same sort of thing happening now with landscape painting, in that there are all these masterful Tonalist paintings that exist however, because they've been mostly bypassed and forgotten by art history, many artists are unaware of the achievement and just sort of do whatever it is they're doing, whether that is working in some sort of Impressionist vein, or just doing their best to copy photographs using oil paint. Like Michelangelo I can see that much of the landscape painting that is done by contemporary artists falls far short of the high mark set by the Tonalists at the peak of landscape painting.
After becoming aware of Tonalism I set about doing my best to create paintings that captured the same sort of mood and spiritual depth as the Masters. Whether I've succeeded or not is perhaps best judged by others but I am certainly proud of the attempt and I will continue to create landscape paintings that I find personally moving until I am no longer able to.
As I stated above there are many ways that you can accomplish landscape painting and many moods and ideas can be conveyed by various approaches. For me, no other school of painting has come even close to the level of Tonalism and that is why I spent the better part of this year working on this series in an endeavor to learn more, and also to bring greater awareness to this awesome school of art.
If you are a person that has any questions about Tonalism or Tonalist painting that you feel I can answer, I can be reached easily through my website Landscaperpainter.co.nz I am happy to help you in any way I can, so do not hesitate to contact me.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'October' by George Inness; this is a really great painting by George and one of the studies I am most proud of doing.
I'm very happy with the textural approach that I achieved on the study and as I've stated in previous blog posts, this has very much informed my own Tonalist painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - October by George Inness, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
One more day to go and this is our last Inness. I knew I would enjoy making studies after Inness' paintings and I'm so glad that I've had the experience, though it was a lot of hard work. I will be reading from the book George Inness by Nicolai Cikovsky in today's video narration, so please check that out.
Well, we spent the last couple days talking about Modern art which might seem a little disingenuous as the name of the blog is Tonalist Paintings by M Francis McCarthy, and the series we are in is called 100 days of Tonalism.
The reasons I brought up Modern art here are because it has nearly the full attention and financial backing of the current art establishment. Representational art has been making some major inroads though and after 100 years of disparaging representational art, many artists are tired of the freak show and are looking for meaning beyond clever artspeak.
Today, since we have just one more post to go, I think I'll just talk about what attracted me to Tonalism and why I love it. I've always enjoyed art and when I was a young man I was captivated by the art of men like Frank Frazetta and all of the comic greats from my era. I had awareness of fine art as well and a deep respect for people like Michelangelo and Albrecht Durer. As I stated in a previous blog post it wasn't until sometime in the 80s that I began to visualize wanting to be a landscape painter. I've outlined most of that process of discovery fairly well elsewhere in this series of blog posts, so have a look for that if you are interested.
The major thing that has attracted me to Tonalist painting is the richness and strong emotive qualities of it. There are many ways to paint a landscape but after my initial exposure to Tonalism I felt I'd discovered the pinnacle of what had been accomplished by the great artists of the late 1800s and early 20th century. Sadly, as some of you know, much of this work was forgotten as were the artists that created it. This is changing and I'd like to think that my series here, 100 days of Tonalism is helping in that regard.
I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about a book called the Agony and the Ecstasy about Michelangelo. I read this book when I was a young man and it had a great impact on me. The main thing that struck me about Michelangelo was how passionate he was. At that time in Europe, art was primarily two-dimensional/flat in feel, and though there were plenty of representations of people, often times you could not clearly make out any real anatomy for all of the rendering of folds that was going on. The Europeans did have access to ancient statuary created by the Romans and the Greeks that depicted the human figure correctly and powerfully, but there was little understanding about anatomy in the pre renaissance or, how to accurately render it.
Because Michelangelo was aware of this huge disparity between, what had been in the past and how it surpassed art in his time, he was curious about how to create anatomical art himself that would match or, even surpass the achievements of the Greeks and Romans. He set about teaching himself anatomy studiously even to the point where he would dissect corpses (an act that was illegal in his day).
The reason I bring up Michelangelo in regards to Tonalism is that I see the same sort of thing happening now with landscape painting, in that there are all these masterful Tonalist paintings that exist however, because they've been mostly bypassed and forgotten by art history, many artists are unaware of the achievement and just sort of do whatever it is they're doing, whether that is working in some sort of Impressionist vein, or just doing their best to copy photographs using oil paint. Like Michelangelo I can see that much of the landscape painting that is done by contemporary artists falls far short of the high mark set by the Tonalists at the peak of landscape painting.
After becoming aware of Tonalism I set about doing my best to create paintings that captured the same sort of mood and spiritual depth as the Masters. Whether I've succeeded or not is perhaps best judged by others but I am certainly proud of the attempt and I will continue to create landscape paintings that I find personally moving until I am no longer able to.
As I stated above there are many ways that you can accomplish landscape painting and many moods and ideas can be conveyed by various approaches. For me, no other school of painting has come even close to the level of Tonalism and that is why I spent the better part of this year working on this series in an endeavor to learn more, and also to bring greater awareness to this awesome school of art.
If you are a person that has any questions about Tonalism or Tonalist painting that you feel I can answer, I can be reached easily through my website Landscaperpainter.co.nz I am happy to help you in any way I can, so do not hesitate to contact me.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'October' by George Inness; this is a really great painting by George and one of the studies I am most proud of doing.
I'm very happy with the textural approach that I achieved on the study and as I've stated in previous blog posts, this has very much informed my own Tonalist painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, October by George Inness |
Day Ninety Eight: Sunset by Charles Warren Eaton
Hello and welcome to day 98 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Sunset' by Charles Warren Eaton.
We've done a lot of Eaton's in the series and this is the last one. As I mentioned in our previous Eaton post I recently received a book by David A Cleveland called Intimate Landscapes Charles Warren Eaton and the Tonalist movement in American art 1880 to 1920. This book was written before Davids seminal work A History of American Tonalism 1880 to 1920 and is currently out of print. The book was not cheap and I recommend it only for only the most fanatical fans of Tonalism out there (which would include myself). I will be reading from this book today in the video narration so please check that out.
Yesterday I was writing about how there is nothing new in art. I'm afraid my post devolved into yet another rant against a Modern art. I'd like to qualify my views on Modern art a little more extensively today, as this is a topic with a lot of grays and my post yesterday made it seem like my views are black and white.
I am not arguing (as some do) that there should never have been a shift in painting towards, what is now termed Modern art. The reality is that there are many Modern artists whose work I admire and find moving. A short list off the top of my head would include Rothko, Gerhard Richter, Franz Klein, Picasso, Gauguin, late period Willem de Kooning and others that I'm sure just are not coming to mind at the moment. I'm also fan of much of the surrealist work done by Salvador Dali.
I am not an art historian, I am an artist. For that reason I feel absolutely no need to be objective about Modern art or the reasons why it came into existence. I do think that it was probably a good thing that Modern art came along to shake things up. Although, truth be told, things were changing prior to abstracted work taking over, starting with the Barbizon School, moving to Impressionism and post-impressionism and of course Tonalism. Prior to Modern art, some of the classic representational art was becoming staid, over polished and plastic in quality. It's clear that something needed to change.
Even though art needed to shift, much of value was lost in the process, to the point where we're facing an extreme devolution of art now that needs to be remedied. I don't want to list the names of offending Modern artists but I will say that a majority of modern art that I am exposed to, I find to be loathsome and highly offensive. The story that always comes to mind is the Emperor's new clothes. As in that story, something that did not exist and was not worth admiring was regarded highly and lies were put forward as truth while everyone clapped along.
I will always find this offensive. I do not blame artists that are enmeshed in the Modern art hyperbole. Well, I don't blame them much. The fact that some non-representational modern art is actually moving and worth looking at just complicates matters.
In most things, I think you can apply the 80/20 rule but when it comes to much of contemporary modern art, I think it's probably more accurate to apply the 98% versus 2% rule. In other words, 98% of contemporary modern art is dreck and does not deserve to exist, much less be promulgated as anything worth paying attention to let alone paid for.
Sorry, (ahem) it's so easy for me to rant about this topic because I feel very strongly about it. I do try to be fair though, and since that was the initial purpose of this blog post, let me just end todays post here by saying that some Modern art is absolutely wonderful and some Modern artists are really fantastic. Although I often tar the entire movement of contemporary Modern art with the same brush, it deserves to be stated that some of this stuff is okay and a very small percentage is better than okay, it's great.
