#4 Henry Ward Ranger, Masons Island - 25 Days of Tonalism
Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting with M Francis McCarthy.
Today's study is painted after Henry Ward Ranger, 'Mason Island.'
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I would like to talk about tree shapes. In thinking about this topic, it occurs to me that I've probably discussed this with you before (maybe more than once even ). The very nature of painting the landscape means that as artists, we have to revisit the same problems over and over, so I don't feel too bad in addressing this particular aspect some more.
More than almost any other part of a landscape painting, the tree shapes define the composition and determine whether the painting will be successful or not. One thing I've noticed with different painters is that they tend to create tree shapes that are distinctive once they have matured as artists. This is one of the quickest ways that I can identify the work of one painter over another.
When I think of tree shapes and different approaches, my mind automatically goes to different artists I've studied like, John Constable, George Inness, Charles Warren Eaton and Camille Corot. These are without a doubt the greatest painters that have ever painted. Each of them has a definite, defined approach to their tree shapes.
Whether their approach is conscious or unconscious is debatable especially since all of the guys I just mentioned are dead and we cannot pick up the phone and interview them. I feel safe though in guessing that for all of them there is a combination of both conscious and unconscious work involved in the shape and structure of the trees in their paintings.
I also feel safe in guessing this because I know this is always the case in my own work. At times I feel that I cannot ever escape the types of tree shapes that I create. Even if I believe that I am changing things up there are always tendencies manifesting that while not immediately apparent to me, become apparent upon further observation after my painting is completed.
In many ways, this is a signature, like handwriting tree shapes are a unique individual way to identify different painters. In my studies after the Masters I can usually see the differences quite readily, the fact is, though my tree shapes in my studies cleave quite closely to the Masters, they are somewhat different and uniquely mine.
Since tree shapes are almost always silhouetted against a brighter sky, they are the most noticeable area of contrast in landscape paintings. Tree shapes are a great aspect of landscape painting to study.
The areas of transition between the tree and the sky are also of vital importance to creating a successful painting. I'll be talking a bit more about this in my blog post tomorrow. For your edification some links to sites about Henry Ward Ranger here and here.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted after Henry Ward Ranger, 'Mason Island'; as I stated in the video this is a study I was really looking forward to painting. What I love so much about it is how Henry has created an interesting painting from what at first appears to be a mundane woodland interior scene. The variation of values and shapes combined with the warm rich greenish red colors make it a standout.
I'm quite happy with my study after Henry Ward Ranger's painting. Like all of the small studies I do, there is a lot of interesting details in his painting that I could not re-create due to the small size I work at on these studies. This is intentional, the idea is not to replicate the Masters painting so much as it is to get the soul of it and integrate that into my own work.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Painted after - "Mason Island" by Henry Ward Ranger, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I would like to talk about tree shapes. In thinking about this topic, it occurs to me that I've probably discussed this with you before (maybe more than once even ). The very nature of painting the landscape means that as artists, we have to revisit the same problems over and over, so I don't feel too bad in addressing this particular aspect some more.
More than almost any other part of a landscape painting, the tree shapes define the composition and determine whether the painting will be successful or not. One thing I've noticed with different painters is that they tend to create tree shapes that are distinctive once they have matured as artists. This is one of the quickest ways that I can identify the work of one painter over another.
When I think of tree shapes and different approaches, my mind automatically goes to different artists I've studied like, John Constable, George Inness, Charles Warren Eaton and Camille Corot. These are without a doubt the greatest painters that have ever painted. Each of them has a definite, defined approach to their tree shapes.
Whether their approach is conscious or unconscious is debatable especially since all of the guys I just mentioned are dead and we cannot pick up the phone and interview them. I feel safe though in guessing that for all of them there is a combination of both conscious and unconscious work involved in the shape and structure of the trees in their paintings.
I also feel safe in guessing this because I know this is always the case in my own work. At times I feel that I cannot ever escape the types of tree shapes that I create. Even if I believe that I am changing things up there are always tendencies manifesting that while not immediately apparent to me, become apparent upon further observation after my painting is completed.
In many ways, this is a signature, like handwriting tree shapes are a unique individual way to identify different painters. In my studies after the Masters I can usually see the differences quite readily, the fact is, though my tree shapes in my studies cleave quite closely to the Masters, they are somewhat different and uniquely mine.
Since tree shapes are almost always silhouetted against a brighter sky, they are the most noticeable area of contrast in landscape paintings. Tree shapes are a great aspect of landscape painting to study.
The areas of transition between the tree and the sky are also of vital importance to creating a successful painting. I'll be talking a bit more about this in my blog post tomorrow. For your edification some links to sites about Henry Ward Ranger here and here.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study painted after Henry Ward Ranger, 'Mason Island'; as I stated in the video this is a study I was really looking forward to painting. What I love so much about it is how Henry has created an interesting painting from what at first appears to be a mundane woodland interior scene. The variation of values and shapes combined with the warm rich greenish red colors make it a standout.
I'm quite happy with my study after Henry Ward Ranger's painting. Like all of the small studies I do, there is a lot of interesting details in his painting that I could not re-create due to the small size I work at on these studies. This is intentional, the idea is not to replicate the Masters painting so much as it is to get the soul of it and integrate that into my own work.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Original painting - Henry Ward Ranger, Masons Island |
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| Painted after - "Mason Island" by Henry Ward Ranger (Detail 1) |
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| Painted after - "Mason Island" by Henry Ward Ranger (Detail 2) |
River at Dawn 11x14
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'River at Dawn' 11x14.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about "Synthetic Painting". The word synthetic in modern parlance has a meaning somewhat equivalent to plastic. My particular use of the word instead refers to synthesis.
Here is a definition that I just pulled off of Google:
Synthesis
1. the combination of components or elements to form a connected whole. Example: "the synthesis of intellect and emotion showed in his work"
It is important here to be clear which meaning of the word I mean and this definition is apt.
In my work I synthesize many different aspects and emotions into a Gestalt, something that is larger than its constituent parts. I use inspiration from nature in the form of a base photograph. I may then utilize other photographs in the assembly of a composite reference image. I push and pull this reference image in many different directions. I try to imbue an extra big dollop of emotion into each scene that I do.
What I do is fine art landscape painting, not illustration. That said, I was a commercial illustrator for quite a few years and one thing that I learned to the core of my being, was that the old maxim "garbage in garbage out" was always true when it came to creating a work of art.
When given an assignment, the first thing I would do would be to dedicate as much time as possible to the collection and organization of a large body of reference materials that I could use as inspiration for my assignment.
There are lots of times when I found a few great things early in the process that would be sufficient for the reference requirements of the illustration. However, I would usually continue to push on in the hopes that I might find something even better.
The reason that I did this was because having something excellent to refer to when creating work of art is absolutely essential. If you are attempting to create something awesome while referring to source material that is mundane, mendacity will be the only possible result.
As you can see the way that I work is almost entirely synthetic. I collect reference, composite it and then execute my painting in a series of organized, yet inspired movements in my studio.
As I pointed out in our previous blog post, this is one of the primary reasons that I am working indoors. Were I after a natural type of effect (like most Impressionist painters are), I would work outdoors in the daylight.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about "River at Dawn 11x14; this is a recent painting that I'm very happy with, that is one of the reasons I am sharing it with you today. As I stated in the video, I painted this much more thickly than most of my previous work.
There are both upsides and downsides to working very thickly and I discuss this in the video as well. Suffice to say, between painting thickly and thinly, I am searching for a happy medium these days.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| River at Dawn by M Francis McCarthy, 11x14 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about "Synthetic Painting". The word synthetic in modern parlance has a meaning somewhat equivalent to plastic. My particular use of the word instead refers to synthesis.
Here is a definition that I just pulled off of Google:
Synthesis
1. the combination of components or elements to form a connected whole. Example: "the synthesis of intellect and emotion showed in his work"
It is important here to be clear which meaning of the word I mean and this definition is apt.
In my work I synthesize many different aspects and emotions into a Gestalt, something that is larger than its constituent parts. I use inspiration from nature in the form of a base photograph. I may then utilize other photographs in the assembly of a composite reference image. I push and pull this reference image in many different directions. I try to imbue an extra big dollop of emotion into each scene that I do.
What I do is fine art landscape painting, not illustration. That said, I was a commercial illustrator for quite a few years and one thing that I learned to the core of my being, was that the old maxim "garbage in garbage out" was always true when it came to creating a work of art.
When given an assignment, the first thing I would do would be to dedicate as much time as possible to the collection and organization of a large body of reference materials that I could use as inspiration for my assignment.
There are lots of times when I found a few great things early in the process that would be sufficient for the reference requirements of the illustration. However, I would usually continue to push on in the hopes that I might find something even better.
The reason that I did this was because having something excellent to refer to when creating work of art is absolutely essential. If you are attempting to create something awesome while referring to source material that is mundane, mendacity will be the only possible result.
As you can see the way that I work is almost entirely synthetic. I collect reference, composite it and then execute my painting in a series of organized, yet inspired movements in my studio.
As I pointed out in our previous blog post, this is one of the primary reasons that I am working indoors. Were I after a natural type of effect (like most Impressionist painters are), I would work outdoors in the daylight.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about "River at Dawn 11x14; this is a recent painting that I'm very happy with, that is one of the reasons I am sharing it with you today. As I stated in the video, I painted this much more thickly than most of my previous work.
There are both upsides and downsides to working very thickly and I discuss this in the video as well. Suffice to say, between painting thickly and thinly, I am searching for a happy medium these days.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| River at Dawn 11x14 (Detail 1) |
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| River at Dawn 11x14 (Detail 2) |
#3 John Francis Murphy "Landscape" - 25 Days of Tonalism
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is a study painted after John Francis Murphy called 'Landscape.'
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
A little bit late today but have no fear, we are getting back on schedule and moving forward, always forward. Today I like to speak a little bit about why I work indoors and some of the advantages and disadvantages of this working strategy.
Since I'm doing two blog posts today I will be covering this topic in two aspects, the first pertaining to the advantages of working indoors and the second to what I call the synthetic approach.
There are several reasons that I prefer to work on my landscape paintings indoors. The first and most significant is that painting indoors allows me to be in control of my environment. There are as many different ways to paint a landscape as there are landscape painters. I am the type that favors control.
Another significant reason is that I am very interested in capturing light effects that change very quickly when actually occurring outdoors. For the most part, this would be twilight and sunset but as well as dawn and early morning effects. Also, painting indoors allows me to take the time necessary to create the type of effects and atmosphere that I am looking for in my work.
I do not denigrate or impugn Plein air painting at all. I have done a fair amount myself and it is the way that I got my start. There are many fine Plein air painters and I enjoy quite a lot of Plein air painting. For me though, the rapid changes in lighting and weather conditions here in New Zealand preclude me from really enjoying working in this manner.
There are some fantastic aspects of painting outdoors that should be noted and I recommend any beginning painter take a stab at it. The main benefit I see to painting outdoors is that there are quite a lot of amazing colors that you only see in nature that are not captured by photography very well. Also cameras and camera lenses can induce strange focal length artifacts on photographs. In addition to this, photography is flat and two-dimensional whereas nature and our human perception sees things in three dimensions.
These are significant advantages to be sure. However, they do not outweigh the control and ability to achieve certain effects that working indoors allows me to achieve. In our next blog post, I will be talking about the other very significant reasons that I like to work indoors and that is the "synthetic approach" that is very much a part of what tonalism is and evokes.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study after John Francis Murphy's painting 'Landscape'; this is a good composition from John Francis Murphy and as I stated in the past, I feel composition was one of his strong suits. While there does not seem to be much going on in this painting it has a lot of characteristic elements of Tonalism and succeeds at evoking a mood.
One day I hope to actually see some John Francis Murphy paintings in real life but I get a lot even from low-quality low-resolution reproductions of his work. There are several more studies after John Francis Murphy paintings that we will be doing in the 25 days of Tonalism project, so stay tuned.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Painted after - "Landscape" by John Francis Murphy, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
A little bit late today but have no fear, we are getting back on schedule and moving forward, always forward. Today I like to speak a little bit about why I work indoors and some of the advantages and disadvantages of this working strategy.
Since I'm doing two blog posts today I will be covering this topic in two aspects, the first pertaining to the advantages of working indoors and the second to what I call the synthetic approach.
There are several reasons that I prefer to work on my landscape paintings indoors. The first and most significant is that painting indoors allows me to be in control of my environment. There are as many different ways to paint a landscape as there are landscape painters. I am the type that favors control.
