Wildcard entries - Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2015

You too can be a Wild Card entry to the new Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year competition! Each of the heats are going to have places for 50 Wild Card entries.

All you have to do is:

• enter a heat as a Wild Card
• bring your own easel, canvas and materials
• come to one of the heats at National Trust properties around the country
• paint one of the landscapes in front of the judges

It's first come, first served - click on one of the below links to enter as a Wild Card for your preferred Heat:

• Heat 1: Waddesdon Manor, Bucks: Saturday 25th April
• Heat 2: ​Waddesdon Manor, Bucks: Sunday 26th April
• Heat 3: Trelissick Garden, Cornwall: Sunday 3rd May
• Heat 4: ​Trelissick Garden, Cornwall: Monday 4th May
• Heat 5: ​Lyme Park, Cheshire: Wednesday 27th May
• Heat 6: Lyme Park, Cheshire: Thursday 28th May

You never know - you might impress the judges and win the opportunity to go through to the semi-final!

If you did you could win the prize of a £10,000 commission for the National Trust's permanent collection and become Sky Art Landscape Artist of the Year 2015.

The Wild Card is open to artists who previously applied and were unsuccessful as well as artists who didn't apply.

For full terms and conditions and to apply to become a Wild Card, pick your heat and enter via www.sky.com/tv/show/landscape/article/wild-card

Art Competition: £10,000 prize for Landscape Artists

Read my blog post about the Call for Entries for the Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2015 If you're interested in:

• winning a £10,000 landscape art commission from the National Trust
• participating in an art competition which has a number of knockout rounds prior to the final; and
• creating landscape art on television - while Sky Arts film you for a television programme about their brand new competition to find the Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2015!

Image for the Landscape Artist of the Year 2015 competition on Sky Arts

In summary you need to:

• be aged 16+
• resident in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man or Channel Islands for one year or longer on 2nd February 2015
• be a competent landscape artist in any of the following media Watercolour, Oil Paints, Pencil, Charcoal, Pastel, Acrylic, Alkyds, Mixed Media (including collage) and "Other". Note sculpture or any form of digital media is NOT allowed
• complete and submit and online application form by 12pm (midday) on Friday 20th March 2015 together with images of landscape art completed in the last five years
• not mind being filmed for television while you paint!

The Peak Prints Project

Images from the Peak Prints Collection

The Peak Prints Project highlights both the art of the wood engraver and the place known as the Peak District.

This area of Middle England is highly suitable for the art because of its plethora of woods and stones, crags and deep river gorges, ancient carved stones and picturesque farms, fields and barns. But hardly any wood engravings of these subjects have been done!

The project has been sponsored by Nicholas and Ruth Pitts-Tucker. The aim was to ‘encourage wood engravers to engage with the Peak District, and local people to engage with this art form.’

They invited 12 leading wood engravers to stay through the course of the year over a number of long weekends. As a result 40 engravings have now been produced which are being sold in editions of 25.

The prints are now being displayed in exhibitions at different locations within the Peak District.

You can also buy prints via the website where you can see which prints are for sale and you can order them. Click on an image to see the individual image a bigger version of the image which he or she has created

Artists

The participating artists are:

• Harry Brockway
• Chris Daunt
• Andy English
• Paul Kershaw
• Kathleen Lindsley
• Miriam McGregor
• Hilary Paynter past President of the Society of Wood Engravers
• Howard Phipps
• Sue Scullard - this is a video of Sue Scullard showing how a wood engraving is produced
• Peter S Phipps
• Sarah Van Niekerk
• Geri Waddington

I'm the owner of prints by both Hilary Paynter and Sue Scullard and can speak very highly of the quality of their work

Exhibitions

You can see The Peak Prints at the following exhibitions in and around the Peak District.

25th July – 7th August 2014Beechenhill Farm
Ilam
Ashbourne
Derbyshire DE6 2BD UK
Telephone 01335 310274
Email stay@beechenhill.co.uk
Website www.beechenhill.co.uk

15th August 2014 – 28th August 2014
Longshaw
near Sheffield
Derbyshire S11 7TS
Telephone 01433 637904
Email peakdistrict@nationaltrust.org.uk
Website www.nationaltrust.org.uk/longshaw

6th September 2014 – 20th September 2014
Wirksworth Festival
Wirksworth
Matlock
Derbyshire DE4 4FG
Telephone 01629 824003
Email info@wirksworthfestival.co.uk
Website www.wirksworthfestival.co.uk

4th October 2014 – 19th October 2014
Derwent Gallery
Main Road
Grindleford
Hope Valley
Derbyshire S32 2JN
Telephone 01433 630458
Email robin.ashmore@btconnect.com
Website www.derwentgallery.com
Open Wednesday – Saturday 10.00am – 5.00pm
Sunday and Bank Holidays 10.00am – 4.00pm

19th October 2014 – 25th October 2014
George Inn Barn
Altonsfield
Derbyshire

BBC4 - Turner's Thames

This week I'm going to focus on JMW Turner's relationship with the Thames and, in particular, the different places where he lived near the Thames.

BBC4 - Turner's Thames

For all those who missed it last night, you can catch up with Turner's Thames on iPlayer - I watched it and recommend it

In this documentary, art critic Matthew Collings explores how Turner makes light the vehicle of feeling in his work, and how he found inspiration in the waters of the river Thames.

It's not going to be repeated and is only available until

The programme is part of the series of BBC programmes about London and the River Thames - and now forms part of the London Collection Archive - A collection of BBC programmes celebrating the people, places and spaces of London.