It's up to each of us as artists or appreciators of art, in the contemporary milieu, to set upon a course whereby we are separating the wheat from the chaff of Modern art, at least for ourselves.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Sunset' by Charles Warren Eaton; this is a later period Eaton and I've seen it online quite a few times. In the painting by Eaton you can make out that the background has houses in it. I didn't bother to put that in preferring to keep it somewhat oblique. I enjoyed painting this study and I like the way that the gold and ochre tones contrasts against the green in the foreground.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Sunset by Charles Warren Eaton, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
We've done a lot of Eaton's in the series and this is the last one. As I mentioned in our previous Eaton post I recently received a book by David A Cleveland called Intimate Landscapes Charles Warren Eaton and the Tonalist movement in American art 1880 to 1920. This book was written before Davids seminal work A History of American Tonalism 1880 to 1920 and is currently out of print. The book was not cheap and I recommend it only for only the most fanatical fans of Tonalism out there (which would include myself). I will be reading from this book today in the video narration so please check that out.
Yesterday I was writing about how there is nothing new in art. I'm afraid my post devolved into yet another rant against a Modern art. I'd like to qualify my views on Modern art a little more extensively today, as this is a topic with a lot of grays and my post yesterday made it seem like my views are black and white.
I am not arguing (as some do) that there should never have been a shift in painting towards, what is now termed Modern art. The reality is that there are many Modern artists whose work I admire and find moving. A short list off the top of my head would include Rothko, Gerhard Richter, Franz Klein, Picasso, Gauguin, late period Willem de Kooning and others that I'm sure just are not coming to mind at the moment. I'm also fan of much of the surrealist work done by Salvador Dali.
I am not an art historian, I am an artist. For that reason I feel absolutely no need to be objective about Modern art or the reasons why it came into existence. I do think that it was probably a good thing that Modern art came along to shake things up. Although, truth be told, things were changing prior to abstracted work taking over, starting with the Barbizon School, moving to Impressionism and post-impressionism and of course Tonalism. Prior to Modern art, some of the classic representational art was becoming staid, over polished and plastic in quality. It's clear that something needed to change.
Even though art needed to shift, much of value was lost in the process, to the point where we're facing an extreme devolution of art now that needs to be remedied. I don't want to list the names of offending Modern artists but I will say that a majority of modern art that I am exposed to, I find to be loathsome and highly offensive. The story that always comes to mind is the Emperor's new clothes. As in that story, something that did not exist and was not worth admiring was regarded highly and lies were put forward as truth while everyone clapped along.
I will always find this offensive. I do not blame artists that are enmeshed in the Modern art hyperbole. Well, I don't blame them much. The fact that some non-representational modern art is actually moving and worth looking at just complicates matters.
In most things, I think you can apply the 80/20 rule but when it comes to much of contemporary modern art, I think it's probably more accurate to apply the 98% versus 2% rule. In other words, 98% of contemporary modern art is dreck and does not deserve to exist, much less be promulgated as anything worth paying attention to let alone paid for.
Sorry, (ahem) it's so easy for me to rant about this topic because I feel very strongly about it. I do try to be fair though, and since that was the initial purpose of this blog post, let me just end todays post here by saying that some Modern art is absolutely wonderful and some Modern artists are really fantastic. Although I often tar the entire movement of contemporary Modern art with the same brush, it deserves to be stated that some of this stuff is okay and a very small percentage is better than okay, it's great.
It's up to each of us as artists or appreciators of art, in the contemporary milieu, to set upon a course whereby we are separating the wheat from the chaff of Modern art, at least for ourselves.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Sunset' by Charles Warren Eaton; this is a later period Eaton and I've seen it online quite a few times. In the painting by Eaton you can make out that the background has houses in it. I didn't bother to put that in preferring to keep it somewhat oblique. I enjoyed painting this study and I like the way that the gold and ochre tones contrasts against the green in the foreground.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting,Sunset by Charles Warren Eaton |
Day Ninety Seven: Le Monastere Derrier Les-Arbres by Camille Corot
Hello and welcome to day 97 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Le Monastere Derrier Les-Arbres' by Camille Corot.
Camile Corot was very influential on the Tonalist movement in American art. Camille was not actually a Tonalist painter himself, he was a member of the French Barbizon school. Today's video features a track from my album It Never Was, so please check that out.
I'd like to talk today about the concept of newness and modern art. Frankly, there is no such thing as newness in art. What passes for newness these days? Is it art that has been done over and over again for the last hundred years? The idea that the purpose of art is to shock, comment on societal ills or serve the whims of fashion is not new in any way, shape or form. Yet, these ideas are still passed off over and over again as fresh.
There is a conspiracy promulgated by art schools and the fine art establishment in general to keep artists from researching the true history of art, and also from developing a real skillset based on hours of experience drawing and painting. What is replacing this valid education based on experience, is some sort of idea that art should strike you like a lightning bolt out of the blue, that the less you know about (real) art the better you will be.
When people do not have a skill set based on actual experience most of their artistic output will be regurgitated from the work of others and not in a good way. What I mean is a lot of cribbing/stealing decorated with elusive,enigmatic titles and disguised as original work.
If the purpose of your work is to be clever and to receive accolades from the art establishment all you really need to do is learn how to do artspeak and kiss the asses of the local art establishment. I've talked about this negative idea called Modern art many times. I would apologize except for the fact that so many regular people have given up on fine art and just dismissed it (often deservedly) as vacant and lacking in true purpose or meaning.
When you see a painting of some colored dots assembled in rows above each other selling for 40 or $50,000 (that was not even painted by the artist whose name is going on the canvas), most normal people will disregard this as bogus and simply spend their time and attention in more fruitful pursuits, like sports, eating stuff or watching Netflix.
What's unfortunate about this state of affairs, is that fine art has the power and ability to spiritually uplift humanity and yet many worthy artists receive little support financially or emotionally from their communities. Perhaps the reason for this is that many of our museums are mostly full of claptrap instead of art of a moving and significant nature.
Getting back to our theme today. There is nothing new that has not already been done. Nothing. So what is a contemporary artist to do?
I believe that this question is best answered with self-examination and consideration of what has come before. When a cabinet maker creates a piece of furniture, he does not set out to create something new, he sets out to build something that is functional, useful and beautiful. I believe you can apply this same sort of criteria to the creation of fine art.
If your intention is to uplift people's spirits and create beauty, you need to acquire the skills that will make this possible. You should study the work of the past Masters to accomplish this goal. By doing this and being true to who and what you are as a human being and an artist, your work will be fresh and new, There can only be one of each of us, but to create great work, that uniqueness must be educated, tested, toughened and most of all experienced.
I'm not saying that you should actively copy the work of past Masters unless you are doing so (as I am in this series) for the sake of education or illumination. I believe you should create from the heart and from the deepest recesses of your own being. And there is absolutely no problem with that creation being informed by the great work that has come before.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Le Monastere Derrier Les-Arbres' by Camille Corot; this was an interesting study to do/ One of the best parts of Camille's painting is the atmospheric quality. I did my best to get this across in my study as well as the muted taupe and silver quality of his painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Le Monastere by Camille Corot, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Camile Corot was very influential on the Tonalist movement in American art. Camille was not actually a Tonalist painter himself, he was a member of the French Barbizon school. Today's video features a track from my album It Never Was, so please check that out.
I'd like to talk today about the concept of newness and modern art. Frankly, there is no such thing as newness in art. What passes for newness these days? Is it art that has been done over and over again for the last hundred years? The idea that the purpose of art is to shock, comment on societal ills or serve the whims of fashion is not new in any way, shape or form. Yet, these ideas are still passed off over and over again as fresh.
There is a conspiracy promulgated by art schools and the fine art establishment in general to keep artists from researching the true history of art, and also from developing a real skillset based on hours of experience drawing and painting. What is replacing this valid education based on experience, is some sort of idea that art should strike you like a lightning bolt out of the blue, that the less you know about (real) art the better you will be.
When people do not have a skill set based on actual experience most of their artistic output will be regurgitated from the work of others and not in a good way. What I mean is a lot of cribbing/stealing decorated with elusive,enigmatic titles and disguised as original work.
If the purpose of your work is to be clever and to receive accolades from the art establishment all you really need to do is learn how to do artspeak and kiss the asses of the local art establishment. I've talked about this negative idea called Modern art many times. I would apologize except for the fact that so many regular people have given up on fine art and just dismissed it (often deservedly) as vacant and lacking in true purpose or meaning.
When you see a painting of some colored dots assembled in rows above each other selling for 40 or $50,000 (that was not even painted by the artist whose name is going on the canvas), most normal people will disregard this as bogus and simply spend their time and attention in more fruitful pursuits, like sports, eating stuff or watching Netflix.