Another significant reason is that I am very interested in capturing light effects that change very quickly when actually occurring outdoors. For the most part, this would be twilight and sunset but as well as dawn and early morning effects. Also, painting indoors allows me to take the time necessary to create the type of effects and atmosphere that I am looking for in my work.
I do not denigrate or impugn Plein air painting at all. I have done a fair amount myself and it is the way that I got my start. There are many fine Plein air painters and I enjoy quite a lot of Plein air painting. For me though, the rapid changes in lighting and weather conditions here in New Zealand preclude me from really enjoying working in this manner.
There are some fantastic aspects of painting outdoors that should be noted and I recommend any beginning painter take a stab at it. The main benefit I see to painting outdoors is that there are quite a lot of amazing colors that you only see in nature that are not captured by photography very well. Also cameras and camera lenses can induce strange focal length artifacts on photographs. In addition to this, photography is flat and two-dimensional whereas nature and our human perception sees things in three dimensions.
These are significant advantages to be sure. However, they do not outweigh the control and ability to achieve certain effects that working indoors allows me to achieve. In our next blog post, I will be talking about the other very significant reasons that I like to work indoors and that is the "synthetic approach" that is very much a part of what tonalism is and evokes.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study after John Francis Murphy's painting 'Landscape'; this is a good composition from John Francis Murphy and as I stated in the past, I feel composition was one of his strong suits. While there does not seem to be much going on in this painting it has a lot of characteristic elements of Tonalism and succeeds at evoking a mood.
One day I hope to actually see some John Francis Murphy paintings in real life but I get a lot even from low-quality low-resolution reproductions of his work. There are several more studies after John Francis Murphy paintings that we will be doing in the 25 days of Tonalism project, so stay tuned.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Original painting, Landscape by J Francis Murphy |
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| Painted after - "Landscape" by John Francis Murphy (Detail 1) |
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| Painted after - "Landscape" by John Francis Murphy (Detail 2) |
River at Dawn 5x7
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'River at Dawn' 5x7.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about making a landscape painting pop. I got to thinking about this yesterday when talking about getting a nice glowing quality with color.
The idea of making something pop is very common in the world of illustration where I worked for many years. I was involved mostly in doing illustration for T-shirts that were sold at various tourist attractions and in department stores. The thing that's critical when making this kind of art that is on the shelf with other art, is that it pops and that people respond to it immediately. This can be the difference between something that sells and something that does not.
While my fine art, landscape painting is not illustration by any means, I still think that it's important to have some pop in the work. Strong, emotional color can create a bit of pop. More frequently I think that it is best created with attention paid to strong contrasts between the light and shadow.
When I went to the Louvre in Paris four years ago I noticed in the paintings of the Masters there that almost every artist utilized strong contrasts in their work. Some of the paintings would be extremely dark but there was almost always areas of extreme brightness as well, this is what I call pop.
Pop is sometimes the result of style, especially when it comes to illustration. In my landscape painting, style is mostly a by-product of getting the paint down onto the board. There are some techniques that I use that contribute to an overall pleasing effect, but for the most part, my landscape painting style is a result of the way I work and my personality, more than an illustrative/stylistic approach.
As I referenced yesterday when talking about getting glowing colors in a painting, I like to create areas of my sky (usually right next to the tree shapes) that have brighter values than the rest of the painting. In my experience, this almost always creates a strong pop effect.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'River at Dawn' 5x7; this is the study for a larger painting I did that in an 11x14. We will be discussing that painting next week. I'm happy with this study and it certainly helped inform the success of the larger painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| River at Dawn by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Today's painting is 'River at Dawn' 5x7.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about making a landscape painting pop. I got to thinking about this yesterday when talking about getting a nice glowing quality with color.
The idea of making something pop is very common in the world of illustration where I worked for many years. I was involved mostly in doing illustration for T-shirts that were sold at various tourist attractions and in department stores. The thing that's critical when making this kind of art that is on the shelf with other art, is that it pops and that people respond to it immediately. This can be the difference between something that sells and something that does not.
While my fine art, landscape painting is not illustration by any means, I still think that it's important to have some pop in the work. Strong, emotional color can create a bit of pop. More frequently I think that it is best created with attention paid to strong contrasts between the light and shadow.
When I went to the Louvre in Paris four years ago I noticed in the paintings of the Masters there that almost every artist utilized strong contrasts in their work. Some of the paintings would be extremely dark but there was almost always areas of extreme brightness as well, this is what I call pop.
Pop is sometimes the result of style, especially when it comes to illustration. In my landscape painting, style is mostly a by-product of getting the paint down onto the board. There are some techniques that I use that contribute to an overall pleasing effect, but for the most part, my landscape painting style is a result of the way I work and my personality, more than an illustrative/stylistic approach.
As I referenced yesterday when talking about getting glowing colors in a painting, I like to create areas of my sky (usually right next to the tree shapes) that have brighter values than the rest of the painting. In my experience, this almost always creates a strong pop effect.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'River at Dawn' 5x7; this is the study for a larger painting I did that in an 11x14. We will be discussing that painting next week. I'm happy with this study and it certainly helped inform the success of the larger painting.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| River at Dawn 5x7 (Detail 1) |
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| River at Dawn 5x7 (Detail 2) |
#2 Camille Corot "The Valley" - 25 Days of Tonalism
Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
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| Painted after - "The Valley" by Camille Corot, Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x7, Oil on wood panel |
Today's painting is a study painted after Camille Corot called "The Valley. It is the second study in our 25 days of Tonalism and features a blog post and video each week of me making a study after a Tonalist Masters painting.
Our video today features the progression of this study from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
How do you get glowing color in a painting?
I've been asked this question by people that read to my blog here and also on YouTube. I have a lot of different techniques for arriving at glowing color. I got to thinking about this topic during our last day of Tonalism that featured a painting by Frank Peyraud. His painting was absolutely glowing and reminded me of my own work in the way that he had saturated his color and also contrasted it with strong dark areas.
I have a lot of different strategies for trying to achieve glowing color and I utilize most of them in each painting I do.
The first and most essential technique is that I work on a burnt sienna colored painting surface (ground) this sets up an interesting juxtaposition of colors from the very first brushstroke I place. When I paint a patch of blue (or any other complementary color) against the burnt sienna it has a vibrancy and intensity that would be difficult to achieve if I were working directly over white. Also, bits of the burnt sienna will tend to peek out in between areas of brushwork that do not completely overlap. This also creates vibrancy and contributes to an overall glowing quality.
Another way that I get a glowing quality in my work is to set it up in my initial painting reference to the best of my ability. This means ramping up certain colors and areas of contrast in Photoshop with the intention of executing the image in paint. Many times I will overdo it with the photo because I wish to have a lot of extra color input while painting. This is not full proof however, and there are times I have found myself painting desaturated and under toned work from reference that was highly saturated.
This leads us to the idea of saturation. Saturation means that the color is very vivid and intense. To get a quality of intense color you need to remember that not all of the colors in your painting can be highly saturated. You have to have areas with more grayish and dull color to offset the intense colors. In other words, if everything is saturated then nothing is saturated.
Another way that I get a glowing quality in my work is by deepening my shadow areas and forcing strong contrasts against the brighter and more saturated areas of my painting. This would typically be the sky, I'm well known for painting colorful skies. Like the saturation, and above, if everything in the painting was dark than there would be no contrast just as if everything was very bright nothing is going to resonate with light.
The last way that I try to get a glowing quality in my painting, is by injecting areas of intense lights into the sky. This seldom is as intense and bright as pure white from the tube but I will use quite a lot of yellow and white in certain areas to pump up the contrast to create an offset against the more pure and intense colors.
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about my study of 'The Valley' after Camille Corot; Camille often gets a great feeling of light in his paintings, however his colors are usually more subdued than the kind of thing that I do. Very often his paintings have a sort of silvery quality that is very beautiful. I often intend to work more in this sort of mode but forget while using my more colorful approach.
The thing I like best about this study is the composition and there's no question that Camille was an absolute Master of composition and probably one of the best that ever painted a landscape. I find it extremely educational and illuminating every time I do a study after one of his paintings.
Here are a few links featuring some sites relating to Camille Corot here and here.
Here are a few links featuring some sites relating to Camille Corot here and here.
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| Original painting, Camille Corot "The Valley" |
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| Painted after - "The Valley" by Camille Corot (Detail 1) |
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| Painted after - "The Valley" by Camille Corot (Detail 2) |
River at Dusk 16x22
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'River at Dusk' 16x22.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I would like to talk about using studies as painting reference. I did not start out doing studies when I was first teaching myself to paint, I just bought a large stack of 6x8" panels and started painting. For that reason and others, I've am comfortable working in small sizes.
When I came out to New Zealand I started working in larger sizes of 8x12" and also 12x18. For those early New Zealand paintings I did not create any studies. It was not until 2011 or so after watching some interesting videos online by a phenomenal portrait painter, that I started integrating the use of studies into my own work.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find those videos again or even remember his name. One of the primary methods that this guy used in his painting process was to create a very small color study of the subject prior to doing the larger work. This approach interested me very much and I started to do the same with my work on a regular basis.
These days I might finish my small study a little bit more than I did back in 2011 but the principle is still the same, whereas the study puts a strong emphasis on color and composition and the small size makes it far more difficult to get overly detailed with the rendering.
I generally create my studies the same way that I do the underpainting and first color pass stages of my larger painting by using a photographic reference. For the most part, I have referred to this study only when finishing the larger painting. As I was discussing on the video I did yesterday, I have started to refer to it more and more during that first color pass.
The reason that I avoided using both my photographic reference and the study while painting my first color pass of my larger painting up until recently, is that I often found it somewhat confusing to have two sources of inspiration at the same time. I saw this as serving two masters instead of one.
Now I believe that I have achieved a certain level of artistic vision where it's not the problem that it was last time I attempted to use two sources of reference while painting.
The thing that is good about referencing the study earlier in the process, is that because it is small and simplified it can help me simplify the larger painting as well. I, like so many artists before me. I have been guilty in the past of over detailing my paintings. While I'm aware of this potential problem I still sometimes do not put enough emphasis on creating big decorative shapes in my larger paintings.
When I was painting yesterday I noticed the study against the wall and that I had solved 90% of the problems with the scene already in the study. I was essentially reinventing the wheel with my larger painting but in a way that was not as punchy or as decorative as my study. After taking a break and then coming back and realizing this, I picked up the study and started using it to adjust my first color pass. This really helped the painting I was working on yesterday and I intend to try to doing this some more in my current workflow.
Up to now, one of the main reasons I would do a study was just so that I could go over the reference scene many times prior to jumping into the final painting. There have been times when I did not actually reference it at all when finishing my larger work but it can be and has been a very valuable tool.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'River at Dusk' 16x22; I'm very happy with this painting. As you can see in the video it has been painted over the top of another painting that I was less than happy with. I am pleased now not to have to look at the old failed painting anymore.
What I do when I'm going to paint over the top of an old painting, is I sand it down thoroughly outdoors. The reason why I sand it outside the so that I do not accidentally breath any lead paint dust.
After sanding, I like to rub the surface down with a small amount of drying oil prior to jumping in with the new painting. Unlike my usual working process where I'm working over a raw wood panel that has been tinted red, I have to jump in and start painting. I do tend to work in some rough outlines and dark areas using raw umber and then building up to my chromatic black mixture.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| River at Dusk by M Francis McCarthy, 16x22 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I would like to talk about using studies as painting reference. I did not start out doing studies when I was first teaching myself to paint, I just bought a large stack of 6x8" panels and started painting. For that reason and others, I've am comfortable working in small sizes.
When I came out to New Zealand I started working in larger sizes of 8x12" and also 12x18. For those early New Zealand paintings I did not create any studies. It was not until 2011 or so after watching some interesting videos online by a phenomenal portrait painter, that I started integrating the use of studies into my own work.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to find those videos again or even remember his name. One of the primary methods that this guy used in his painting process was to create a very small color study of the subject prior to doing the larger work. This approach interested me very much and I started to do the same with my work on a regular basis.
These days I might finish my small study a little bit more than I did back in 2011 but the principle is still the same, whereas the study puts a strong emphasis on color and composition and the small size makes it far more difficult to get overly detailed with the rendering.
I generally create my studies the same way that I do the underpainting and first color pass stages of my larger painting by using a photographic reference. For the most part, I have referred to this study only when finishing the larger painting. As I was discussing on the video I did yesterday, I have started to refer to it more and more during that first color pass.
