24 August
Today the
Friday class met at Greenwood Farm again, but with a very different prospect in
view. We hiked further into the property, until we had a view of the Paine
House, silhouetted against the Ipswich salt
marshes.
It's a motif,
though usually backed up by the ocean, that was used repeatedly by Worthington
Whittredge (1820-1910), an American painter. Whittredge traveled a road leading
from his early Hudson River
School paintings to his
later life interest in the French Barbizon painters. Initially he studied in Germany, so he
came a very long way indeed.
Whittredge
deserves to be better known. In addition to writing an engaging autobiography,
he modeled for Emmanuel Leutze, standing in for The Father of Our Country in
Leutze's giant canvas of Washington
Crossing the Delaware.
Today the task
was to paint a back-lit, hazy subject in a situation of strong glaring light.
The trick seemed to be to paint the objects in a hazy way, while still having a
few strong darks to reinforce the lights.
You can see
that the canvas was primed a thin pink, actually a tint of Blockx Jaune Capucine
Clair----which, despite its name, is definitely reddish.
This, of
course, is just a beginning. Finishing a 16x20, on site, in direct light, is a
bit more than I can manage. But also, to the horror of real plein-airistes, I
think that most plein air paintings benefit from a time-out, in the studio.
Usually I'm then able to re-organize my thoughts, and to refine things without
battling changing light, etc.
My real goal
is to make a good painting, one that is true to the spirit of the place. This rarely requires a whole catalogue of facts about the scene. Mostly it
wants an eye sympathetic to the mystery and poetry of the site.
Should I do
more, I expect I'll post it. At the moment, as those of you know who follow the
blog, I have a huge backload of paintings begun in class. Perhaps they'll be fodder for good
work when it's icy outside. In the meantime, I'm working on a 48"x72"
canvas, most definitely NOT outside.
Oh, yeah...when I go back in to sort this out, I'll paint in the apple tree. Don't worry.
Paint well.
Do you ever use alklyd paints to enable quicker drying of the background layers? I am always a bit impatient with the sky and putting in the foliage and tend to get green into the sky colour.
ReplyDeleteHi Bruce...no, I never use alkyd paints. Not out of conviction, but because I'm happy with, and used to, my oils. That said, I do use Liquin. It's alkyd, too, and does speed up the drying time. But that's not really why I use it. I've grown used to the gel consistency and, like my paints, I don't have to be alert for sudden, unwelcome surprises. Regarding your tree greens getting into the sky, I don't seem to have that problem. I tend to establish my trees before I paint the sky. When I put in the sky, I paint it into the tree edges---and also do the sky holes at the same time. This gives me the ability to design the tree's edges by playing with the negative shape (in this case, the sky). Make any sense?
DeleteThanks Donald, I have done both approaches but I will have to try harder to stay clean and not rush things. Painting in the sky into the trees does the same thing for me...I end of dragging green out of the trees into the sky. That is why I have begun to experiment with a 'dry sky' background over which I model in the trees. BUT. Since I like YOUR results maybe I'll keep with your methodology.
DeleteMonsieur Bruce...the "dry sky" method is always an option but, if you prepare your sky before a plein air session,it's anyone's guess if it will suit. It can also result in a tree edge that's too pat, lacking the freshness of the rest of the painting. Stay with it! Develop a very soft touch. Often, when I'm doing delicate work, I wind up holding the brush so lightly that I find it on the ground. There is no reason, if your other edges are fine, for you to have trouble with tree/sky edges only. It's in yer head, fella! We shall make this right, at worst, next June in the Berry.
DeleteMerci Monsieur Donald and happy haggis hunting!
Delete