What's unfortunate about this state of affairs, is that fine art has the power and ability to spiritually uplift humanity and yet many worthy artists receive little support financially or emotionally from their communities. Perhaps the reason for this is that many of our museums are mostly full of claptrap instead of art of a moving and significant nature.
Getting back to our theme today. There is nothing new that has not already been done. Nothing. So what is a contemporary artist to do?
I believe that this question is best answered with self-examination and consideration of what has come before. When a cabinet maker creates a piece of furniture, he does not set out to create something new, he sets out to build something that is functional, useful and beautiful. I believe you can apply this same sort of criteria to the creation of fine art.
If your intention is to uplift people's spirits and create beauty, you need to acquire the skills that will make this possible. You should study the work of the past Masters to accomplish this goal. By doing this and being true to who and what you are as a human being and an artist, your work will be fresh and new, There can only be one of each of us, but to create great work, that uniqueness must be educated, tested, toughened and most of all experienced.
I'm not saying that you should actively copy the work of past Masters unless you are doing so (as I am in this series) for the sake of education or illumination. I believe you should create from the heart and from the deepest recesses of your own being. And there is absolutely no problem with that creation being informed by the great work that has come before.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Le Monastere Derrier Les-Arbres' by Camille Corot; this was an interesting study to do/ One of the best parts of Camille's painting is the atmospheric quality. I did my best to get this across in my study as well as the muted taupe and silver quality of his painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Le Monastere Derrier Les-Arbres by Camille Corot |
Day Ninety Six: Untitled by Robertson Kirtland Mygatt
Hello and welcome to day 96 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today study is 'Untitled' by Robertson Kirtland Mygatt.
Robertson Kirtland Mygatt is a lesser-known Tonalist artist. I have found some biographical information about him which I've read in today's video narration, so please check that out.
Every artist is different and is motivated by different aspects of life to create art. For my part, I essentially decided to be an artist when I was about 13 years old. Art was just one of the many things that I was good at back then. Being a teenager, I was aware that it wouldn't be that long before I would have to leave the shelter of my family and make my own way in the world.
Though my personality was still forming in many ways, I had a decent amount of self-awareness, and after considering the types of career that would be complementary with my personality, I decided art would be the way to go.
From that time forward, I started applying myself industriously to learning how to draw. I remember doing an oil painting back then. I had such a clear image in my mind of what I wanted to do, yet when it came time to paint it, I discovered how little I knew about painting and, how difficult it would be to create something that was even close to comparable with the work of the artists that I admired.
I bailed on that early painting but I stuck with drawing. I would draw everyday, back then, I was very into comic books and I would spend time copying the pictures. I would draw the anatomy of the figures in the various panels. It wasn't long before I became aware of the differences between pencilers and inkers. I noticed that mediocre pencils could be made to look quite good if the penciler had a good inker and conversely that a great pencilled work could be super diminished with shoddy or haphazard inking.
I started teaching myself how to ink using dip pens, I also would use technical pens. After a while I learned how to use a sable brush to ink my pencil drawings. This put me quite far ahead of my peers that were also interested in drawing. They would work very hard on their pencil drawings but would be loath to ink them as they had no real experience of inking. I think that this early exposure to working with brushes and ink was very helpful for my later career as a oil painter.
The thing about ink is that it is much different than pencil. When you make a mark with pen and ink it is either black or white. There is no gray, no intermediate values just on or off. this approach to values provided good learning experience.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Untitled' by Robertson Kirtland Mygatt; Robert is one of those artists that you really need to know his middle name to find out anything about. He seems to been almost completely forgotten. This painting is very representative of the work of his I've seen in my research into him online.
I've actually completed two studies, having sold the first version a few months ago. It's interesting to me how my painting changes with time and accompanying shifts in consciousness.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Untitled by Robertson Kirtland Mygatt, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Robertson Kirtland Mygatt is a lesser-known Tonalist artist. I have found some biographical information about him which I've read in today's video narration, so please check that out.
Every artist is different and is motivated by different aspects of life to create art. For my part, I essentially decided to be an artist when I was about 13 years old. Art was just one of the many things that I was good at back then. Being a teenager, I was aware that it wouldn't be that long before I would have to leave the shelter of my family and make my own way in the world.
Though my personality was still forming in many ways, I had a decent amount of self-awareness, and after considering the types of career that would be complementary with my personality, I decided art would be the way to go.
From that time forward, I started applying myself industriously to learning how to draw. I remember doing an oil painting back then. I had such a clear image in my mind of what I wanted to do, yet when it came time to paint it, I discovered how little I knew about painting and, how difficult it would be to create something that was even close to comparable with the work of the artists that I admired.
I bailed on that early painting but I stuck with drawing. I would draw everyday, back then, I was very into comic books and I would spend time copying the pictures. I would draw the anatomy of the figures in the various panels. It wasn't long before I became aware of the differences between pencilers and inkers. I noticed that mediocre pencils could be made to look quite good if the penciler had a good inker and conversely that a great pencilled work could be super diminished with shoddy or haphazard inking.
I started teaching myself how to ink using dip pens, I also would use technical pens. After a while I learned how to use a sable brush to ink my pencil drawings. This put me quite far ahead of my peers that were also interested in drawing. They would work very hard on their pencil drawings but would be loath to ink them as they had no real experience of inking. I think that this early exposure to working with brushes and ink was very helpful for my later career as a oil painter.
The thing about ink is that it is much different than pencil. When you make a mark with pen and ink it is either black or white. There is no gray, no intermediate values just on or off. this approach to values provided good learning experience.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Untitled' by Robertson Kirtland Mygatt; Robert is one of those artists that you really need to know his middle name to find out anything about. He seems to been almost completely forgotten. This painting is very representative of the work of his I've seen in my research into him online.
I've actually completed two studies, having sold the first version a few months ago. It's interesting to me how my painting changes with time and accompanying shifts in consciousness.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Untitled by Robertson Kirtland Mygatt |
Day Ninety Five: By the Lake by George Inness
Hello and welcome day 95 to 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'By the Lake' by George Inness.
Just one more George Inness study after this one. This piece I believe is mid period Inness, most likely painted somewhere in the 1870s. On today's video narration, I read some biographical information about George Inness from the book George Inness by Nicolai Cikovsky Jr so please check that out.
I was reading from a book I just acquired about Charles Warren Eaton today. I mentioned this book in our last post about Charles Warren Eaton. The book was very interesting because it was discussing the beginnings of the Tonalist movement in art.
In many ways this period in art history from 1880 to 1920 is disregarded by some art historians or it is lumped in with the Barbizon school. In actuality, Tonalism is a very American form of painting and is quite different from Barbizon work. Although many of the greatest proponents of Tonalism were trained in the Barbizon school, what they created in the United States was very much a reflection of American and not European art.
Previous to the Tonalist movement, the style of painting that was popular in the United States was a movement called the Hudson River School. I've mentioned them many times on this blog. The Hudson River School was dedicated to capturing the splendor of the American landscape in large canvases, exquisitely detailed and rendered with polished finishes. In many ways this movement in art was running along with Tonalism which superseded and improved upon it.
Whereas the Hudson River School was about objective depictions of the vastness of nature with scenes often depicting glorious vistas of the unexplored American wilderness, Tonalism endeavored to portray a more subjective and emotional approach. Many Tonalist paintings being of every day farm life, of vacant fields or views by a river or creek. This Tonalist move from the objective to subjective is one of the precursors to modern art.
Though Tonalism is considered to be representational art; because it features the subjective, it is more poetical than scientific and, for that reason, timeless. When I first came upon this type of work I could not believe that it was not more widely known about. Our blog post yesterday spoke about some of the ways and reasons that artwork from the representational era is considered by some to be passé and not relevant to modern sensibilities.
If this sort of thinking was actually true, then there would be no reason to read any book that was published further back than 10 or 20 years. Anybody with any sense knows that this would be a stupid idea. So much classic literature going back to the Iliad by Homer is worthy of study and conveys emotion and poetry as powerfully now as it did when it was written.
This is true of fine painting as well. I dedicated a large portion of my working life this year to the study and promotion of these Tonalist Masters. I also devoted quite a lot of time to videotaping, editing videos and writing this blog. It's my way of learning on the job but also giving something back to the artists that came before me.
As someone who did not officially go to art school or study for any great length of time in the studio of a Master painter I felt it was incumbent upon me to take some time from my own painting life to learn more about how these great painters of the past accomplished the magnificent work that they did, and to share that knowledge and hopefully convert some of it to wisdom.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'By the Lake' by George Inness; this was a fun and relatively easy study to do. As I stated in the video I enjoyed painting the sky and I really feel that it is the focal point of this painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - By the Lake by George Inness, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Just one more George Inness study after this one. This piece I believe is mid period Inness, most likely painted somewhere in the 1870s. On today's video narration, I read some biographical information about George Inness from the book George Inness by Nicolai Cikovsky Jr so please check that out.
