Dipper at Dusk, 12 x 24 inches, oil on linenWe now leave the landscape, and apply the same narrow-slice-of-pie tonalism to more urban motifs. If you've been following this blog for a while, you will recognize this recurring subject matter. I've painted a bunch of different incarnations of the roller coaster theme, and so far, most of them have been done in the yellow/orange/red slice of the pie. I just like the warm, dusky sunset light and atmosphere, the mood it creates, and the memories or emotions triggered by these moods.
This one is more or less a subjective color system. I chose the yellow/orange/red theme, and imposed it onto the motif. If it were a natural light situation, I think we'd see more reflected light. At this close distance, and with the wide open sky, we wouldn't get the darks obsucuring stuff like this. The grid work in the shadows would most likely be lighter than the dark background, (opposite of what I did) and much cooler, too.
The lighting in this painting is more like theatrical lighting. Not much reflected or ambient light at all, so if it's not lit by the primary source, it gets pretty dark.
In terms of color, I used a little bit of green (very warm, orange-y green) in the palm trees, and a tiny bit of blue - green in the low wall toward the bottom. Again, these greens and blue-greens are relative to the orange context. If you isolate them, they would look like warm grays, more or less. But these few notes create a sense of more robust color space, when in fact it's nearly monochromatic. I don't know about you, but I find this stuff fascinating. I can't get enough of experimenting in the narrow slice of pie and trying to tweak this and that to fake depictions of reality.
A friend of mine saw this painting last week and asked me how I go about painting the intricate grid work; whether I paint the background first and paint the foreground carefully - in which case how do I know if the background color I choose is going to be correct, and what happens if I mess up on the foreground? The fact is, I don't work that sequentially. I just go back and forth and slowly develop it. I do a lot of scraping and repainting, so some of the grid stuff probably has five, six, or more layers of paint on it. It's not at all efficient, but that's the only way I can get the kind of edge integrity and spontaneity in the brush work. Usually, after the initial stages I work with opaque colors but I try to keep some sense of transparency in the dark areas. If I'm darkening a broad area, I might do some glazing too. Then again, I might not. I like mixing up opaque and transparent applications and I do them purely in response to whatever needs fixing. I don't have a "method", in other words. The painting does look pretty terrible for a long time during the process but eventually, it starts pulling itself together and comes out alright. Not always, but often enough.
That's my studio approach. En plein air, I'm pretty direct and more or less a "put it down, leave it alone" style painter. After all, you only have a couple of hours and you can't glaze over a wet surface.
This painting is on its way to Atlanta, and will be available through Anne Irwin Fine Art. Please contact them if you're interested.
This one is more or less a subjective color system. I chose the yellow/orange/red theme, and imposed it onto the motif. If it were a natural light situation, I think we'd see more reflected light. At this close distance, and with the wide open sky, we wouldn't get the darks obsucuring stuff like this. The grid work in the shadows would most likely be lighter than the dark background, (opposite of what I did) and much cooler, too.
The lighting in this painting is more like theatrical lighting. Not much reflected or ambient light at all, so if it's not lit by the primary source, it gets pretty dark.
In terms of color, I used a little bit of green (very warm, orange-y green) in the palm trees, and a tiny bit of blue - green in the low wall toward the bottom. Again, these greens and blue-greens are relative to the orange context. If you isolate them, they would look like warm grays, more or less. But these few notes create a sense of more robust color space, when in fact it's nearly monochromatic. I don't know about you, but I find this stuff fascinating. I can't get enough of experimenting in the narrow slice of pie and trying to tweak this and that to fake depictions of reality.
A friend of mine saw this painting last week and asked me how I go about painting the intricate grid work; whether I paint the background first and paint the foreground carefully - in which case how do I know if the background color I choose is going to be correct, and what happens if I mess up on the foreground? The fact is, I don't work that sequentially. I just go back and forth and slowly develop it. I do a lot of scraping and repainting, so some of the grid stuff probably has five, six, or more layers of paint on it. It's not at all efficient, but that's the only way I can get the kind of edge integrity and spontaneity in the brush work. Usually, after the initial stages I work with opaque colors but I try to keep some sense of transparency in the dark areas. If I'm darkening a broad area, I might do some glazing too. Then again, I might not. I like mixing up opaque and transparent applications and I do them purely in response to whatever needs fixing. I don't have a "method", in other words. The painting does look pretty terrible for a long time during the process but eventually, it starts pulling itself together and comes out alright. Not always, but often enough.
That's my studio approach. En plein air, I'm pretty direct and more or less a "put it down, leave it alone" style painter. After all, you only have a couple of hours and you can't glaze over a wet surface.
This painting is on its way to Atlanta, and will be available through Anne Irwin Fine Art. Please contact them if you're interested.
4 comments:
Gorgeous painting!
About your painting looking terrible most of the way during its creation: I call that phenomenon the "ugly phase" and say that that is the way my work looks pretty much until the last brush stroke is applied! It was interesting to see that you said that about this painting.
I love it.
very interesting. I was wondering about the grid , i guess that is the only way.I am enjoying your post about tonality. thank for the information
Thanks Elizabeth~ Yeah,the ugly phase sometimes sticks around even after the last stroke! hahaha!
Thanks Jesus~ I've tried to paint that kind of intricate lattice work more sequentially before, but it just seems to end up looking tight and lifeless. And I'm not patient enough anyway!
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