The reason that I avoided using both my photographic reference and the study while painting my first color pass of my larger painting up until recently, is that I often found it somewhat confusing to have two sources of inspiration at the same time. I saw this as serving two masters instead of one.
Now I believe that I have achieved a certain level of artistic vision where it's not the problem that it was last time I attempted to use two sources of reference while painting.
The thing that is good about referencing the study earlier in the process, is that because it is small and simplified it can help me simplify the larger painting as well. I, like so many artists before me. I have been guilty in the past of over detailing my paintings. While I'm aware of this potential problem I still sometimes do not put enough emphasis on creating big decorative shapes in my larger paintings.
When I was painting yesterday I noticed the study against the wall and that I had solved 90% of the problems with the scene already in the study. I was essentially reinventing the wheel with my larger painting but in a way that was not as punchy or as decorative as my study. After taking a break and then coming back and realizing this, I picked up the study and started using it to adjust my first color pass. This really helped the painting I was working on yesterday and I intend to try to doing this some more in my current workflow.
Up to now, one of the main reasons I would do a study was just so that I could go over the reference scene many times prior to jumping into the final painting. There have been times when I did not actually reference it at all when finishing my larger work but it can be and has been a very valuable tool.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'River at Dusk' 16x22; I'm very happy with this painting. As you can see in the video it has been painted over the top of another painting that I was less than happy with. I am pleased now not to have to look at the old failed painting anymore.
What I do when I'm going to paint over the top of an old painting, is I sand it down thoroughly outdoors. The reason why I sand it outside the so that I do not accidentally breath any lead paint dust.
After sanding, I like to rub the surface down with a small amount of drying oil prior to jumping in with the new painting. Unlike my usual working process where I'm working over a raw wood panel that has been tinted red, I have to jump in and start painting. I do tend to work in some rough outlines and dark areas using raw umber and then building up to my chromatic black mixture.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| River at Dusk 16x22 (Detail) |
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| River at Dusk 16x22 (Detail 2) |
#1 Frank Peyraud "Twilight" - 25 Days of Tonalism
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's study is painted after Frank Peyraud's "Twilight."
Our video features the progression of this study from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
As I discussed in the video, this is the start of a side project on this blog called '25 days of Tonalism.' Unlike the 100 days of Tonalism project that I completed last year, I will be doing a blog post and corresponding video for each day of the '25 days of Tonalism' once a week.
I will also continue featuring my own Tonalist work on this blog, also on a weekly basis. I can't say if these days will necessarily fall together like they are going to this weekend, but I will do my best to do the two posts each week until we have done all '25 days of Tonalism.'
Similar to the regular blog posts that I do now, in each weekly post of the '25 days of Tonalism project, I will be writing about topics related to painting that may or may not actually address the specific subject or artist of the featured day of Tonalism for that week.
I will be including some links with each post and the video portion of the blog will generally feature me reading some information about that artist or the specific painting in it. So be sure to check out those videos.
Today I like to talk about injecting emotion into a landscape painting. Unlike working with the human figure where emotion can be portrayed by the pose or facial expression of the portrait subject, landscape art relies on more subtle and sometimes less distinct ways of importing emotional quality and content.
I often tell people that visit my studio and look at my work remarking on the emotional quality, that emotional quality is what I am endeavoring to paint with every painting that I do. While thinking about ways to write about this topic it occurred to me that I probably won't be doing a very good job of it, but I will try and communicate some of the ways that I inject emotion into my work.
.
The first way I get emotion across is with the relative values of the painting. Whether it is light or dark overall will set the general tone of the piece. Much of the actual tone and quality of the work is imparted by the values more than the colors used. I always set out to create a harmonious and engaging blend of different values and try to put a good emphasis on strong contrasts opposed with areas of subtle value modulation.
This is where I start, but the emotional finish is always done with color. Color is the most obvious facilitator of emotion when perceiving a painting and it is something that people tend to notice the most. I am usually going for the type of emotional response that we have when experiencing a sunrise or sunset in nature.
There is always a special feeling that is stimulated by the quality of light and the interesting colors that are arranging themselves in the sky. These colors shift and move so quickly that it is often difficult for the outdoor painter to get these sorts of effects (this would be a good topic for another post).
What I try to do with my color is set up a general theme and then to push the colors as far as I can go without making things to maudlin. For the most part, my color decisions are made intuitively after setting up the initial tone and pallet in my reference image.
I follow this up with a set of premixed to colors that I mix right before going in with my first color pass. This also helps to cement the emotional resonance of the painting (though I will and have deviated from those premixed colors should I get an additional inspiration while painting).
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about today's study painted after Frank Peyraud's 'Twilight'; you can see there is a real emotional quality to the painting that is sparked predominately by his intense use of orange and rust tones contrasted with blues and aqua's. This is the quality that drew me to the work initially and I definitely feel a kinship with Frank as an artist. Here are a few links featuring some sites relating to Frank Peyraud here and here.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Painted after - Twilight by Frank Peyraud , Study by M Francis McCarthy - Size 5x5, Oil on wood panel |
Our video features the progression of this study from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
As I discussed in the video, this is the start of a side project on this blog called '25 days of Tonalism.' Unlike the 100 days of Tonalism project that I completed last year, I will be doing a blog post and corresponding video for each day of the '25 days of Tonalism' once a week.
I will also continue featuring my own Tonalist work on this blog, also on a weekly basis. I can't say if these days will necessarily fall together like they are going to this weekend, but I will do my best to do the two posts each week until we have done all '25 days of Tonalism.'
Similar to the regular blog posts that I do now, in each weekly post of the '25 days of Tonalism project, I will be writing about topics related to painting that may or may not actually address the specific subject or artist of the featured day of Tonalism for that week.
I will be including some links with each post and the video portion of the blog will generally feature me reading some information about that artist or the specific painting in it. So be sure to check out those videos.
Today I like to talk about injecting emotion into a landscape painting. Unlike working with the human figure where emotion can be portrayed by the pose or facial expression of the portrait subject, landscape art relies on more subtle and sometimes less distinct ways of importing emotional quality and content.
I often tell people that visit my studio and look at my work remarking on the emotional quality, that emotional quality is what I am endeavoring to paint with every painting that I do. While thinking about ways to write about this topic it occurred to me that I probably won't be doing a very good job of it, but I will try and communicate some of the ways that I inject emotion into my work.
.
The first way I get emotion across is with the relative values of the painting. Whether it is light or dark overall will set the general tone of the piece. Much of the actual tone and quality of the work is imparted by the values more than the colors used. I always set out to create a harmonious and engaging blend of different values and try to put a good emphasis on strong contrasts opposed with areas of subtle value modulation.
This is where I start, but the emotional finish is always done with color. Color is the most obvious facilitator of emotion when perceiving a painting and it is something that people tend to notice the most. I am usually going for the type of emotional response that we have when experiencing a sunrise or sunset in nature.
There is always a special feeling that is stimulated by the quality of light and the interesting colors that are arranging themselves in the sky. These colors shift and move so quickly that it is often difficult for the outdoor painter to get these sorts of effects (this would be a good topic for another post).
What I try to do with my color is set up a general theme and then to push the colors as far as I can go without making things to maudlin. For the most part, my color decisions are made intuitively after setting up the initial tone and pallet in my reference image.
I follow this up with a set of premixed to colors that I mix right before going in with my first color pass. This also helps to cement the emotional resonance of the painting (though I will and have deviated from those premixed colors should I get an additional inspiration while painting).
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about today's study painted after Frank Peyraud's 'Twilight'; you can see there is a real emotional quality to the painting that is sparked predominately by his intense use of orange and rust tones contrasted with blues and aqua's. This is the quality that drew me to the work initially and I definitely feel a kinship with Frank as an artist. Here are a few links featuring some sites relating to Frank Peyraud here and here.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Original painting, Twilight by Frank Peyraud |
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| Painted after - Twilight by Frank Peyraud (Detail 1) |
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| Painted after - Twilight by Frank Peyraud (Detail 2) |
River at Dusk 5x7
Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'River at Dusk' 5x7.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stage on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today, I would like to talk about starting a painting. I prefer to have a dry underpainting/drawing to work on prior to going in with color. Sometimes I do the drawing stage and then do color immediately afterward, (for example, if I am working with a student and we do not have time for the painting to dry. This is mostly the case with tourists who come into my studio wishing to have a quick lesson before resuming their journey).
I like to do my underpainting/drawings on a prepared surface. Usually I have the board tinted to a light burnt sienna tone using transparent acrylic gesso mixed with color. It's good if the surface is not too dark as I do not use lighter colors in my drawing/underpainting stage.
I like to do my drawing/underpainting with a bit of painting oil and a light tint of color to start. This gives me a tone that is just slightly darker than the background color. I then start building up the masses with more pure/darker amounts of the burnt sienna paint and finally, I will mix burnt sienna with black for my very darkest shadow areas.
If you have seen any of my videos, you will have seen me do this many times. Most often I use a brush to do my drawing. There are times however when I will use a paper towel and then finish off with a brush. This is one of the few places in my painting where I paint with something other than a brush. Even when I start with a brush there are times when I like to go in and do areas of my underpainting with a paper towel.
What I like about the paper towel is the way that you can very quickly and organically paint areas of tone. I enjoy the loose and free quality that you can get with a paper towel, it is much harder to paint as freely with a controlled instrument like a brush.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'River at Dusk' 5x7; I completed this painting a couple months ago and it is one of my recent paintings that I am very happy with. We will be discussing the larger version which is a 14x20 next week.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| River at Dusk by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Today's painting is 'River at Dusk' 5x7.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stage on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today, I would like to talk about starting a painting. I prefer to have a dry underpainting/drawing to work on prior to going in with color. Sometimes I do the drawing stage and then do color immediately afterward, (for example, if I am working with a student and we do not have time for the painting to dry. This is mostly the case with tourists who come into my studio wishing to have a quick lesson before resuming their journey).
I like to do my underpainting/drawings on a prepared surface. Usually I have the board tinted to a light burnt sienna tone using transparent acrylic gesso mixed with color. It's good if the surface is not too dark as I do not use lighter colors in my drawing/underpainting stage.
I like to do my drawing/underpainting with a bit of painting oil and a light tint of color to start. This gives me a tone that is just slightly darker than the background color. I then start building up the masses with more pure/darker amounts of the burnt sienna paint and finally, I will mix burnt sienna with black for my very darkest shadow areas.
If you have seen any of my videos, you will have seen me do this many times. Most often I use a brush to do my drawing. There are times however when I will use a paper towel and then finish off with a brush. This is one of the few places in my painting where I paint with something other than a brush. Even when I start with a brush there are times when I like to go in and do areas of my underpainting with a paper towel.
What I like about the paper towel is the way that you can very quickly and organically paint areas of tone. I enjoy the loose and free quality that you can get with a paper towel, it is much harder to paint as freely with a controlled instrument like a brush.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'River at Dusk' 5x7; I completed this painting a couple months ago and it is one of my recent paintings that I am very happy with. We will be discussing the larger version which is a 14x20 next week.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| River at Dusk 5x7 (Detail) |
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| River at Dusk 5x7 (Detail 2) |
Summer Trees 8x8
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Summer Trees' 8x8.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Those of you that follow this blog will know that I recently went on a holiday to England and to the US. I did some blogging while I was gone and one post since I got back. I have spent the early part of last week getting reactivated in the studio and finishing up some paintings that I had almost completed before leaving. Also, I started up a bunch of new little 5x7 studies, some of which will make it to larger paintings and some that will not.
Given that I've been on holiday recently I guess a good topic for today would be getting back to work after a long gap.
People that know me know that I like to paint all of the time. I am a big believer in momentum. Momentum is one of the greatest forces in the universe. Once you have momentum it is always wise to maintain it. For this reason, I tend not to take big breaks from working.
Getting back to painting this week has been pretty good and I put that down to the fact that I haven't lost the momentum that I have accrued over the past several years where I have been painting very consistently. So far it's been pretty easy to get back to work and do work that is on a par with what I was doing before I left on holiday.