I was reading from a book I just acquired about Charles Warren Eaton today. I mentioned this book in our last post about Charles Warren Eaton. The book was very interesting because it was discussing the beginnings of the Tonalist movement in art.
In many ways this period in art history from 1880 to 1920 is disregarded by some art historians or it is lumped in with the Barbizon school. In actuality, Tonalism is a very American form of painting and is quite different from Barbizon work. Although many of the greatest proponents of Tonalism were trained in the Barbizon school, what they created in the United States was very much a reflection of American and not European art.
Previous to the Tonalist movement, the style of painting that was popular in the United States was a movement called the Hudson River School. I've mentioned them many times on this blog. The Hudson River School was dedicated to capturing the splendor of the American landscape in large canvases, exquisitely detailed and rendered with polished finishes. In many ways this movement in art was running along with Tonalism which superseded and improved upon it.
Whereas the Hudson River School was about objective depictions of the vastness of nature with scenes often depicting glorious vistas of the unexplored American wilderness, Tonalism endeavored to portray a more subjective and emotional approach. Many Tonalist paintings being of every day farm life, of vacant fields or views by a river or creek. This Tonalist move from the objective to subjective is one of the precursors to modern art.
Though Tonalism is considered to be representational art; because it features the subjective, it is more poetical than scientific and, for that reason, timeless. When I first came upon this type of work I could not believe that it was not more widely known about. Our blog post yesterday spoke about some of the ways and reasons that artwork from the representational era is considered by some to be passé and not relevant to modern sensibilities.
If this sort of thinking was actually true, then there would be no reason to read any book that was published further back than 10 or 20 years. Anybody with any sense knows that this would be a stupid idea. So much classic literature going back to the Iliad by Homer is worthy of study and conveys emotion and poetry as powerfully now as it did when it was written.
This is true of fine painting as well. I dedicated a large portion of my working life this year to the study and promotion of these Tonalist Masters. I also devoted quite a lot of time to videotaping, editing videos and writing this blog. It's my way of learning on the job but also giving something back to the artists that came before me.
As someone who did not officially go to art school or study for any great length of time in the studio of a Master painter I felt it was incumbent upon me to take some time from my own painting life to learn more about how these great painters of the past accomplished the magnificent work that they did, and to share that knowledge and hopefully convert some of it to wisdom.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'By the Lake' by George Inness; this was a fun and relatively easy study to do. As I stated in the video I enjoyed painting the sky and I really feel that it is the focal point of this painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, By the Lake by George Inness |
Day Ninety Four: Hillside by John Francis Murphy
Hello welcome to Day 94 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Hillside' by John Francis Murphy.
This is our last John Francis Murphy today, I saved one of the nicest studies for last. In today's video narration I read from the book A History of American Tonalism 1882-1920 by David A Cleveland, so please check that out.
Yesterday I was reading a very interesting post from a site called artrenewal.org. Artrenewal.org is a site that supports representational art and features the work of many artists throughout history as well as artists, it refers to as Living Masters. They run yearly competitions where they give prizes and they also have a large amount of imagery there. That is always been my predominant attraction to the site.
The article I was reading yesterday was very interesting. It was by a gentleman named Frederick Ross and the title of the article is 'Why Realism?'
I'm providing you with a link to the article here. It is very long and I cannot say that I agree with everything that Frederick says in it, however he makes some excellent points in regards to modern art. Those of you that have read this blog for any length of time will be aware that though there is some modern art that I enjoy, much of it I find odious, foul and an insult to the term art.
Here's a quotation from that article that I think is very pertinent to 'Modern art':
What Modernists have done has been to aid and abet the destruction of the only universal language by which artists can communicate our humanity to the rest of ...well humanity. It has been a goal of mine for many years to expose the truth of modernist art history, and it is very much on topic to bring into question any practice which purports to analyze art history in a way that deliberately suppresses a valid and correct understanding of what actually happened.
And it is of the utmost importance that the history of what actually took place not be lost for all time due to the transitory prejudice and tastes of a single era. This must be done if art history as a field of scholarship is not to be ultimately discovered to have devolved into nothing more than documents of propaganda; geared towards market enhancement for valuable collections passed down as wealth conserving stores of value.
Successful dealers, who derived great wealth by selling such works...works created in hours instead of weeks... had little trouble lining up articulate masters of our language to build complex jargon presented everywhere as brilliant analysis. These market influenced treatises ensured the financial protection of these collections.
Such "artspeak" as it has come to be known is a form of contrivance which uses self consciously complex and convoluted word combinations (babble) to impress, mesmerize and ultimately to silence the human instinct so that it cannot identify honestly what has been paraded before it.
This is accomplished by brainwashing through authority, confounding the evidence of our senses that otherwise any sane person would question. The "authority" of high positions, and the "authority" of books and print, and the "authority" of certificates of accreditation attached to the names of the chief proponents of modernism, have all conspired to impress and humble those whose common sense would rise up in opposition to what would have been evident nonsense if it had emanated from the mouths and pens of anyone without such a preponderance of "authority" backing them up.
Frederick Ross
Strong words from Frederick, but he's calling it the way he sees it and it's hard to disagree. Sad as it is, in today's art market words have replaced perception. Obfuscation has replaced lucidity and cleverness has replaced craft.
It doesn't have to be that way. I for one refuse to surrender my art to artifice. Every artist should be true to their own inner voice and guidance. The artwork that we leave behind speaks for us more than words ever could. And ultimately the work will speak louder than the 'artspeak' propaganda that supports so much mediocrity these days.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Hillside' by John Francis Murphy; this was such a fun study to do. I really got a lot out of working at the feet of the Master.
If you tune into today's video narration there is some excellent information provided by David A Cleveland about John Francis Murphy's later period and I highly recommend you check it out.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Hillside by John Francis Murphy, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
This is our last John Francis Murphy today, I saved one of the nicest studies for last. In today's video narration I read from the book A History of American Tonalism 1882-1920 by David A Cleveland, so please check that out.
Yesterday I was reading a very interesting post from a site called artrenewal.org. Artrenewal.org is a site that supports representational art and features the work of many artists throughout history as well as artists, it refers to as Living Masters. They run yearly competitions where they give prizes and they also have a large amount of imagery there. That is always been my predominant attraction to the site.
The article I was reading yesterday was very interesting. It was by a gentleman named Frederick Ross and the title of the article is 'Why Realism?'
I'm providing you with a link to the article here. It is very long and I cannot say that I agree with everything that Frederick says in it, however he makes some excellent points in regards to modern art. Those of you that have read this blog for any length of time will be aware that though there is some modern art that I enjoy, much of it I find odious, foul and an insult to the term art.
Here's a quotation from that article that I think is very pertinent to 'Modern art':
What Modernists have done has been to aid and abet the destruction of the only universal language by which artists can communicate our humanity to the rest of ...well humanity. It has been a goal of mine for many years to expose the truth of modernist art history, and it is very much on topic to bring into question any practice which purports to analyze art history in a way that deliberately suppresses a valid and correct understanding of what actually happened.
And it is of the utmost importance that the history of what actually took place not be lost for all time due to the transitory prejudice and tastes of a single era. This must be done if art history as a field of scholarship is not to be ultimately discovered to have devolved into nothing more than documents of propaganda; geared towards market enhancement for valuable collections passed down as wealth conserving stores of value.
Successful dealers, who derived great wealth by selling such works...works created in hours instead of weeks... had little trouble lining up articulate masters of our language to build complex jargon presented everywhere as brilliant analysis. These market influenced treatises ensured the financial protection of these collections.
Such "artspeak" as it has come to be known is a form of contrivance which uses self consciously complex and convoluted word combinations (babble) to impress, mesmerize and ultimately to silence the human instinct so that it cannot identify honestly what has been paraded before it.
This is accomplished by brainwashing through authority, confounding the evidence of our senses that otherwise any sane person would question. The "authority" of high positions, and the "authority" of books and print, and the "authority" of certificates of accreditation attached to the names of the chief proponents of modernism, have all conspired to impress and humble those whose common sense would rise up in opposition to what would have been evident nonsense if it had emanated from the mouths and pens of anyone without such a preponderance of "authority" backing them up.
