The Perils of Architecture

When it's time for architecture, grisaille is your best friend

Since we returned from the Savannah Workshop (about which I'll post when all the photos are in), I've been working on a couple of my plein-air Georgia starts. The most time-consuming one so far is one of a casemate (at Fort Pulaski), its embrasure, and the cannon. Bricks, bricks, bricks...and some very unusual angles. The cannon's not drawn correctly. There should be a good deal more taper in the barrel. I hope to correct that.

At Fort Pulaski, 16x20

This painting has been good practice for a 36x28" vertical landscape that has been requested. For me, upright landscapes are always a challenge, and I don't paint many of them. It's not for nothing that your computer and printer describe a horizontal rectangle as landscape format. But, ever the obliging servant, I said yes.

The challenge was to make a vertical that minimized its apparent verticality. 

I chose to revisit an idea that resulted in an 8x12" painting in about 1994. The view was from the hayloft of a gambrel-roofed barn I owned in the Berkshires. As I recall, the interior of the loft was excessively dark in the painting. This time I'll flood the loft with light, both direct and reflected.

 
First, I did a reasonably careful drawing of some basic framing, indicating the main timbers, and the purlin and rafters. (Because my last grown-up job, in 1979, was in a lumber yard, I have a basic understanding of wooden buildings. This helps). Just to be sure, I trundled the canvas down the hall of the mill building where my studio is located, to the offices of some friendly architects. They gave me a general certificate of suitability after commenting that the purlin (the top-most horizontal beam) ought to be beefed up. This I did.

Because the landscape, though not yet determined in subject, will probably depict a hot, hazy, summer's day, I knew that most of the upper part of the painting, under the roof, would be in quite low light. Thus I had a bit more latitude in my architecture.

I've been paying a good bit of attention to George Clausen (British, 1852-1944) recently, and I want the loft to have some of the hazy, golden light of his barn interiors, though I don't suppose I'll have his threshers and winnowers.

Many of the planes in this grisaille will get much darker in relation to others, and the floor, for example, will be brighter near the loft opening. I'll probably include some incidental objects within the loft, as well as some hay sparkling in the light. Haylofts, of course, lend themselves to all sorts of ribald jokes, but I'm going to dispense with odd bits of clothing scattered on the floor. This is how I pretend to be an adult.
 
One of the students on the Savannah workshop has written that among the takeaways from the trip was a strengthened understanding of the benefits of an initial grisaille. In the present case a careful drawing, and an initial grisaille in values, create a framework on which I may now paint more loosely, confident that the larger issues of the architecture are in order.

In setting the frame for the view---for that's the actual function of the loft in this painting---I'll seek to find a balance between its complexity and the eventual simplicity of the landscape, a view more about heat and haze than about specific features.

Remember, the more problems you work out in drawing or in grisaille the more freedom you afford yourself when the real painting begins.

Paint well!
 

Miscellany 2

Another Day in the Field

First, thanks to everyone who commented: to Matt Larson in the comments section, and to all those who sent an email. I appreciate your input---especially because, couched within your kind remarks, were all those nuanced suggestions that I shouldn't give up my day job.

Below is the current state. This photo is too yellow, and a bit blurry. But it's a slice of the the situation as of studio-leaving today.

As you can see, I followed some of the suggestions. There were others I might have followed had I the skill to do what you said. 

 

One of the basic things that raised its head was the quality of the flat, even light that I wanted for the painting. Here I am with Clausen again, and many of the British naturalists of the end of the 19th century.

What I sought was a dry, almost granular surface. This is very much at odds with the creamy, luscious surface of a lot of portrait painting.

Because it is out of doors, under even light, without sun, there are not strong shadows, and hence less modeling.

Here's a Clausen en plein air:

 

 

Sargent painted few plein air paintings that one would call portraits, but here's one. Notice how even, and unshadowed, is the light. Jacques-Emile Blanche, the sitter, was a successful portrait painter himself.

 

Here's an Emile Friant (French, 1863-1932) self-portrait, under flat gray light from a skylight. A favorite of mine.

I like the fellow outside on the street, craning his neck for a peek.

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Below is a tree drawing by Thomas Ehretsmann. Thomas is an illustrator, and follows the blog from his home in northeastern France.

Thomas won the Society of Illustrators (Los Angeles) Silver Award for 2013. In 2012, Thomas won the Gold Medal of The Society of

Illustrators. You can see more work by Thomas here.

Thomas has small children, and many deadlines, but we still hope he can find a way to join the French Workshop, in the Berry, next June.

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A first heads-up: I will be doing a long demo at the Newburyport Art Association's Sargent Gallery on Sunday, March 17th, from 6:30-9:30 p.m. The demonstration will be followed by brief crits of work that members of the audience have brought in (one painting per artist, please!)  An autographed copy of my new book, Donald Jurney: Selections from the French Sketchbook, will be given as a door prize.

For more information please visit the Art Association's workshop page.

For further information about the book, please click here.

You can now preview the entire book on the blurb site.

For those for whom English is not a first language, please notice that there is now a Google Translate widget at the top of the blog, on the right. It might be helpful in sorting out some of what I've written.

 

And last but not least, we've had another sign-up for the Savannah workshop, beginning in about 10 days. You may still come along if you're quick about it.