One mistake I see a lot of new and amateur artists making is that they will spend some time making art and then take a big break before doing more. The problem with this approach is that every time you start up again you are basically starting over and more importantly, you are not taking advantage of the principle of momentum. Momentum will help you through the bad spots and dark times that would otherwise stop you from working completely or, at the very least, greatly diminish the pleasure you get from working.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Summer Trees"; SummerTrees is a painting from back in 2014. It is notable for having been revised more than any other painting I have done before or since. The reason for this is that most of the revisions were half measures. However, the last revision I did was far more extensive and I created a completely new sky and also took care some of the niggling compositional issues that had not been addressed previously.
I think this painting is acceptable now and I am sharing it with you today as an example that sometimes you can turn a poor painting around if you do not give up.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Summer Trees by M Francis McCarthy, 8x8 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Those of you that follow this blog will know that I recently went on a holiday to England and to the US. I did some blogging while I was gone and one post since I got back. I have spent the early part of last week getting reactivated in the studio and finishing up some paintings that I had almost completed before leaving. Also, I started up a bunch of new little 5x7 studies, some of which will make it to larger paintings and some that will not.
Given that I've been on holiday recently I guess a good topic for today would be getting back to work after a long gap.
People that know me know that I like to paint all of the time. I am a big believer in momentum. Momentum is one of the greatest forces in the universe. Once you have momentum it is always wise to maintain it. For this reason, I tend not to take big breaks from working.
Getting back to painting this week has been pretty good and I put that down to the fact that I haven't lost the momentum that I have accrued over the past several years where I have been painting very consistently. So far it's been pretty easy to get back to work and do work that is on a par with what I was doing before I left on holiday.
One mistake I see a lot of new and amateur artists making is that they will spend some time making art and then take a big break before doing more. The problem with this approach is that every time you start up again you are basically starting over and more importantly, you are not taking advantage of the principle of momentum. Momentum will help you through the bad spots and dark times that would otherwise stop you from working completely or, at the very least, greatly diminish the pleasure you get from working.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Summer Trees"; SummerTrees is a painting from back in 2014. It is notable for having been revised more than any other painting I have done before or since. The reason for this is that most of the revisions were half measures. However, the last revision I did was far more extensive and I created a completely new sky and also took care some of the niggling compositional issues that had not been addressed previously.
I think this painting is acceptable now and I am sharing it with you today as an example that sometimes you can turn a poor painting around if you do not give up.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Summer Trees 8x8 (Detail) |
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| Summer Trees 8x8 (Detail 2) |
Dawn Meadow 8x8
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Dawn Meadow' 8x8.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
As many of you know, I've been away on holiday and just got back yesterday. I had an intention of keeping up this blog while on my holiday and for the most part I did alright. I found it was a bit more difficult to keep it up once I caught up with my family in California, but I am back now so fasten your seatbelts and here we go.
Today I like to talk about one of the color schemes I frequently use in landscape painting. I have several different basic color themes that I like to work with and the one I'm going to discuss with you today is the green and purple color scheme.
There are many color schemes that actually look natural and create pleasant paintings. Of all of these potential schemes, I would say I tend to lean on the green purple color scheme the most. Green and purple are not exactly complementary colors (purple is just a little further along than red on the color wheel) however purple is a near complement to green and therefore creates a touch of excitement. A painting that is mostly green with purple in the shadows and in some of the highlights is usually very attractive.
Much of the scenery that I come across and photograph, has uninspiring colors in it, especially when that scene has been photographed. As some of you know photography tends to eliminate many of the subtler colors that we perceive in nature and unless they are quite overt, a photograph will not capture them adequately. For this reason, I like to accentuate and manipulate colors in my photo reference prior to using that photo as painting material.
When prepping my reference photos in Photoshop one of my favorite things to do is to apply layers of gradient blends to the original scene using purples and browns over the already green landscape. This accentuates and modifies the existing colors into a more green/ purple color scheme. If you refer to the blog post featuring forest path (either the 5x7 or the 10x14), you will see a recent, good strong example of a green purple color scheme in action, but there are also many subtle ways that I use this dynamic all the time.
Some of the other color schemes I might employ would be pushing the landscapes colors towards rusts and orange tones or in the case of a night scene I might push the entire landscape into blue and blue-green.
Because the green purple color scheme feels so natural, many times that I use it, people are not even aware that I have been modifying and manipulating the original scenes colors because the overall effect is very natural and pleasing.
By the way, one of the great places that you can work purple into your color scheme is in the sky. Instead of painting gray clouds with nothing but black and white, many times I will inject quite a lot of purple into them. As purple is very flexible I can move it into reddish or bluish tones while still maintaining an overall feeling of gray. This is something that you can exploit quite a lot. Truth be told, I a seldom miss an opportunity to inject purple into my skies in some way, shape or form.
Another way that I get purple into the landscape is in the darkest colors that I mix for my landscape paintings. Instead of using a color like ivory black I prefer to make my darkest color using Pthalo green and alizarin Crimson. This gives me color that is actually very dark purple tone and is perceptually darker than black. As I stated in the past, one of the main reasons that I prefer to use this chromatic black instead of ivory black, is that ivory black has a very flat and dull feeling to it even when glazed, while my chromatic purple/ black mixture tends to vibrate more and also complements the greens and other colors in the landscape.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Dawn Meadow' 8x8; Our last blog post features the 5x5 for this image and as I stated in the blog, this is a scene that I have painted quite a few times in different ways and formats. This is the second time I painted an 8x8 of it and I like this painting as well as the original 8x8 which I sold. The scene doesn't have a lot of actual strong elements in it but, compositionally, works very well for the sort of landscape that I like to do.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Dawn Meadow by M Francis McCarthy, 8x8 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Today's painting is 'Dawn Meadow' 8x8.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
As many of you know, I've been away on holiday and just got back yesterday. I had an intention of keeping up this blog while on my holiday and for the most part I did alright. I found it was a bit more difficult to keep it up once I caught up with my family in California, but I am back now so fasten your seatbelts and here we go.
Today I like to talk about one of the color schemes I frequently use in landscape painting. I have several different basic color themes that I like to work with and the one I'm going to discuss with you today is the green and purple color scheme.
There are many color schemes that actually look natural and create pleasant paintings. Of all of these potential schemes, I would say I tend to lean on the green purple color scheme the most. Green and purple are not exactly complementary colors (purple is just a little further along than red on the color wheel) however purple is a near complement to green and therefore creates a touch of excitement. A painting that is mostly green with purple in the shadows and in some of the highlights is usually very attractive.
Much of the scenery that I come across and photograph, has uninspiring colors in it, especially when that scene has been photographed. As some of you know photography tends to eliminate many of the subtler colors that we perceive in nature and unless they are quite overt, a photograph will not capture them adequately. For this reason, I like to accentuate and manipulate colors in my photo reference prior to using that photo as painting material.
When prepping my reference photos in Photoshop one of my favorite things to do is to apply layers of gradient blends to the original scene using purples and browns over the already green landscape. This accentuates and modifies the existing colors into a more green/ purple color scheme. If you refer to the blog post featuring forest path (either the 5x7 or the 10x14), you will see a recent, good strong example of a green purple color scheme in action, but there are also many subtle ways that I use this dynamic all the time.
Some of the other color schemes I might employ would be pushing the landscapes colors towards rusts and orange tones or in the case of a night scene I might push the entire landscape into blue and blue-green.
Because the green purple color scheme feels so natural, many times that I use it, people are not even aware that I have been modifying and manipulating the original scenes colors because the overall effect is very natural and pleasing.
By the way, one of the great places that you can work purple into your color scheme is in the sky. Instead of painting gray clouds with nothing but black and white, many times I will inject quite a lot of purple into them. As purple is very flexible I can move it into reddish or bluish tones while still maintaining an overall feeling of gray. This is something that you can exploit quite a lot. Truth be told, I a seldom miss an opportunity to inject purple into my skies in some way, shape or form.
Another way that I get purple into the landscape is in the darkest colors that I mix for my landscape paintings. Instead of using a color like ivory black I prefer to make my darkest color using Pthalo green and alizarin Crimson. This gives me color that is actually very dark purple tone and is perceptually darker than black. As I stated in the past, one of the main reasons that I prefer to use this chromatic black instead of ivory black, is that ivory black has a very flat and dull feeling to it even when glazed, while my chromatic purple/ black mixture tends to vibrate more and also complements the greens and other colors in the landscape.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Dawn Meadow' 8x8; Our last blog post features the 5x5 for this image and as I stated in the blog, this is a scene that I have painted quite a few times in different ways and formats. This is the second time I painted an 8x8 of it and I like this painting as well as the original 8x8 which I sold. The scene doesn't have a lot of actual strong elements in it but, compositionally, works very well for the sort of landscape that I like to do.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Dawn Meadow8x8 (Detail) |
 |
| Dawn Meadow8x8 (Detail 2) |
Dawn Meadow 5x5
Hello and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Dawn Meadow' 5x5.
Our video shows the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
I'm still on holiday right now having just arrived in my native California last night for a stay with my family. On my last day in England, I scored a fantastic book on John Constable. It's a large tome filled with color photos of a lot of his paintings and drawings.
I'll be reading this book or much of it, though I never concern myself with memorizing the details and dates of other artists existences, but rather I absorb and consume their artistic essence merging with that which I love about their work with that and which is complimentary to my own.
Getting back to my 2 cents worth about Constable, He's awesome. I far prefer his oil sketches to the formal works but I love his big "finished stuff" as well. The formal seems stuff far more stodgy to modern eyes. His sketches are another matter entirely, they are fresh and vibrant in intention and execution.
His oil sketches are usually smaller and often done en Plein air. Many times he has worked on a scene from different angles and perspectives. I think he is better than a lot of modern guys because his intention was to get the information down. His gestural, expressive brushwork was a by-product of this intention and not a "style".
I'm not an art historian, far from it in fact, but being a working painter I have an avid interest in historical painters that are related to what I do as an artist. For this reason, I'd recommend you do some serious Googling of Constable if your keen to learn about the man and his work.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Dawn Meadow' 5x5: This a scene I've painted many times since I first started doing landscapes back in 2008. I've sold versions of this scene before and it's cool to revisit it occasionally.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Dawn Meadow by M Francis McCarthy, 5x5 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video shows the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
I'm still on holiday right now having just arrived in my native California last night for a stay with my family. On my last day in England, I scored a fantastic book on John Constable. It's a large tome filled with color photos of a lot of his paintings and drawings.
I'll be reading this book or much of it, though I never concern myself with memorizing the details and dates of other artists existences, but rather I absorb and consume their artistic essence merging with that which I love about their work with that and which is complimentary to my own.
Getting back to my 2 cents worth about Constable, He's awesome. I far prefer his oil sketches to the formal works but I love his big "finished stuff" as well. The formal seems stuff far more stodgy to modern eyes. His sketches are another matter entirely, they are fresh and vibrant in intention and execution.
His oil sketches are usually smaller and often done en Plein air. Many times he has worked on a scene from different angles and perspectives. I think he is better than a lot of modern guys because his intention was to get the information down. His gestural, expressive brushwork was a by-product of this intention and not a "style".
I'm not an art historian, far from it in fact, but being a working painter I have an avid interest in historical painters that are related to what I do as an artist. For this reason, I'd recommend you do some serious Googling of Constable if your keen to learn about the man and his work.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Dawn Meadow' 5x5: This a scene I've painted many times since I first started doing landscapes back in 2008. I've sold versions of this scene before and it's cool to revisit it occasionally.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Dawn Meadow 5x5 ( Detail) |
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| Dawn Meadow 5x5 ( Detail 2) |
Sunset Trees 8x8
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Sunset Trees' 8x8.
Our video features the progression of this painting from it's early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brush strokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
I'm typing this blog from a beach near Devon, England as I'm on holiday... I know, I should get extra blogging points for working while on vacation!
Today, I'd like to talk about where painting tips and techniques end, and that is in philosophy. There have been many painters over the ages that were philosophers as well as painters, and I count myself among them.
Philosophy is basically the study of life. Why we are here and what we should be doing while we are here. Pretty heady stuff if you're not inclined in this direction, but ultimately important to all of us manifested on this planet and especially important to the serious painter. It has been said that the unexamined life is not worth living and I am inclined to agree.
How does philosophy relate to painting you might ask? The answer varies depending on the level and temperament of the painter. If you're just starting out, technique seems an all-encompassing interest. However, after you've been painting awhile it becomes apparent that technique is really only a small part of the painters experience and that what is really vital about painting well, is that it is an expression of you as a unique person. Thats the key thing.
Which leads us almost directly to philosophy. Why express yourself? What is the self anyway? See? Not so hard to tie philosophy and painting together when you pursure this tack.