Frederick Ross
Strong words from Frederick, but he's calling it the way he sees it and it's hard to disagree. Sad as it is, in today's art market words have replaced perception. Obfuscation has replaced lucidity and cleverness has replaced craft.
It doesn't have to be that way. I for one refuse to surrender my art to artifice. Every artist should be true to their own inner voice and guidance. The artwork that we leave behind speaks for us more than words ever could. And ultimately the work will speak louder than the 'artspeak' propaganda that supports so much mediocrity these days.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Hillside' by John Francis Murphy; this was such a fun study to do. I really got a lot out of working at the feet of the Master.
If you tune into today's video narration there is some excellent information provided by David A Cleveland about John Francis Murphy's later period and I highly recommend you check it out.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Hillside by John Francis Murphy |
Day Ninety Three: November Landscape by Charles Warren Eaton
Hello and welcome to day 93 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today study is 'November Landscape' by Charles Warren Eaton.
We've done a lot of studies after Eaton in this series. Today study is very representative of his later period, when he was doing a lot of white pines, often silhouetted against sunset or twilight skies. I will be reading some information about Charles Warren Eaton from the book Intimate Landscapes: Charles Warren Eaton by David a Cleveland (which I have just received in the mail), on today's video narration so please check that out.
Today, I'd like to talk about capturing feeling in art. In yesterday's video narration I was speaking about how there are so many feelings that we have, that words cannot describe easily. When you actually think about it, we have a very limited palette with which to render our feelings. We have words like happy, sad, angry or depressed. These words capture only the most extroverted and dense feelings.
For expressing the subtler feelings we have poetry and we have painting. Both of these arts are difficult to master. It is all too easy to make bad paintings and to write bad poetry. For these mediums to appropriately convey the more subtle feelings, the artist or poet must work at their craft for a good while and even then there is no guarantee that they will be able to express anything that actually moves other people.
I was attracted to Tonalism because of the visceral emotive power of this mode of expression. It has taken me many years to get to a point where I feel that I'm doing work that is accurately conveying emotion. When people ask me why I do landscapes and not portraiture or still life, the reason that I give them is that I feel that landscape has the greatest ability to impart emotion, better than any other subject matter. The reason for this is that the landscape is essentially neutral, we all come to it as individuals.
If I were to make a painting of an emotional person it would not have the same ability to move someone especially in the subtle ways that a landscape painting can. If you've ever been outside during a sunset or twilight, you know that special magical feeling that we can all experience. This is a time of enchanting, luminescent light.
Using art to convey emotion is one of the highest accomplishments that any artists can achieve. And by emotion I mean the most profound and ephemeral feelings we have. It's no secret that art can be used to portray the coarser emotions as well, but I see no point in that other than the pursuit of some sort of cleverness.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'November Landscape' by Charles Warren Eaton; I enjoyed doing this study although I felt a bit constrained by the very small size of the panel and, also by the fact that my reference image is a bit blown out.
Like most of Eaton's paintings of white pines so much of the painting's success relies on the contours of the trees against the brighter sky.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - November Landscape by Charles Warren Eaton, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
We've done a lot of studies after Eaton in this series. Today study is very representative of his later period, when he was doing a lot of white pines, often silhouetted against sunset or twilight skies. I will be reading some information about Charles Warren Eaton from the book Intimate Landscapes: Charles Warren Eaton by David a Cleveland (which I have just received in the mail), on today's video narration so please check that out.
Today, I'd like to talk about capturing feeling in art. In yesterday's video narration I was speaking about how there are so many feelings that we have, that words cannot describe easily. When you actually think about it, we have a very limited palette with which to render our feelings. We have words like happy, sad, angry or depressed. These words capture only the most extroverted and dense feelings.
For expressing the subtler feelings we have poetry and we have painting. Both of these arts are difficult to master. It is all too easy to make bad paintings and to write bad poetry. For these mediums to appropriately convey the more subtle feelings, the artist or poet must work at their craft for a good while and even then there is no guarantee that they will be able to express anything that actually moves other people.
I was attracted to Tonalism because of the visceral emotive power of this mode of expression. It has taken me many years to get to a point where I feel that I'm doing work that is accurately conveying emotion. When people ask me why I do landscapes and not portraiture or still life, the reason that I give them is that I feel that landscape has the greatest ability to impart emotion, better than any other subject matter. The reason for this is that the landscape is essentially neutral, we all come to it as individuals.
If I were to make a painting of an emotional person it would not have the same ability to move someone especially in the subtle ways that a landscape painting can. If you've ever been outside during a sunset or twilight, you know that special magical feeling that we can all experience. This is a time of enchanting, luminescent light.
Using art to convey emotion is one of the highest accomplishments that any artists can achieve. And by emotion I mean the most profound and ephemeral feelings we have. It's no secret that art can be used to portray the coarser emotions as well, but I see no point in that other than the pursuit of some sort of cleverness.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'November Landscape' by Charles Warren Eaton; I enjoyed doing this study although I felt a bit constrained by the very small size of the panel and, also by the fact that my reference image is a bit blown out.
Like most of Eaton's paintings of white pines so much of the painting's success relies on the contours of the trees against the brighter sky.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, November Landscape by Charles Warren Eaton |
Day Ninety Two: Moonlight Tarpon Springs by George Inness
Hello and welcome to day 92 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today study is 'Moonlight Tarpon Springs' by George Inness.
Those of you following this blog will be well aware of the work of George Inness by now. This is our second to last Inness study. One of the major reasons that I undertook this project was in an effort to absorb and integrate more of George Inness' style into my own working methods. I will be reading from the book George Inness by Nikolai Cikovsky on today's video narration, so please check that out.
Today I'd like to talk about working methods and the concept of momentum. I get a lot of people coming in my studio that are either part-time artists or wish to become artists. I'm always stressing with these people that the best way to accomplish that goal is to have a regular working practice and a strong work ethic. You can read all of the books out there, you can take infinite classes and have lots of discussions about it, but there is no substitute for experience when it comes to art.
When I first arrived in New Zealand I was coming off of 26 years of working full time. My first year here in New Zealand I did about 20 paintings. Last year I did around 250. This would include my small studies as well as the larger paintings I've done. I work every day on painting and the only exceptions are days I might go out of town with my wife. I am industrious by nature but I can fall prey to laziness just like everyone else and this is where I think the idea of momentum becomes very important.
By keeping a momentum going in your work life you can avoid many of the deepest lows and yet still accomplish most of the highs. I'm not saying that if you work all the time that you will not occasionally produce a painting that is a dud, that's just how reality works. People are quite surprised when I tell them that landscape painting doesn't necessarily get easier with experience. Your work may improve and you will get better, but painting is so challenging to the spirit and intellect as an occupation, that I can easily see spending another 50 years doing it and still not getting to the bottom of it.
Momentum is one of the greatest allies that you can enlist in this artistic journey. Momentum will keep you moving forward and making progress better than anything else I know. If you stop and start constantly in your artistic life it's a bit like a rocket taking off from the earth. Most of the force and energy required to do it is needed at the beginning. If you're constantly taking large breaks from your work life it means that every time you want to start again you must make a supreme effort. With momentum you are basically coasting on your initial effort and continuing on your journey in a progressive manner.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Moonlight Tarpon Springs' by George Inness; this painting by Inness has a mysterious quality that I think I painted well.
My drawing is a bit different than George's but I did capture the spirit of his painting in my study and for that reason I am pleased with it.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Moonlight Tarpon Springs by George Inness, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Those of you following this blog will be well aware of the work of George Inness by now. This is our second to last Inness study. One of the major reasons that I undertook this project was in an effort to absorb and integrate more of George Inness' style into my own working methods. I will be reading from the book George Inness by Nikolai Cikovsky on today's video narration, so please check that out.
Today I'd like to talk about working methods and the concept of momentum. I get a lot of people coming in my studio that are either part-time artists or wish to become artists. I'm always stressing with these people that the best way to accomplish that goal is to have a regular working practice and a strong work ethic. You can read all of the books out there, you can take infinite classes and have lots of discussions about it, but there is no substitute for experience when it comes to art.
When I first arrived in New Zealand I was coming off of 26 years of working full time. My first year here in New Zealand I did about 20 paintings. Last year I did around 250. This would include my small studies as well as the larger paintings I've done. I work every day on painting and the only exceptions are days I might go out of town with my wife. I am industrious by nature but I can fall prey to laziness just like everyone else and this is where I think the idea of momentum becomes very important.
By keeping a momentum going in your work life you can avoid many of the deepest lows and yet still accomplish most of the highs. I'm not saying that if you work all the time that you will not occasionally produce a painting that is a dud, that's just how reality works. People are quite surprised when I tell them that landscape painting doesn't necessarily get easier with experience. Your work may improve and you will get better, but painting is so challenging to the spirit and intellect as an occupation, that I can easily see spending another 50 years doing it and still not getting to the bottom of it.
Momentum is one of the greatest allies that you can enlist in this artistic journey. Momentum will keep you moving forward and making progress better than anything else I know. If you stop and start constantly in your artistic life it's a bit like a rocket taking off from the earth. Most of the force and energy required to do it is needed at the beginning. If you're constantly taking large breaks from your work life it means that every time you want to start again you must make a supreme effort. With momentum you are basically coasting on your initial effort and continuing on your journey in a progressive manner.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Moonlight Tarpon Springs' by George Inness; this painting by Inness has a mysterious quality that I think I painted well.
My drawing is a bit different than George's but I did capture the spirit of his painting in my study and for that reason I am pleased with it.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Moonlight Tarpon Springs by George Inness |
Day Ninety One: Untitled by William King Amsden
Hello and welcome to day 91 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today study is Untitled by William King Amsden.
William King Amsden is not very well known these days and I've hada bit of a problem finding much biographical information about him on the Internet. I did find one page with some information which I will be reading on today's video narration so please check that out.
In today's blog post I'd like to talk about why I chose to become a Tonalist painter. I knew and I felt that I was going to become a landscape painter in the second half of my life, but I was not aware of Tonalism until about six or seven years ago. After becoming familiar with this artistic movement I knew that I had to find a way to bring what was good and magical about it into my own work as a modern painter.
I was reading a book today called a History of American Tonalism. Those of you that have been following this blog will be very familiar with this book by now as I have been reading sections of it for the video narration of several of the artists that we've covered in this series 100 days of Tonalism.
In his introduction the author David A Cleveland is remarking how it is almost criminal that Tonalism has been forgotten by many Art Historians to a large degree. The roots of modern art are buried within this movement and not in the early part of the 20th century as almost any book on art history will tell you.
I've been known to rant about modern art. The truth of the matter is that I actually like some modern art, though the overwhelming majority of it has no real reason to exist other than to stroke the egos and enrich the bank accounts of artists that have pursued this paper chimera.
The reasons we do art are more important than the substrates we paint on or the materials we use or even the artists that have influenced us. The reason that you paint is the foundation of what you create.
If you are creating work for the good strokes of your fellow artists or validation from the 'art community you essentially have feet of clay and it's hard to believe that the work you create will have any lasting historical significance.
The thing that is powerful about Tonalism and Tonalist paintings is that they are pregnant with emotion and strongly convey what it is to be a human being perceiving nature. This is an innovation that came about after painting movements like the Hudson River school where nature was faithfully copyed in every detail. Those artist strove to objectively depict nature.
While I admire many paintings from the Hudson River school and the Luminists, their work falls flat in comparison to the Tonalist school that came after. The reason for this I think is that Tonalism embraces subjectivity. The landscapes produced by Tonalist painters are brimming with emotion and a sense of being. It is so easy to connect with these paintings that it almost seems like a bit of a conspiracy the way that these artists have been shunted by art history and relegated to the auction houses.
Sometimes that which is moving, subtle and beautiful requires a similar state in the consciousness of the viewer in order to be appreciated. With the advent of modern art, these sorts of ideas have become unpopular and what we are given instead of moving beauty is cleverness disguised as intellectual authenticity.
When I am in nature and I am experiencing the beauty of a sunset or a storm, I am moved very deeply and as an artist I wish to convey that feeling to the best of my ability. This is why when I came across Tonalism I felt like I had found my family artistically.
I do not attempt to make paintings that look old or function as antiques although my work is sometimes perceived that way by people. Instead I endeavor to use the tools that Tonalism has provided to me as a living artist and as a man expressing himself in his own time.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about Untitled by William King Amsden; I really like the colors in this painting and the very loose fractured brushwork that William has used.
My reference image was quite lo-res but that is okay, it allowed me more self-expression than many of the other studies in the series. Because the forms are so vaporous and not very well defined it leaves a lot of room for color to convey emotion.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Untitled by William King Amsden, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
William King Amsden is not very well known these days and I've hada bit of a problem finding much biographical information about him on the Internet. I did find one page with some information which I will be reading on today's video narration so please check that out.
In today's blog post I'd like to talk about why I chose to become a Tonalist painter. I knew and I felt that I was going to become a landscape painter in the second half of my life, but I was not aware of Tonalism until about six or seven years ago. After becoming familiar with this artistic movement I knew that I had to find a way to bring what was good and magical about it into my own work as a modern painter.
I was reading a book today called a History of American Tonalism. Those of you that have been following this blog will be very familiar with this book by now as I have been reading sections of it for the video narration of several of the artists that we've covered in this series 100 days of Tonalism.
In his introduction the author David A Cleveland is remarking how it is almost criminal that Tonalism has been forgotten by many Art Historians to a large degree. The roots of modern art are buried within this movement and not in the early part of the 20th century as almost any book on art history will tell you.
I've been known to rant about modern art. The truth of the matter is that I actually like some modern art, though the overwhelming majority of it has no real reason to exist other than to stroke the egos and enrich the bank accounts of artists that have pursued this paper chimera.
The reasons we do art are more important than the substrates we paint on or the materials we use or even the artists that have influenced us. The reason that you paint is the foundation of what you create.
If you are creating work for the good strokes of your fellow artists or validation from the 'art community you essentially have feet of clay and it's hard to believe that the work you create will have any lasting historical significance.
The thing that is powerful about Tonalism and Tonalist paintings is that they are pregnant with emotion and strongly convey what it is to be a human being perceiving nature. This is an innovation that came about after painting movements like the Hudson River school where nature was faithfully copyed in every detail. Those artist strove to objectively depict nature.
While I admire many paintings from the Hudson River school and the Luminists, their work falls flat in comparison to the Tonalist school that came after. The reason for this I think is that Tonalism embraces subjectivity. The landscapes produced by Tonalist painters are brimming with emotion and a sense of being. It is so easy to connect with these paintings that it almost seems like a bit of a conspiracy the way that these artists have been shunted by art history and relegated to the auction houses.
Sometimes that which is moving, subtle and beautiful requires a similar state in the consciousness of the viewer in order to be appreciated. With the advent of modern art, these sorts of ideas have become unpopular and what we are given instead of moving beauty is cleverness disguised as intellectual authenticity.
When I am in nature and I am experiencing the beauty of a sunset or a storm, I am moved very deeply and as an artist I wish to convey that feeling to the best of my ability. This is why when I came across Tonalism I felt like I had found my family artistically.
I do not attempt to make paintings that look old or function as antiques although my work is sometimes perceived that way by people. Instead I endeavor to use the tools that Tonalism has provided to me as a living artist and as a man expressing himself in his own time.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about Untitled by William King Amsden; I really like the colors in this painting and the very loose fractured brushwork that William has used.
My reference image was quite lo-res but that is okay, it allowed me more self-expression than many of the other studies in the series. Because the forms are so vaporous and not very well defined it leaves a lot of room for color to convey emotion.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Untitled by William King Amsden |
Day Ninety: Evening Distant Tower by Camille Corot
Hello and welcome to Day 90 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Evening Distant Tower' by Camille Corot.
We've done several studies after Camille in the series and though he was not actually a Tonalist painter he was extremely influential on Tonalism. For that reason I've included him in this series. Today's video features a track from my album The Lost Horizon, so please check that out.
We've been talking recently about my history as a artist and evolution to becoming a Tonalist landscape painter. I'm thinking that we may have covered most of the pertinent aspects of my journey. So today I'd like to discuss why I became attracted to doing actual physical oil paintings as opposed to working exclusively with digital media.
Digital media has taken over a lot of the artistic space that used to be dedicated to physical media. Much of this is in the form of movies and video games, but also in print media you see extensive manipulation of photographs and even hybrid artworks that are a combination of photography and painting.
As I've mentioned on this blog in the past I was very much into working with digital media and from 1995 to 2008 all the art that I did was created using a computer. I did do a lot of pen and ink work that was then scanned into the computer and colored, but ultimately all the finished artwork came out of an inkjet printer at the end of the day. There's absolutely nothing wrong with creating art this way but there are some major differences that people immersed in digital media to the exclusion of physical media may not be aware of.
One of the main differences, although it is subtle, is that artwork created with digital media has an ephemeral quality. This is because, for digital artwork to actually be displayed in the three dimensional physical world it must be printed on either paper or canvas. There is a lot of progress that's being made as far as printers being able to replicate the 3-D structure of actual paintings. It will be impossible to do this with two-dimensional art produced within the computer because, by its nature, it is always going to be flat.