I could of course give you my answers to these questions but maybe it's better to save that for another blog post down the road. Suffice to say, they are great questions and they have a very real bearing on the work you create as an artist.
In my case, these questions totally inform the type of subject matter I paint and the way I paint it. When someone comes into your studio and asks you why you are painting a landscape that is a twilight scene, in oils with hogs bristle brushes, You should have a ready answer. Know thy painting equals know thyself. I know I endeavour to and if you've read my blog for awhile, you might know why I'm doing things the way I do.
Painting is (to my way of thinking), primarily a mental exercise. For this reason, how you think will automaticly affect how you paint. So, if you've not been thinking much about painting or life in general and find you're also not improving much, try a bit of philosphy and see how your work benefits from the effort.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Sunset Trees' 8x8; we talked about the 5x5 last week and I'm also pretty happy with the 8x8 version in todays post. I do a lot of roads. I like roads because they take you places. Also roads are neutral. Any body can walk down any road and the road may be new or ancient.
By the way, there are lot's of cool ancient stuff here in England and it's interesting how it meets and contrasts with the new stuff. Being from California originally and now living in New Zealand everything except the land is new.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Sunset Trees by M Francis McCarthy, 8x8 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from it's early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brush strokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
I'm typing this blog from a beach near Devon, England as I'm on holiday... I know, I should get extra blogging points for working while on vacation!
Today, I'd like to talk about where painting tips and techniques end, and that is in philosophy. There have been many painters over the ages that were philosophers as well as painters, and I count myself among them.
Philosophy is basically the study of life. Why we are here and what we should be doing while we are here. Pretty heady stuff if you're not inclined in this direction, but ultimately important to all of us manifested on this planet and especially important to the serious painter. It has been said that the unexamined life is not worth living and I am inclined to agree.
How does philosophy relate to painting you might ask? The answer varies depending on the level and temperament of the painter. If you're just starting out, technique seems an all-encompassing interest. However, after you've been painting awhile it becomes apparent that technique is really only a small part of the painters experience and that what is really vital about painting well, is that it is an expression of you as a unique person. Thats the key thing.
Which leads us almost directly to philosophy. Why express yourself? What is the self anyway? See? Not so hard to tie philosophy and painting together when you pursure this tack.
I could of course give you my answers to these questions but maybe it's better to save that for another blog post down the road. Suffice to say, they are great questions and they have a very real bearing on the work you create as an artist.
In my case, these questions totally inform the type of subject matter I paint and the way I paint it. When someone comes into your studio and asks you why you are painting a landscape that is a twilight scene, in oils with hogs bristle brushes, You should have a ready answer. Know thy painting equals know thyself. I know I endeavour to and if you've read my blog for awhile, you might know why I'm doing things the way I do.
Painting is (to my way of thinking), primarily a mental exercise. For this reason, how you think will automaticly affect how you paint. So, if you've not been thinking much about painting or life in general and find you're also not improving much, try a bit of philosphy and see how your work benefits from the effort.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Sunset Trees' 8x8; we talked about the 5x5 last week and I'm also pretty happy with the 8x8 version in todays post. I do a lot of roads. I like roads because they take you places. Also roads are neutral. Any body can walk down any road and the road may be new or ancient.
By the way, there are lot's of cool ancient stuff here in England and it's interesting how it meets and contrasts with the new stuff. Being from California originally and now living in New Zealand everything except the land is new.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Sunset Trees 8x8 by M Francis McCarthy (Detail) |
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| Sunset Trees 8x8 by M Francis McCarthy (Detail 2) |
Sunset Trees 5x5
Hello and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Sunset Trees' 5x5.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Sorry for the delay in blogging. I'm traveling and just now getting over the jet lag.
Today I'd like to ramble a little bit about the art market. While not an expert on the subject I have had some good exposure to it in the six years I have had an open studio in a public accessible art center. I would say the best part of having a publicly accessible art studio is that it has enabled me to grow a thick skin regarding interacting with people about my art. I get all sorts of comments about my art, both positive and negative and while most people coming in are not art buyers, I think it is always great to have people looking at your work.
As many of you know, I was a commercial illustrator for 13 years and made my living by creating art every day and getting paid for it. This was both a positive and negative experience but ultimately I enjoyed it. The main reason that I decided to give up on being a commercial illustrator was that I didn't feel that I was using my talent to put the art into the world that I wanted to represent me and my life as an artist.
For much of my life, I'd been content to concentrate on developing my drawing skills and later my illustration abilities. The actual content of my drawings and illustrations was not as important to me as developing my ability to express myself well. After many years of working full-time as an illustrator, I definitely developed the ability to not only finish work but, create work at a high level that was commercially viable in the marketplace. As an education, this experience was irreplaceable.
I did not attend an art school, I am primarily self-taught especially when it comes to drawing. When I decided to become a landscape painter I went to the bookstore and got myself some books and later on, some DVDs. Many of these artists gave me some great advice and teaching. For that reason, I do not consider myself to be a 100% self-taught as a painter.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with trading your art for money but I have seen many an artist go down dark paths that I'm sure they never envisioned when they began their artistic journeys. Just about everything in our modern world has a dollar attached to it, this is not always a good thing. As a matter fact, it can be very destructive if the desire and wish to accumulate money drives you above and beyond other goals that you could be pursuing. When I chose a new avocation as a fine artist and landscape painter, I was pretty sure that I would be taking a huge pay cut and I have.
Ultimately it has been worth it though because I feel fulfilled every day when I come home from the studio because I have spent my time putting something beautiful and uplifting into the world. It's also rewarding when people come into my studio and admire my work. Indeed one of the greatest ways that anyone can show their appreciation is by parting with some of their hard-earned cash to purchase one of my paintings.
The majority of my studio sales are made to tourists. It is a well-known fact that tourists are one of the main sectors of the art buying public, people often wish to have a memento of their holiday and also they have already, mentally come to terms with the fact that they will be parting with money while on vacation.
Galleries are another place that I sell work and I have some great relationships with several. I was reading an article today about online sales versus galleries and the potential death of the gallery. I myself do not believe that galleries will ever completely go away because in a world full of one image after another presented to us both on our computers and televisions not to mention other media, an actual original painting has a spirit and gravity to it that needs to be perceived in person.
This is my belief, but that does not mean that there will not be growth in the online gallery market or that selling work online is a bad idea. I just think that it's best to really be in the same space as the painting before plunking down hundreds or thousands of dollars on a piece of original art.
These are just some of my thoughts on this topic. I would like to conclude here by saying if you are a person that supports the work of artists you admire financially, you are a hero in my opinion and thank you.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Sunset Trees' 5x5; this is a study for a slightly larger painting we will be discussing next week. As I stated in the video I had painted this scene once before around 2010/2011 and sold that painting. While that painting came out quite successfully I had a lot of irritation while painting the road and it was definitely a big step on my path to the obviation of detail in my work. As I decided then and there, a different approach was in order going forward.
I am happy with this study and the larger 8x8 version we will be discussing next week. The biggest difference between the more recent paintings and the versions I did in 2011 was the ease of expression in doing the scene now has been brought on by the additional years of painting experience.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Sunset Trees by M Francis McCarthy, 5x5 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Sorry for the delay in blogging. I'm traveling and just now getting over the jet lag.
Today I'd like to ramble a little bit about the art market. While not an expert on the subject I have had some good exposure to it in the six years I have had an open studio in a public accessible art center. I would say the best part of having a publicly accessible art studio is that it has enabled me to grow a thick skin regarding interacting with people about my art. I get all sorts of comments about my art, both positive and negative and while most people coming in are not art buyers, I think it is always great to have people looking at your work.
As many of you know, I was a commercial illustrator for 13 years and made my living by creating art every day and getting paid for it. This was both a positive and negative experience but ultimately I enjoyed it. The main reason that I decided to give up on being a commercial illustrator was that I didn't feel that I was using my talent to put the art into the world that I wanted to represent me and my life as an artist.
For much of my life, I'd been content to concentrate on developing my drawing skills and later my illustration abilities. The actual content of my drawings and illustrations was not as important to me as developing my ability to express myself well. After many years of working full-time as an illustrator, I definitely developed the ability to not only finish work but, create work at a high level that was commercially viable in the marketplace. As an education, this experience was irreplaceable.
I did not attend an art school, I am primarily self-taught especially when it comes to drawing. When I decided to become a landscape painter I went to the bookstore and got myself some books and later on, some DVDs. Many of these artists gave me some great advice and teaching. For that reason, I do not consider myself to be a 100% self-taught as a painter.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with trading your art for money but I have seen many an artist go down dark paths that I'm sure they never envisioned when they began their artistic journeys. Just about everything in our modern world has a dollar attached to it, this is not always a good thing. As a matter fact, it can be very destructive if the desire and wish to accumulate money drives you above and beyond other goals that you could be pursuing. When I chose a new avocation as a fine artist and landscape painter, I was pretty sure that I would be taking a huge pay cut and I have.
Ultimately it has been worth it though because I feel fulfilled every day when I come home from the studio because I have spent my time putting something beautiful and uplifting into the world. It's also rewarding when people come into my studio and admire my work. Indeed one of the greatest ways that anyone can show their appreciation is by parting with some of their hard-earned cash to purchase one of my paintings.
The majority of my studio sales are made to tourists. It is a well-known fact that tourists are one of the main sectors of the art buying public, people often wish to have a memento of their holiday and also they have already, mentally come to terms with the fact that they will be parting with money while on vacation.
Galleries are another place that I sell work and I have some great relationships with several. I was reading an article today about online sales versus galleries and the potential death of the gallery. I myself do not believe that galleries will ever completely go away because in a world full of one image after another presented to us both on our computers and televisions not to mention other media, an actual original painting has a spirit and gravity to it that needs to be perceived in person.
This is my belief, but that does not mean that there will not be growth in the online gallery market or that selling work online is a bad idea. I just think that it's best to really be in the same space as the painting before plunking down hundreds or thousands of dollars on a piece of original art.
These are just some of my thoughts on this topic. I would like to conclude here by saying if you are a person that supports the work of artists you admire financially, you are a hero in my opinion and thank you.
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Sunset Trees' 5x5; this is a study for a slightly larger painting we will be discussing next week. As I stated in the video I had painted this scene once before around 2010/2011 and sold that painting. While that painting came out quite successfully I had a lot of irritation while painting the road and it was definitely a big step on my path to the obviation of detail in my work. As I decided then and there, a different approach was in order going forward.
I am happy with this study and the larger 8x8 version we will be discussing next week. The biggest difference between the more recent paintings and the versions I did in 2011 was the ease of expression in doing the scene now has been brought on by the additional years of painting experience.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Sunset Trees by M Francis McCarthy (Detail) |
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| Sunset Trees by M Francis McCarthy (Detail2) |
Forest Path 10x14
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Forest Path' 10x14.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today, would I like to talk about greens in painting. Where my studio is at the Quarry Art Center in Whangarei, New Zealand, I recently saw someone carting around some rather large landscape paintings the other day. These paintings were clearly done by an amateur, one of the primary ways that I could tell, even from a distance, was the approach that the painter had used for the greens in their landscape.
Their greens were all extremely bright and what I like to term "poisonous looking". These are the typical greens that you get from any unmodified, premixed tube green. It can be amazing to see the disconnect between what people put on the canvas versus the actual reality of the scene that they are attempting to portray.
Our world is full of myriad greens from bright to dull and light to dark. Any artist that is going to become accomplished at landscape painting needs to have several good strategies for portraying the greens present in many scenes.
Just as an aside before I get into green strategies, I would like to mention (for those of you using photographic reference), that photos only capture a small percentage of the greens that we can perceive with our eyes. If you're going to utilize photos to create your paintings you need to be aware of this fact and not just robotically copy the greens present in your photographic reference. Instead, you need to inject some imagination and memory to accurately depict how reality actually works.
Now, onto green strategies. My first strategy for dealing with greens is to have an appropriate base green on my pallet at all times. I currently have 2 tube greens on my pallet, they are Pthalo green and permanent green light. I very rarely if ever use these greens in any form even remotely resembling the way they come out of the tube.
In the case of Pthalo green, I might add it to a green mixture if I feel like I need a very cold green. In the case of permanent green light which is a very bright and sickly looking green, I tend to use it more to modify colors than on its own. It is effective for adding to a mixture that might be a tan or yellow or even reddish tone that you want to push into a green direction. By the way, Gamblin makes the best permanent green light, no other manufacturers version of this color seems to work for me very well.
The number one green that I keep on my pallet at all times does not come from a tube at all, it is a mixture of Gamblin Hansa yellow light and black. A very similar color can also be created with cadmium yellow and black. This is my baseline green and it is awesome because it is very earthy and feels very natural.
I will modify this base green mixture with colors like yellow ocher or raw umber. Another excellent green in a similar vein that you can mix is a combination of Gamblin Hansa yellow light and raw umber. There is a tube color from Gamblin that is similar to my base green mixture called green gold, but green gold is very transparent and also quite expensive compared to just mixing black with Hansa yellow light. So, I will just mix up a good sized blob of my favorite base green while setting up my pallet to paint each day.
Another thing to really keep in mind when approaching greens is how much red there is in most of the greens in nature. Red is a complementary to green and the pure forms of each will produce a sort of brownish color. In reality, because I'm not working with pure green tones it is very easy to modify greens using red or my favorite green modifier, burnt sienna. You would be amazed how much burnt sienna you can put into a green mixture and have it still visually seem to be green.
I also tend to add a lot of yellow ocher to my base green mixture of Hansa yellow light and black, for a range of light green tones. This color variation can also be modified extensively with reds. I should note here that I do not often make green colors by mixing blue and yellow because this tends to produce a synthetic looking green that needs a lot of additional modification anyway. I will occasionally add blues to my base green mixture for certain effects, especially if I'm mixing cool greens.
Another thing I like to do is add the neutral gray mixture that I keep on my pallet to various greens. Especially where the greens I am painting might be meeting or overlapping the sky. As I've stated in the past on this blog, I like to keep a neutral gray mixture on my pallet that is a combination of ivory black and titanium white. I mostly use this for various colors in the sky but it's handy for a lot of different uses.
In closing, I would like to say that when it comes to greens, red is your friend and in general you want to avoid painting with greens directly from the tube.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Forest Path' 10x14; as I stated with the 5x7 version of this scene that we did last week. I am fairly happy with this painting if not exactly ecstatic. I did a version as an 8x10 a few years ago that I liked.
There were many, many greens in this painting and I employed a lot of the strategies as outlined in this blog post today.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Forest Path by M Francis McCarthy, 10x14 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today, would I like to talk about greens in painting. Where my studio is at the Quarry Art Center in Whangarei, New Zealand, I recently saw someone carting around some rather large landscape paintings the other day. These paintings were clearly done by an amateur, one of the primary ways that I could tell, even from a distance, was the approach that the painter had used for the greens in their landscape.
Their greens were all extremely bright and what I like to term "poisonous looking". These are the typical greens that you get from any unmodified, premixed tube green. It can be amazing to see the disconnect between what people put on the canvas versus the actual reality of the scene that they are attempting to portray.
Our world is full of myriad greens from bright to dull and light to dark. Any artist that is going to become accomplished at landscape painting needs to have several good strategies for portraying the greens present in many scenes.
Just as an aside before I get into green strategies, I would like to mention (for those of you using photographic reference), that photos only capture a small percentage of the greens that we can perceive with our eyes. If you're going to utilize photos to create your paintings you need to be aware of this fact and not just robotically copy the greens present in your photographic reference. Instead, you need to inject some imagination and memory to accurately depict how reality actually works.
Now, onto green strategies. My first strategy for dealing with greens is to have an appropriate base green on my pallet at all times. I currently have 2 tube greens on my pallet, they are Pthalo green and permanent green light. I very rarely if ever use these greens in any form even remotely resembling the way they come out of the tube.
In the case of Pthalo green, I might add it to a green mixture if I feel like I need a very cold green. In the case of permanent green light which is a very bright and sickly looking green, I tend to use it more to modify colors than on its own. It is effective for adding to a mixture that might be a tan or yellow or even reddish tone that you want to push into a green direction. By the way, Gamblin makes the best permanent green light, no other manufacturers version of this color seems to work for me very well.
The number one green that I keep on my pallet at all times does not come from a tube at all, it is a mixture of Gamblin Hansa yellow light and black. A very similar color can also be created with cadmium yellow and black. This is my baseline green and it is awesome because it is very earthy and feels very natural.
I will modify this base green mixture with colors like yellow ocher or raw umber. Another excellent green in a similar vein that you can mix is a combination of Gamblin Hansa yellow light and raw umber. There is a tube color from Gamblin that is similar to my base green mixture called green gold, but green gold is very transparent and also quite expensive compared to just mixing black with Hansa yellow light. So, I will just mix up a good sized blob of my favorite base green while setting up my pallet to paint each day.
Another thing to really keep in mind when approaching greens is how much red there is in most of the greens in nature. Red is a complementary to green and the pure forms of each will produce a sort of brownish color. In reality, because I'm not working with pure green tones it is very easy to modify greens using red or my favorite green modifier, burnt sienna. You would be amazed how much burnt sienna you can put into a green mixture and have it still visually seem to be green.
I also tend to add a lot of yellow ocher to my base green mixture of Hansa yellow light and black, for a range of light green tones. This color variation can also be modified extensively with reds. I should note here that I do not often make green colors by mixing blue and yellow because this tends to produce a synthetic looking green that needs a lot of additional modification anyway. I will occasionally add blues to my base green mixture for certain effects, especially if I'm mixing cool greens.
Another thing I like to do is add the neutral gray mixture that I keep on my pallet to various greens. Especially where the greens I am painting might be meeting or overlapping the sky. As I've stated in the past on this blog, I like to keep a neutral gray mixture on my pallet that is a combination of ivory black and titanium white. I mostly use this for various colors in the sky but it's handy for a lot of different uses.
In closing, I would like to say that when it comes to greens, red is your friend and in general you want to avoid painting with greens directly from the tube.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Forest Path' 10x14; as I stated with the 5x7 version of this scene that we did last week. I am fairly happy with this painting if not exactly ecstatic. I did a version as an 8x10 a few years ago that I liked.
There were many, many greens in this painting and I employed a lot of the strategies as outlined in this blog post today.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Forest Path by M Francis McCarthy, 10x14 (Detail) |
 |
| Forest Path by M Francis McCarthy, 10x14 (Detail 2) |
Forest Path 5x7
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Forest Path' 5x7.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its initial underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I would like to discuss an approach to landscape painting that can help a lot. This approach I call paint by numbers. When I was young (and probably still) you could buy kits in the store that had a canvas inside that had been printed with a pattern of shapes, inside of each shape was a number. Also in the kit was a corresponding carton of individual paint colors all labeled with a unique number.
The idea behind paint by numbers was that you would fill each of the shapes with the corresponding color and at the end you would have a complete painting. Some of these kits were very simple and had only a few colors and some of them could be quite involved and have up to 40 colors or more. I did not actually do that many paint by numbers when I was young but I think that it is a valuable idea to apply to your painting.
Essentially with this approach, you should be working with imaginary, individuated patches of color that meet and overlap. It's good to make sure that these patches are not too large or too small in shape and size. If you think this way while painting you can cover your entire canvas fairly easily.
It's good to paint in very large shapes at first that are then subdivided by smaller shapes with varying degrees of color modulation applied along the way. By the way, color modulation is a topic I've discussed previously on this blog and is another thing that I think about quite a lot while I am painting. Even just thinking of the words "color modulation" can be beneficial.
In the same way, imagining a concept like "paint by numbers" even if you are not actually tracing out individual patches to fill, can be very valuable in giving the logical portion of your mind something to chew on and think about while you are painting.
Try this approach out and see if I'm not right, that as a mental exercise that is valuable for completing a painting.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Forest Path' 5x7; I have painted this scene before back in 2013 or 14. I'm not sure where I got the initial reference from, but I'm attracted to these sorts of scenes where you see a tunnel of trees with a light at the end of it.
A painting like this is always going to be an exercise in greens. Something that I intend to maybe talk about next week is approaching greens with some different ideas, so stay tuned for that.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Forest Path by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its initial underpainting stages on up through the final finishing brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I would like to discuss an approach to landscape painting that can help a lot. This approach I call paint by numbers. When I was young (and probably still) you could buy kits in the store that had a canvas inside that had been printed with a pattern of shapes, inside of each shape was a number. Also in the kit was a corresponding carton of individual paint colors all labeled with a unique number.
The idea behind paint by numbers was that you would fill each of the shapes with the corresponding color and at the end you would have a complete painting. Some of these kits were very simple and had only a few colors and some of them could be quite involved and have up to 40 colors or more. I did not actually do that many paint by numbers when I was young but I think that it is a valuable idea to apply to your painting.
Essentially with this approach, you should be working with imaginary, individuated patches of color that meet and overlap. It's good to make sure that these patches are not too large or too small in shape and size. If you think this way while painting you can cover your entire canvas fairly easily.
It's good to paint in very large shapes at first that are then subdivided by smaller shapes with varying degrees of color modulation applied along the way. By the way, color modulation is a topic I've discussed previously on this blog and is another thing that I think about quite a lot while I am painting. Even just thinking of the words "color modulation" can be beneficial.
In the same way, imagining a concept like "paint by numbers" even if you are not actually tracing out individual patches to fill, can be very valuable in giving the logical portion of your mind something to chew on and think about while you are painting.
Try this approach out and see if I'm not right, that as a mental exercise that is valuable for completing a painting.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Forest Path' 5x7; I have painted this scene before back in 2013 or 14. I'm not sure where I got the initial reference from, but I'm attracted to these sorts of scenes where you see a tunnel of trees with a light at the end of it.
A painting like this is always going to be an exercise in greens. Something that I intend to maybe talk about next week is approaching greens with some different ideas, so stay tuned for that.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Forest Path by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 (Detail) |
 |
| Forest Path by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 (Detail 2) |
Arcadian Twilight 18x24
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist paintings by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Arcadian Twilight' 18x24.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about oil paint. After having recently read the book "American Painters on Technique: 1860 - 1945". I have been making attempts to adjust the thickness of my initial paint layer. The reason for this is that it is a scientific fact that oil paint becomes more translucent with age and for that reason if painted too thinly, bottom layers will make themselves increasingly present with the passage of time.
I was not exactly painting in a super thin manner previous to reading this book but I was basically just using enough paint to cover the burnt sienna ground color of my wood panel. I think I'm probably okay with the paintings I've done, but I am making an attempt to lay down a thicker overall paint film now in the interests of my work appearing fresh and opaque for hundreds of years into the future.
This definitely affects my painting technique in many large and subtle ways. So far, on the three or four paintings I've done last week where I have endeavored to lay down a thicker initial paint layer, I've been pleased with the effect and I am enjoying using more paint.
I've been reading that it's good for a painter to use a lot of paint ever since I started painting back in 2008,but generally speaking I have been more minimal in my approach. Also, as my work has become more and more Tonalist in nature, I would often apply many layers of thin paint over my initial color pass, not really worrying too much about how the color may become more translucent over time.
It will be interesting in the following weeks to see how this thicker initial paint layer responds to glazes and dry brushing. In general, I'm excited about it and I feel that I'm having some good success moving in this direction.
I've never been a fan of impasto painting. Where I have overly thick brush marks or globs of paint on my painting surface I prefer to scrape them off rather than leave them and have these ridges create unsightly and distracting glares. My plan is to continue doing this and I think these paintings are going to turn out looking pretty great.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Arcadian Twilight' 18x24; this is a good one to watch the video for because I ended up changing direction extensively with the foreground elements. Initially, I had a road that actually looked pretty good in the 5x7 study, but as I proceeded to scale the scene up, it seemed to take over a huge amount of the surface area of my larger painting to the point where I felt it was distracting and not really working.
This was aggravated by the fact that on this road were some strong horizontal shadows from bushes and trees off to the right-hand side. I wanted them to appear transparent, but ran into a lot of trouble and difficulty as I attempted to pull off the effect. In the end, the painting had crashed and burned. Rather than just stick it in the pile of failed paintings that I keep handy in my studio to paint over, I decided to composite a waterfall into my reference and proceeded to paint over the road. The overall effect of the waterfall is pleasing and the painting is fairly successful now, though I would prefer to have had a fresher approach throughout.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Arcadian Twilight by M Francis McCarthy, 18x24 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages, on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
Today I like to talk about oil paint. After having recently read the book "American Painters on Technique: 1860 - 1945". I have been making attempts to adjust the thickness of my initial paint layer. The reason for this is that it is a scientific fact that oil paint becomes more translucent with age and for that reason if painted too thinly, bottom layers will make themselves increasingly present with the passage of time.