Another difference that is even more subtle, has to do with consciousness and how consciousness inter-penetrates with physical media like oil paintings. This applies not just to good art but to all art created in physical 3-D reality. Every painting that you see reflects the consciousness of the artist which has been recorded stroke by stroke in paint. Even parts of the painting that have been completely covered have an affect on the consciousness level of the artwork.
This is not to say that artwork created with a computer is lacking in consciousness, just that the rendering of that work on to a piece of paper or canvas is not the same thing as an actual surface that has been lovingly painted and imprinted by the artists mind and hand.
When we look at a painting by one of the Masters, such as any of the paintings that I've done studies of in this series, we are connecting with that artist through time and space. This occurs even with the flat representation of their artwork on the computer screen or book, but far more so if you are fortunate enough to interact with their work in a museum or gallery setting.
For example, the post I made yesterday about values; it wasn't until going to the Louvre in Paris that I noticed some things about masterful oil painting that had never occurred to me when looking at these works in books or on a computer screen. There is really no way to compare human perception of a physical painting with the interaction that goes on with a facsimile via print or screen.There's a deeper level of perception and enjoyment beyond digital printouts.
As I stated above, the differences can be subtle, but so much of what makes art great rather than merely good is subtle. At the end of the day I feel the true purpose of art is to move the viewer emotionally and there's no question that a physical painting can do that far more than any reproduction.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Evening Distant Tower' by Camille Corot; I really enjoyed doing this study after Camille's painting. This seems to be a bit more sepia toned than much of his other work I've seen, which tends to have more of a silvery gray quality.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Evening Distant Tower by Camille Corot , Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'Evening Distant Tower' by Camille Corot.
We've done several studies after Camille in the series and though he was not actually a Tonalist painter he was extremely influential on Tonalism. For that reason I've included him in this series. Today's video features a track from my album The Lost Horizon, so please check that out.
We've been talking recently about my history as a artist and evolution to becoming a Tonalist landscape painter. I'm thinking that we may have covered most of the pertinent aspects of my journey. So today I'd like to discuss why I became attracted to doing actual physical oil paintings as opposed to working exclusively with digital media.
Digital media has taken over a lot of the artistic space that used to be dedicated to physical media. Much of this is in the form of movies and video games, but also in print media you see extensive manipulation of photographs and even hybrid artworks that are a combination of photography and painting.
As I've mentioned on this blog in the past I was very much into working with digital media and from 1995 to 2008 all the art that I did was created using a computer. I did do a lot of pen and ink work that was then scanned into the computer and colored, but ultimately all the finished artwork came out of an inkjet printer at the end of the day. There's absolutely nothing wrong with creating art this way but there are some major differences that people immersed in digital media to the exclusion of physical media may not be aware of.
One of the main differences, although it is subtle, is that artwork created with digital media has an ephemeral quality. This is because, for digital artwork to actually be displayed in the three dimensional physical world it must be printed on either paper or canvas. There is a lot of progress that's being made as far as printers being able to replicate the 3-D structure of actual paintings. It will be impossible to do this with two-dimensional art produced within the computer because, by its nature, it is always going to be flat.
Another difference that is even more subtle, has to do with consciousness and how consciousness inter-penetrates with physical media like oil paintings. This applies not just to good art but to all art created in physical 3-D reality. Every painting that you see reflects the consciousness of the artist which has been recorded stroke by stroke in paint. Even parts of the painting that have been completely covered have an affect on the consciousness level of the artwork.
This is not to say that artwork created with a computer is lacking in consciousness, just that the rendering of that work on to a piece of paper or canvas is not the same thing as an actual surface that has been lovingly painted and imprinted by the artists mind and hand.
When we look at a painting by one of the Masters, such as any of the paintings that I've done studies of in this series, we are connecting with that artist through time and space. This occurs even with the flat representation of their artwork on the computer screen or book, but far more so if you are fortunate enough to interact with their work in a museum or gallery setting.
For example, the post I made yesterday about values; it wasn't until going to the Louvre in Paris that I noticed some things about masterful oil painting that had never occurred to me when looking at these works in books or on a computer screen. There is really no way to compare human perception of a physical painting with the interaction that goes on with a facsimile via print or screen.There's a deeper level of perception and enjoyment beyond digital printouts.
As I stated above, the differences can be subtle, but so much of what makes art great rather than merely good is subtle. At the end of the day I feel the true purpose of art is to move the viewer emotionally and there's no question that a physical painting can do that far more than any reproduction.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Evening Distant Tower' by Camille Corot; I really enjoyed doing this study after Camille's painting. This seems to be a bit more sepia toned than much of his other work I've seen, which tends to have more of a silvery gray quality.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Original painting, Evening Distant Tower by Camille Corot |
Day Eighty Nine: Evening by John Francis Murphy
Hello and welcome to Day 89 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'Evening' by John Francis Murphy.
Those of you that have been following this blog will be well aware of John Francis Murphy by this point. We've done several studies after his paintings and he was one of the greatest Tonalist painters that ever picked up a brush. In today's video narration, I've read some biographical information about Murphy from the book, A History of American Tonalism 1882 to 1920 by David A Cleveland, so please check out the video.
Yesterday we were talking about my history as an artist and Tonalist landscape painter. Specifically, we were talking about color and how my approach to color has evolved as my sensitivity has expanded and experience been gained. Today I like to talk about how my approach to values has evolved.
My history as a pen and ink artist and later as a commercial artist involved in creating illustrations for various projects, really honed my understanding and approach to values in my art. Especially the work I did for screen printing reproduction, as in many cases I had very few colors to work with, so values would have to tell the story much more than color. Strong attention to values has informed my approach as a landscape painter from the very beginning.
When I first started doing landscape paintings I would mostly duplicate the value structure in my photographic reference, making small modifications aesthetically as I saw fit. After being introduced to Tonalism and really wanting to modify what I was doing into that artistic language I began by clipping the value range of my paintings. If you were to visualize a gray scale from 1 to 10, one being the darkest and ten the lightest, I would have moved from a scale like that to a scale more like 1 to 7 with seven being the lightest.
This removed quite a lot of contrast from my work that was present previously, One of the hallmarks of Tonalism is that a lot of Tonalist paintings eschew strong contrasts. Many of them are scenes of very early in the morning, overcast days, twilight and dusk scenes or nocturnes. Although I got some good results in my earliest attempts at painting in the tonal manner, I think I went a little too far with the lack of contrast. If you compare the work I was doing about five years ago with what I'm doing now, this is one of the main things that would stand out.
These days I tend to want to accentuate at least a few points in the painting with stronger light values. Normally this will be in the sky and quite often I will put the focus up against a dark vertical tree area.
I was very much influenced in this regard by my trip to the Louvre in Paris in 2012. I noticed when I was there that many of the landscape paintings were quite dark overall. However, another thing I noticed was that even if a painting was almost completely dark, was that the Masters would almost always put an area of extreme brightness in their paintings.
Having an area of strong contrasting light creates a lot more interest and excitement in the picture. After learning this firsthand by viewing the works of Master painters I incorporated that knowledge into my own painting.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Evening' by John Francis Murphy; this is one of my favorite studies out of all of the hundred days. I love the subdued olive toned greens that contrast with subtle violets, mauve tones and pearlescent grays. I'm very happy with the way my study turned out and I learned a lot by making a study after John Francis Murphy's awesome painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - Evening by John Francis Murphy , Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's study is 'Evening' by John Francis Murphy.
Those of you that have been following this blog will be well aware of John Francis Murphy by this point. We've done several studies after his paintings and he was one of the greatest Tonalist painters that ever picked up a brush. In today's video narration, I've read some biographical information about Murphy from the book, A History of American Tonalism 1882 to 1920 by David A Cleveland, so please check out the video.
Yesterday we were talking about my history as an artist and Tonalist landscape painter. Specifically, we were talking about color and how my approach to color has evolved as my sensitivity has expanded and experience been gained. Today I like to talk about how my approach to values has evolved.
My history as a pen and ink artist and later as a commercial artist involved in creating illustrations for various projects, really honed my understanding and approach to values in my art. Especially the work I did for screen printing reproduction, as in many cases I had very few colors to work with, so values would have to tell the story much more than color. Strong attention to values has informed my approach as a landscape painter from the very beginning.