I was not exactly painting in a super thin manner previous to reading this book but I was basically just using enough paint to cover the burnt sienna ground color of my wood panel. I think I'm probably okay with the paintings I've done, but I am making an attempt to lay down a thicker overall paint film now in the interests of my work appearing fresh and opaque for hundreds of years into the future.
This definitely affects my painting technique in many large and subtle ways. So far, on the three or four paintings I've done last week where I have endeavored to lay down a thicker initial paint layer, I've been pleased with the effect and I am enjoying using more paint.
I've been reading that it's good for a painter to use a lot of paint ever since I started painting back in 2008,but generally speaking I have been more minimal in my approach. Also, as my work has become more and more Tonalist in nature, I would often apply many layers of thin paint over my initial color pass, not really worrying too much about how the color may become more translucent over time.
It will be interesting in the following weeks to see how this thicker initial paint layer responds to glazes and dry brushing. In general, I'm excited about it and I feel that I'm having some good success moving in this direction.
I've never been a fan of impasto painting. Where I have overly thick brush marks or globs of paint on my painting surface I prefer to scrape them off rather than leave them and have these ridges create unsightly and distracting glares. My plan is to continue doing this and I think these paintings are going to turn out looking pretty great.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Arcadian Twilight' 18x24; this is a good one to watch the video for because I ended up changing direction extensively with the foreground elements. Initially, I had a road that actually looked pretty good in the 5x7 study, but as I proceeded to scale the scene up, it seemed to take over a huge amount of the surface area of my larger painting to the point where I felt it was distracting and not really working.
This was aggravated by the fact that on this road were some strong horizontal shadows from bushes and trees off to the right-hand side. I wanted them to appear transparent, but ran into a lot of trouble and difficulty as I attempted to pull off the effect. In the end, the painting had crashed and burned. Rather than just stick it in the pile of failed paintings that I keep handy in my studio to paint over, I decided to composite a waterfall into my reference and proceeded to paint over the road. The overall effect of the waterfall is pleasing and the painting is fairly successful now, though I would prefer to have had a fresher approach throughout.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Arcadian Twilight 18x24 (Detail) |
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| Arcadian Twilight 18x24 (Detail 2) |
Dusk Meadow 18x24
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Dusk Meadow' 18x24.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final glazes and finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
By the way, I should also mention that I am attempting to upload a higher resolution video today, this equates to a to jump from a 460 up to a 720 resolution, so hopefully all goes well.
I like to talk today about overworking your paintings. Or more correctly, how I can have a tendency to overwork my paintings. I've been painting for quite a while now and when I first started I was including a lot of extraneous detail in my work. Over time, I've learned the wisdom and benefit of subsuming detail so that the painting is more relaxed and able to breathe.
Like so many obstacles in our progression as painters, excessive detail and the pursuit thereof, can be and is a serious trap for most landscape painters at some point in their careers. I thought that I'd slayed this particular Dragon as I definitely now know not to include too much detail in my work. However, since completing the hundred days of Tonalism project a year ago, I have been becoming increasingly fixated on texture in my painting. I generally achieve a base texture through a combination of board preparation and also impasto brushstrokes on the first color pass of my painting.
When finishing my paintings I love to lightly apply thin amounts of paint to my painting surface by lightly dry brushing over the surface of my first (or in some cases my second) color pass. This creates a textured effect that I really enjoy and that I think looks totally cool. And while it does look totally cool, it also has a great potential for over softening my paintings and also decreasing the impact of my initial brushwork.
There's a balance the needs to be struck once you go down this path and it can be quite difficult to know when to stop when you started in with this effect. Once you've started working your painting over this way you cannot go back to opaque and direct brushstrokes without messing up the texturized quality.
In the recent pass of six paintings that I have completed, I got carried away with several of them and I have determined, in the next bunch that I'm doing, I will be allowing myself to only do two color passes. Previously I've been allowing myself three and sometimes four color passes.
As I stated in the video, every landscape painting is a collection of hundreds if not thousands of myriad decisions that all interact and affect each other. Allowing the painting to breathe and not be overworked is really important to achieving a high level of quality in the work. I'm not the first artist that has struggled with this and I'm sure I will not be the last.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Dusk Meadow 18x24; I've done a fair amount of texturising on this painting but it's within the realm of good to great and so I'm happy with it.
I have previously painted this motif as a 5x7 and also as an 8x10 and thought it would be a good one to do as an 18x24. The actual painting itself has a nice quality to it and is hanging up in my studio currently.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Dusk Meadow by M Francis McCarthy, 18x24 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its early underpainting stages on up through the final glazes and finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
By the way, I should also mention that I am attempting to upload a higher resolution video today, this equates to a to jump from a 460 up to a 720 resolution, so hopefully all goes well.
I like to talk today about overworking your paintings. Or more correctly, how I can have a tendency to overwork my paintings. I've been painting for quite a while now and when I first started I was including a lot of extraneous detail in my work. Over time, I've learned the wisdom and benefit of subsuming detail so that the painting is more relaxed and able to breathe.
Like so many obstacles in our progression as painters, excessive detail and the pursuit thereof, can be and is a serious trap for most landscape painters at some point in their careers. I thought that I'd slayed this particular Dragon as I definitely now know not to include too much detail in my work. However, since completing the hundred days of Tonalism project a year ago, I have been becoming increasingly fixated on texture in my painting. I generally achieve a base texture through a combination of board preparation and also impasto brushstrokes on the first color pass of my painting.
When finishing my paintings I love to lightly apply thin amounts of paint to my painting surface by lightly dry brushing over the surface of my first (or in some cases my second) color pass. This creates a textured effect that I really enjoy and that I think looks totally cool. And while it does look totally cool, it also has a great potential for over softening my paintings and also decreasing the impact of my initial brushwork.
There's a balance the needs to be struck once you go down this path and it can be quite difficult to know when to stop when you started in with this effect. Once you've started working your painting over this way you cannot go back to opaque and direct brushstrokes without messing up the texturized quality.
In the recent pass of six paintings that I have completed, I got carried away with several of them and I have determined, in the next bunch that I'm doing, I will be allowing myself to only do two color passes. Previously I've been allowing myself three and sometimes four color passes.
As I stated in the video, every landscape painting is a collection of hundreds if not thousands of myriad decisions that all interact and affect each other. Allowing the painting to breathe and not be overworked is really important to achieving a high level of quality in the work. I'm not the first artist that has struggled with this and I'm sure I will not be the last.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Dusk Meadow 18x24; I've done a fair amount of texturising on this painting but it's within the realm of good to great and so I'm happy with it.
I have previously painted this motif as a 5x7 and also as an 8x10 and thought it would be a good one to do as an 18x24. The actual painting itself has a nice quality to it and is hanging up in my studio currently.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Dusk Meadow 18x24 (Detail) |
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| Dusk Meadow 18x24 (Detail 2) |
Dusk Meadow 5x7
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Dusk Meadow' 5x7.
Our video features the progression of this study from its early underpainting stage on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
As I mentioned in the video, I have been reading a book called American Painters on Technique: 1860 - 1945. This book addresses a lot of the techniques that painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were using. While reading this book, I got to thinking quite a lot about Impressionist approaches as they contrast with the Tonalist approach to painting a landscape.
There are a lot of ways to contrast these two different ways of painting. Impressionism tends to favor direct painting in broad daylight, generally outdoors in front of the subject. Impressionist painters also tended not to utilize techniques like glazing and they would often leave their canvases unvarnished or, if they were varnishing they would strive to achieve a matt effect.
In contrast, Tonalist painting is usually done in the studio and will often portray periods of time of the day, like early morning or twilight which are difficult to paint en plein air. Techniques like glazing, scumbling and dry brushing are generally employed to good effect and the paintings are varnished with a semi-gloss or glossy finish.
Contemplating the differences between these contrasting styles got me thinking about synthetic versus realistic approaches to landscape painting. While Impressionism strives to capture the fleeting effects of light upon various objects in the scene in front of the painter, Tonalism attempts to convey a more poetic and synthetic approach.
By the way, the word synthetic, as I'm using it, has a specific meaning in regards to landscape painting that would not necessarily be applied in modern parlance. I define the word synthetic (as I apply it to landscape painting) as creating the landscape painting from disparate elements with imagination and poetic vision being the primary motivating force.
I was watching a very interesting video that was about a painter named Jim McVicker. I have never heard of Jim before but apparently he is a quite well-known American painter who works in an Impressionist mode. His painting is superlative and I really got a lot out of watching the video about him. Watching this video also made me think about how different my approach to painting is than his, and the reasons why. This is another motivation behind writing this blog post about synthetic versus realistic approaches to landscape painting.
While my painting is often classed as realistic, in reality, it is not realistic at all, it is synthetic. All of my paintings are created in the studio and my intention is to express a mood or feeling in my work, more so than trying to impart some realistic light effect from nature.
This is not to denigrate artists that use that approach in any way. In fact, it's always tempting when one sees another artists work to abandon what you have been doing and to embrace an entirely different style because you find the other artists work moving and wish to do something in the same vein. I'm sure that many artists like myself suffer from this affliction.
Some painters move willy-nilly from one style to the next as inspiration strikes them. I think this is a mistake because it makes your body of work much less accessible to the world and to art connoisseurs. I am not a fan of constantly trying to recapture previous painting successes either, but there is something to be said for finding an approach to your work and taking it as far as possible for yourself individually as an artist.
I started painting many years ago in a far more Impressionist manner, though I have always preferred working in the studio to painting outdoors. The main reason for this is that I prefer to have control over my painting environment and working outdoors is very much the opposite of control. The light changes, clouds move overhead, people come around and comment on what you're doing and you have to work with haste to capture the lighting effects that are constantly parading about and changing in front of you.
I feel it is important to contact your main source of inspiration internally and not be moved about to easily by things changing all around you. Impressionists and direct painters in general, thrive on attempting to capture the changing light and I have tons of respect for them for doing so. The downside to this approach is many Impressionist style paintings can have a sort of samey quality. I think this is a byproduct of working expeditiously in bright sunlight to capture a scene. I guess the same could be said of Tonalist painters about sameyness, but to my eye there is far more room in the Tonalist mode for self-expression and a deeper sense of reverie and respect for the spiritual reality present in nature below the fleeting/changing surface of reality.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Dusk Meadow' 5x7; this is a study for a larger 18x24 painting that we will be discussing next week. I have in the past, painted this as a study before and also as an 8x10. I was quite pleased with the 8x10 version and decided it would be a good motif to do in a larger size.
I am happy with the overall coloration and feeling in this painting. the composition is also quite strong. The scene is roughly based on a photo that I took of an area not far from me called Hikurangi. It is a very interesting landscape in that there is a lot of volcanic rocks interspersed with trees and hills.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Dusk Meadow by M Francis McCarthy, 5x7 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this study from its early underpainting stage on up through the final finishing brushstrokes. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so please check it out.
As I mentioned in the video, I have been reading a book called American Painters on Technique: 1860 - 1945. This book addresses a lot of the techniques that painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were using. While reading this book, I got to thinking quite a lot about Impressionist approaches as they contrast with the Tonalist approach to painting a landscape.
There are a lot of ways to contrast these two different ways of painting. Impressionism tends to favor direct painting in broad daylight, generally outdoors in front of the subject. Impressionist painters also tended not to utilize techniques like glazing and they would often leave their canvases unvarnished or, if they were varnishing they would strive to achieve a matt effect.
In contrast, Tonalist painting is usually done in the studio and will often portray periods of time of the day, like early morning or twilight which are difficult to paint en plein air. Techniques like glazing, scumbling and dry brushing are generally employed to good effect and the paintings are varnished with a semi-gloss or glossy finish.
Contemplating the differences between these contrasting styles got me thinking about synthetic versus realistic approaches to landscape painting. While Impressionism strives to capture the fleeting effects of light upon various objects in the scene in front of the painter, Tonalism attempts to convey a more poetic and synthetic approach.
By the way, the word synthetic, as I'm using it, has a specific meaning in regards to landscape painting that would not necessarily be applied in modern parlance. I define the word synthetic (as I apply it to landscape painting) as creating the landscape painting from disparate elements with imagination and poetic vision being the primary motivating force.