When I first started doing landscape paintings I would mostly duplicate the value structure in my photographic reference, making small modifications aesthetically as I saw fit. After being introduced to Tonalism and really wanting to modify what I was doing into that artistic language I began by clipping the value range of my paintings. If you were to visualize a gray scale from 1 to 10, one being the darkest and ten the lightest, I would have moved from a scale like that to a scale more like 1 to 7 with seven being the lightest.
This removed quite a lot of contrast from my work that was present previously, One of the hallmarks of Tonalism is that a lot of Tonalist paintings eschew strong contrasts. Many of them are scenes of very early in the morning, overcast days, twilight and dusk scenes or nocturnes. Although I got some good results in my earliest attempts at painting in the tonal manner, I think I went a little too far with the lack of contrast. If you compare the work I was doing about five years ago with what I'm doing now, this is one of the main things that would stand out.
These days I tend to want to accentuate at least a few points in the painting with stronger light values. Normally this will be in the sky and quite often I will put the focus up against a dark vertical tree area.
I was very much influenced in this regard by my trip to the Louvre in Paris in 2012. I noticed when I was there that many of the landscape paintings were quite dark overall. However, another thing I noticed was that even if a painting was almost completely dark, was that the Masters would almost always put an area of extreme brightness in their paintings.
Having an area of strong contrasting light creates a lot more interest and excitement in the picture. After learning this firsthand by viewing the works of Master painters I incorporated that knowledge into my own painting.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Evening' by John Francis Murphy; this is one of my favorite studies out of all of the hundred days. I love the subdued olive toned greens that contrast with subtle violets, mauve tones and pearlescent grays. I'm very happy with the way my study turned out and I learned a lot by making a study after John Francis Murphy's awesome painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, Evening by John Francis Murphy |
Day Eighty Eight: The Golden Hour by Charles Warren Eaton
Hello and welcome to Day 88 of 100 days of Tonalism.
Today's study is 'The Golden Hour' by Charles Warren Eaton.
I seem to have exhausted most of my sources of biographical information for Charles Warren Eaton. It's too bad that I haven't received the book by David A Cleveland I just ordered. I'm really excited to be getting this book as it is out of print, it is an exhaustive study of Eaton's body of work and history, I'm very much looking forward to reading it. Today's video features a track from my album, The Lost Horizon, so please check it out.
Over the last several weeks we've been talking about my history as an artist and my progression to becoming a landscape painter and then a Tonalist landscape painter. As promised in yesterday's post, today I'm going to talk a bit about the evolution of my understanding of color, especially as it pertains to Tonalism.
My first exposure to working with color was at the job that I held at a picture frame manufacturing company that provided custom art and framing to the hospitality industry. This was back in the 80's and 90's. Very often hotels would provide us with swatches of their carpets and drapes and other fixtures. The reason for this was so that we could do our best to match these colors with map board and in the case of moldings we would do custom stains and finishes. This, at times, could be an exceedingly difficult task because the colors had to match very closely and the boss that I worked for was a perfectionist. Ultimately though, it was good experience and good exposure to mixing and matching colors. Experience that I use everyday in my own work.
When I first started doing landscape painting I would do my best to match the colors in my photographic reference using my limited palette of pigments. If something in my photographic reference was bright, I would paint it bright and when something was muted I would paint it that way. I have a good color sense and so my paintings were always balanced, but I was not as focused in the early stages of my painting career as I am today on using color to evoke an emotive response.
This is something that Tonalism excels at, I can think of no other school of painting that uses color so powerfully to evoke emotions in the viewer. This is one of the major divergences that it made from Impressionism. Whereas Impressionism is focused on duplicating certain light effects that are found in nature using primary and secondary colors, Tonalism is more concerned with achieving tonal harmony and vibrance through manipulation of color.
In my initial attempts at Tonalist painting, I would start off by limiting the amount of highlights in my work so that whole painting moved into a lower key, as if the painting had been exposed to smoke. Sometimes I would do this with glazing, but mostly I just kept myself from pushing my highlights too far. As I continued to practice this mode of painting, it became apparent to me that stronger value contrasts would make my work more effective.
I experimented with adding a certain amount of the same color to each of my mixtures, this is a technique that quite a few Tonalist painters would use, primarily Whistler. For example, I might mix a little bit of burnt sienna into all of my green colors and allow it to peek through the blues of the sky or the grays, this would give everything a tonal vibration of sienna. You could do this with any color though. I soon abandoned this approach, it was unsatisfactory as it was too contrived.
These days I achieve tonal harmony in my work because I know my palette intimately and I know how to run my colors. It's very much a state of mind in my case, and though I follow some of the techniques I listed above, Mostly I just mix my colors intuitively and get harmony that way. I believe it also helps to work on a gray pallet. My palette is made out of metal and is quite neutral.
Another way that I achieve tonal harmony in my work is through the use of glazing, either by glazing with earth yellow or black, this has a way of subduing more intense colors although I will go into the light areas and generally paint them a few shades lighter and brighter after I've done my glazing.
Tomorrow will talk about values and contrasts so stay tuned for that.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'The Golden Hour' by Charles Warren Eaton; this is another one of Eaton's later, more simplified paintings. It is very tonal in approach and the predominant tone would be yellow. I enjoyed painting this and I got some nice textual effects in my study, especially in the sky.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - The Golden Hour by Charles Warren Eaton, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
I seem to have exhausted most of my sources of biographical information for Charles Warren Eaton. It's too bad that I haven't received the book by David A Cleveland I just ordered. I'm really excited to be getting this book as it is out of print, it is an exhaustive study of Eaton's body of work and history, I'm very much looking forward to reading it. Today's video features a track from my album, The Lost Horizon, so please check it out.
Over the last several weeks we've been talking about my history as an artist and my progression to becoming a landscape painter and then a Tonalist landscape painter. As promised in yesterday's post, today I'm going to talk a bit about the evolution of my understanding of color, especially as it pertains to Tonalism.
My first exposure to working with color was at the job that I held at a picture frame manufacturing company that provided custom art and framing to the hospitality industry. This was back in the 80's and 90's. Very often hotels would provide us with swatches of their carpets and drapes and other fixtures. The reason for this was so that we could do our best to match these colors with map board and in the case of moldings we would do custom stains and finishes. This, at times, could be an exceedingly difficult task because the colors had to match very closely and the boss that I worked for was a perfectionist. Ultimately though, it was good experience and good exposure to mixing and matching colors. Experience that I use everyday in my own work.
When I first started doing landscape painting I would do my best to match the colors in my photographic reference using my limited palette of pigments. If something in my photographic reference was bright, I would paint it bright and when something was muted I would paint it that way. I have a good color sense and so my paintings were always balanced, but I was not as focused in the early stages of my painting career as I am today on using color to evoke an emotive response.
This is something that Tonalism excels at, I can think of no other school of painting that uses color so powerfully to evoke emotions in the viewer. This is one of the major divergences that it made from Impressionism. Whereas Impressionism is focused on duplicating certain light effects that are found in nature using primary and secondary colors, Tonalism is more concerned with achieving tonal harmony and vibrance through manipulation of color.
In my initial attempts at Tonalist painting, I would start off by limiting the amount of highlights in my work so that whole painting moved into a lower key, as if the painting had been exposed to smoke. Sometimes I would do this with glazing, but mostly I just kept myself from pushing my highlights too far. As I continued to practice this mode of painting, it became apparent to me that stronger value contrasts would make my work more effective.
I experimented with adding a certain amount of the same color to each of my mixtures, this is a technique that quite a few Tonalist painters would use, primarily Whistler. For example, I might mix a little bit of burnt sienna into all of my green colors and allow it to peek through the blues of the sky or the grays, this would give everything a tonal vibration of sienna. You could do this with any color though. I soon abandoned this approach, it was unsatisfactory as it was too contrived.
These days I achieve tonal harmony in my work because I know my palette intimately and I know how to run my colors. It's very much a state of mind in my case, and though I follow some of the techniques I listed above, Mostly I just mix my colors intuitively and get harmony that way. I believe it also helps to work on a gray pallet. My palette is made out of metal and is quite neutral.
Another way that I achieve tonal harmony in my work is through the use of glazing, either by glazing with earth yellow or black, this has a way of subduing more intense colors although I will go into the light areas and generally paint them a few shades lighter and brighter after I've done my glazing.
Tomorrow will talk about values and contrasts so stay tuned for that.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'The Golden Hour' by Charles Warren Eaton; this is another one of Eaton's later, more simplified paintings. It is very tonal in approach and the predominant tone would be yellow. I enjoyed painting this and I got some nice textual effects in my study, especially in the sky.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Original painting, The Golden Hour by Charles Warren Eaton |