I was watching a very interesting video that was about a painter named Jim McVicker. I have never heard of Jim before but apparently he is a quite well-known American painter who works in an Impressionist mode. His painting is superlative and I really got a lot out of watching the video about him. Watching this video also made me think about how different my approach to painting is than his, and the reasons why. This is another motivation behind writing this blog post about synthetic versus realistic approaches to landscape painting.
While my painting is often classed as realistic, in reality, it is not realistic at all, it is synthetic. All of my paintings are created in the studio and my intention is to express a mood or feeling in my work, more so than trying to impart some realistic light effect from nature.
This is not to denigrate artists that use that approach in any way. In fact, it's always tempting when one sees another artists work to abandon what you have been doing and to embrace an entirely different style because you find the other artists work moving and wish to do something in the same vein. I'm sure that many artists like myself suffer from this affliction.
Some painters move willy-nilly from one style to the next as inspiration strikes them. I think this is a mistake because it makes your body of work much less accessible to the world and to art connoisseurs. I am not a fan of constantly trying to recapture previous painting successes either, but there is something to be said for finding an approach to your work and taking it as far as possible for yourself individually as an artist.
I started painting many years ago in a far more Impressionist manner, though I have always preferred working in the studio to painting outdoors. The main reason for this is that I prefer to have control over my painting environment and working outdoors is very much the opposite of control. The light changes, clouds move overhead, people come around and comment on what you're doing and you have to work with haste to capture the lighting effects that are constantly parading about and changing in front of you.
I feel it is important to contact your main source of inspiration internally and not be moved about to easily by things changing all around you. Impressionists and direct painters in general, thrive on attempting to capture the changing light and I have tons of respect for them for doing so. The downside to this approach is many Impressionist style paintings can have a sort of samey quality. I think this is a byproduct of working expeditiously in bright sunlight to capture a scene. I guess the same could be said of Tonalist painters about sameyness, but to my eye there is far more room in the Tonalist mode for self-expression and a deeper sense of reverie and respect for the spiritual reality present in nature below the fleeting/changing surface of reality.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Dusk Meadow' 5x7; this is a study for a larger 18x24 painting that we will be discussing next week. I have in the past, painted this as a study before and also as an 8x10. I was quite pleased with the 8x10 version and decided it would be a good motif to do in a larger size.
I am happy with the overall coloration and feeling in this painting. the composition is also quite strong. The scene is roughly based on a photo that I took of an area not far from me called Hikurangi. It is a very interesting landscape in that there is a lot of volcanic rocks interspersed with trees and hills.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Dusk Meadow 5x7 (Detail) |
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| Dusk Meadow 5x7 (Detail 2) |
Storm Over the Wetlands 8x8
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Storm Over the Wetlands' 8x8.
Our video features the progression of this painting from its initial state on up through the final glazes and brushwork, also featured is my usual rambling narration so please check the video out.
As a painter you have two great allies in the painting process should you choose to accept their help, they are intuition and experience. In the narration for today's video I was mentioning struggles I was having with a painting that I am close to completing. It has a large road that is dominating the picture and not really working very well.
I did have some intuitive prompting about this, however, the thing that counters that intuitive prompting is the belief that I have that I can overcome whatever obstacles crop up and somehow manage to create a good painting. Intuition is nearly always right in its promptings. If you hear that small quiet voice telling you that something is a problem or a potential problem then intuition should really be listened to, because odds are it is indeed a problem.
Along with intuition the voice of experience can come into play. This interior voice knows about all of your failures and the things you've tried in the past that did not work and could not work. Landscape painting is such a complex and complicated endeavor that there are a myriad of things that can go wrong. One of the only ways to get very good at it is by failing.
I could write an entire blog post about failing but suffice to say here that it is very important to become comfortable at failing. While it is uncomfortable and certainly doesn't feel as good as succeeding it is impossible to succeed all the time and one of the best ways to become proficient is to be comfortable with failing and adjust your course accordingly.
Anyway, the voice of experiences much like the voice of intuition after a time because we forget what did not work in the past and like the voice of intuition the voice of experiences cab be very quiet and easily drowned out by the ego. This is not to denigrate the ego, the ego is the captain of the ship and the part of your mind that gets things done and finds ways to solve problems and persevere in the face of difficulty and adversity.
Interestingly, the successes you have only carry you for so long before you are craving the next success. While the failures seem to cling. This is just the way life is and probably one of the greatest challenges that artists face is reconciling the successes with the failures and finding a way to persevere.
If you feel a prompting from intuition or the voice of experience I highly recommend listening to it because it can save you a lot of unnecessary struggle and effort. Even if you do listen to these interior guides there would still be failures and that's okay. At the end of the day, even time spent doing a bad painting adds to your experience and will enable you to make the good ones better than they would have been without the shoulders of the failures to stand on.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Storm over the wetlands' 8x8; like the painting we did last week this is a revision of an older painting. The previous incarnation of this painting had an interesting sky but some issues with the composition of the landmasses that I had been in denial about through the entire painting process. The first thing I tried to do to rescue this painting was to crop it from an 8x10 to an 8x8. That did not succeed.
I am happy with it now though there are some areas that could be better. I'm contemplating doing this as a larger painting at some point in the future like a 14x14. I'm happy I revised the original as it's always great to have less bad paintings around.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Storm Over the Wetlands by M Francis McCarthy, 8x8 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from its initial state on up through the final glazes and brushwork, also featured is my usual rambling narration so please check the video out.
As a painter you have two great allies in the painting process should you choose to accept their help, they are intuition and experience. In the narration for today's video I was mentioning struggles I was having with a painting that I am close to completing. It has a large road that is dominating the picture and not really working very well.
I did have some intuitive prompting about this, however, the thing that counters that intuitive prompting is the belief that I have that I can overcome whatever obstacles crop up and somehow manage to create a good painting. Intuition is nearly always right in its promptings. If you hear that small quiet voice telling you that something is a problem or a potential problem then intuition should really be listened to, because odds are it is indeed a problem.
Along with intuition the voice of experience can come into play. This interior voice knows about all of your failures and the things you've tried in the past that did not work and could not work. Landscape painting is such a complex and complicated endeavor that there are a myriad of things that can go wrong. One of the only ways to get very good at it is by failing.
I could write an entire blog post about failing but suffice to say here that it is very important to become comfortable at failing. While it is uncomfortable and certainly doesn't feel as good as succeeding it is impossible to succeed all the time and one of the best ways to become proficient is to be comfortable with failing and adjust your course accordingly.
Anyway, the voice of experiences much like the voice of intuition after a time because we forget what did not work in the past and like the voice of intuition the voice of experiences cab be very quiet and easily drowned out by the ego. This is not to denigrate the ego, the ego is the captain of the ship and the part of your mind that gets things done and finds ways to solve problems and persevere in the face of difficulty and adversity.
Interestingly, the successes you have only carry you for so long before you are craving the next success. While the failures seem to cling. This is just the way life is and probably one of the greatest challenges that artists face is reconciling the successes with the failures and finding a way to persevere.
If you feel a prompting from intuition or the voice of experience I highly recommend listening to it because it can save you a lot of unnecessary struggle and effort. Even if you do listen to these interior guides there would still be failures and that's okay. At the end of the day, even time spent doing a bad painting adds to your experience and will enable you to make the good ones better than they would have been without the shoulders of the failures to stand on.
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Storm over the wetlands' 8x8; like the painting we did last week this is a revision of an older painting. The previous incarnation of this painting had an interesting sky but some issues with the composition of the landmasses that I had been in denial about through the entire painting process. The first thing I tried to do to rescue this painting was to crop it from an 8x10 to an 8x8. That did not succeed.
I am happy with it now though there are some areas that could be better. I'm contemplating doing this as a larger painting at some point in the future like a 14x14. I'm happy I revised the original as it's always great to have less bad paintings around.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Storm Over the Wetlands (Detail) |
 |
| Storm Over the Wetlands (Detail 2) |
Fleeting Light 8x8
Hello, and welcome to Tonalist Painting by M Francis McCarthy.
Today's painting is 'Fleeting Light' 8x8.
Our video features the progression of this painting from it's initial state on up through the final glazes and brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so check it out.
Paintings are a recording of collected gestures. One of the reasons I like to video my work is to capture that process in a linear fashion. The paintings themselves are a gestalt of that process.
In many ways, this makes them much like any other object that humans or nature creates. The big difference with painting is the level of focused intention. Focused intention is a part of all art processes (ideally).
I've often thought that one day it might be possible to playback a painting the way we can a vinyl record. It would be cool if you could not only hear the recorded thoughts of the artist but also see the environment that the painting was created in as well. Even without being able to play a painting like a record, there is a ton of information being broadcast. All that is required to perceive that info is theright type of sensitivity.
Sadly, much of the population is unable to receive this information these days. The reasons for this are manyfold: Distractions like video games, facebook and movies claw for our attention. Not only that, much of what is being passed off as art these days is anything but art. It is pretend art, made by pretend artists for no good reason.
Because of this, many people who might be attracted to real art pass all art by, believing that all fine art is now bogus. Also, because they feel there's nothing in the fine art world worth looking at, they will not pursue the education necessary to really look at good art and appreciate it.
There are exceptions of course. Many of the people that have the ability to perceive and decode good art are artists themselves. They've had to buck the nihilist trend that currently abounds in art and approach art from a soul/feeling level.
I know I'm ranting about this stuff. It's not the first time and probably won't be that last either. I'm sickened by much of what has passed itself off as art for the last hundred years. There is some good modern art. In fact, I'm not opposed to abstract art in any way. I've created abstracts myself. It is exceedingly difficult to pull off a good abstract, but entirely possible.
The reason I settled on landscape painting as a mode of expression is because of it's universality. All of us can relate to a landscape on some level even if some do not perceive the multiple myriad other levels of information contained in a painting. For this reason lay people can appreciate my work on some level, even if it's just the level of "nice tree" "pretty sky".
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Fleeting Light' 8x8: This is different for me, really odd in many ways but I feel it's successful. 'Fleeting light' has been painted over an old painting that was less than great. I referenced some really old paintings by past Masters as well as some cool sky reference too.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
 |
| Fleeting Light by M Francis McCarthy, 8x8 Oil Painting on Wood Panel |
Our video features the progression of this painting from it's initial state on up through the final glazes and brushwork. Also featured is my usual rambling narration, so check it out.
Paintings are a recording of collected gestures. One of the reasons I like to video my work is to capture that process in a linear fashion. The paintings themselves are a gestalt of that process.
In many ways, this makes them much like any other object that humans or nature creates. The big difference with painting is the level of focused intention. Focused intention is a part of all art processes (ideally).
I've often thought that one day it might be possible to playback a painting the way we can a vinyl record. It would be cool if you could not only hear the recorded thoughts of the artist but also see the environment that the painting was created in as well. Even without being able to play a painting like a record, there is a ton of information being broadcast. All that is required to perceive that info is theright type of sensitivity.
Sadly, much of the population is unable to receive this information these days. The reasons for this are manyfold: Distractions like video games, facebook and movies claw for our attention. Not only that, much of what is being passed off as art these days is anything but art. It is pretend art, made by pretend artists for no good reason.
Because of this, many people who might be attracted to real art pass all art by, believing that all fine art is now bogus. Also, because they feel there's nothing in the fine art world worth looking at, they will not pursue the education necessary to really look at good art and appreciate it.
There are exceptions of course. Many of the people that have the ability to perceive and decode good art are artists themselves. They've had to buck the nihilist trend that currently abounds in art and approach art from a soul/feeling level.
I know I'm ranting about this stuff. It's not the first time and probably won't be that last either. I'm sickened by much of what has passed itself off as art for the last hundred years. There is some good modern art. In fact, I'm not opposed to abstract art in any way. I've created abstracts myself. It is exceedingly difficult to pull off a good abstract, but entirely possible.
The reason I settled on landscape painting as a mode of expression is because of it's universality. All of us can relate to a landscape on some level even if some do not perceive the multiple myriad other levels of information contained in a painting. For this reason lay people can appreciate my work on some level, even if it's just the level of "nice tree" "pretty sky".
Cheers,
M Francis McCarthy
Landscapepainter.co.nz
A bit about 'Fleeting Light' 8x8: This is different for me, really odd in many ways but I feel it's successful. 'Fleeting light' has been painted over an old painting that was less than great. I referenced some really old paintings by past Masters as well as some cool sky reference too.
To see more of my work, visit my site here
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| Fleeting Light by M Francis McCarthy, 8x8 (Detail) |
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| Fleeting Light by M Francis McCarthy, 8x8 (Detail 2) |