In this documentary, the presenter and art critic Matthew Collings explores how Turner, the artist of light, makes light the vehicle of feeling in his work, and how he found inspiration for that feeling in the waters of the River Thames. JMW Turner is the most famous of English landscape painters. Throughout a lifetime of travel, he returned time and again to paint and draw scenes of the Thames, the lifeblood of London. This documentary reveals the Thames in all its diverse glory, from its beauty in west London, to its heartland in the City of London and its former docks, out to the vast emptiness and drama of the Thames estuary near Margate.

Turner was among the first to pioneer painting directly from nature, turning a boat into a floating studio from which he sketched the Thames. The river and his unique relationship with it had a powerful impact upon his use of materials, as he sought to find an equivalent in paint for the visual surprise and delight he found in the reality of its waters.

By pursuing this ever-changing tale of light, Turner also documented and reflected upon key moments in British history in the early 19th century; the Napoleonic wars, social unrest and the onset of the industrial revolution. His paintings of the river Thames communicate the fears and exultations of the time. Turner's greatness as a painter is often attributed to his modern use of colour. Many of his paintings are loved by the British public and regularly celebrated as the nation's greatest art. This film reveals for the first time on television a key inspiration for that modernity and celebrity; a stretch of water of immense importance to the nation in the early 19th century but which today is often taken for granted - the River Thames.

Interesting aspects of the programme included:

• Turner lived near to the River Thames or its estuary most of his life - when not off on his travels and the river featured in a lot of his paintings (Tomorrow I'm going to look at the places Turner lived along the River Thames and its estuary - and highlight some of his paintings)
• He returned to the Thames again and again in terms of paintings he created - at a time when London was the most important trading capital city in the world and the Thames was a very important way in which goods were moved
• His methods of notating what he saw, creating a visual framework and language for finding a way to paint the light - and how it varied when seen with water
• His habit of creating a lot of fast sketches of what he saw and then creating watercolour studies while the subject was still fresh - and then the oil paintings back in the studio
• His use of contrast to make a painting more beautiful and the depth of field more effective
• His system for structuring colour and the scope to link colour to human emotion
• His habit of dissolving the landscape in atmospheric swathes of light - his view was that the sun is God

Turner rounded up his students at the Royal Academy and got a boat so that they could all go out into the middle of the Thames and make sketches of the Houses of Parliament burning.  Now there's dedication to your art!

The Burning of the Houses of Parliament
Joseph Mallord William Turner - 1834
watercolour, 23 x 32 cm
Collectiom: British Museum

The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October, 1834
J. M. W. Turner [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Link: About J.M.W. Turner - Famous British Painter

Thomas Rowlandson - Kew Palace and the River Thames

This watercolour painting of Kew Palace by Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) includes the River Thames in the foreground.

Kew Palace by Thomas Rowlandson
watercolour, 11.2" x 16.8" English School; Late 18th - early 19th century
Kew Palace, seen across the river; a boatman steadying his boat for three stout persons to enter it
Kew Palace | Rowlandson, Thomas | V&A Collection

Thomas Rowlandson is an English artist who was well known as a caricaturist in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.  He was much less well known as a landscape artist per se - however he did use them in the background of his figurative work.

Thomas Rowlandson (1756/57-1827) was one of the most brilliant draughtsmen of his day, and is best known for his satirical and humorous figure drawings. Many of his drawings have a topographical element, which serves as a backdrop for the various human encounters depicted. However, Rowlandson also made a small number of purely topographical viewsV&A

Rowlandson also produced the satirical book titled Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque (more of this in later posts) which was a satire on the work of William Gilpin and his Three Essays on Picturesque Beauty.

Kew Palace

For me the above painting illustrates how valuable landscape paintings can be as historical records.

I looked at this Kew Palace and did not recognise it from the one I've visited at Kew Gardens.  It turns out that the building called Kew Palace today is the fourth such Palace.

Kew Palace 
from The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction,
Vol. 10, No. 275, September 29, 1827

The one in the watercolour is the third Palace - built at the west end of Kew Green to the castellated design of King George III.  It was started in 1802, but was much criticised and never occupied and was demolished by his son George IV in 1828.

The painting is also interesting as it records the use of pleasure boats on this area of the Thames in the time of George III.  I'm not sure I've ever seen a sail boat on this part of the Thames - although competitive rowing boats can now be seen there very frequently.

Given Rowlandson's preference for satire, one wonders whether the very portly gentleman in the foreground might possibly be an allusion to the Prince Regent/future George IV.

Scene on a Thames-side towing-path

This next watercolour is also of the Thames.  I suspect it's in a similar area because of the width of the river

Scene on a Thames-side towing-path (undated) by Thomas Rowlandson
reed pen and ink and watercolour on a wove paper, 18cm x 27cm
Scene on a Thames-side towing-path | Rowlandson, Thomas | V&A Collection

This is a view of the River Thames, with a vessel on the water and a team of horses on the riverbank. The V&A record cites how Rowlandson tackled such topographical views

Rowlandson repeated drawings for sale by working up and colouring a counterproof of an original pen drawing. In this case the original has itself been worked up, strengthened with pencil and coloured. The deception was frequently increased by counterproofing the original pencil lines, thus conveying the impression of spontaneous sketches following a rough outline.
(J. Hayes, Rowlandson watercolours and drawings, 1972, pp. 41, 42.)’

John Constable - Somerset House Terrace from Waterloo Bridge

I've been looking at views of the Thames by different artists this week and came across one which was attributed to John Constable but which just looked wrong to me.  I first found it on wikipaintings - and then noticed that they'd sourced it from one of those "we can paint you any painting you want" sites.

Finally, it dawned on me why it was wrong - the image had been reversed!  Maybe you have to have walked along this terrace to know these things?

So here is a small Constable oil sketch of Somerset House Terrace from Waterloo Bridge - the proper way round!  The real thing forms part of the Paul Mellon Collection in the Yale Center for British Art At Yale University in downtown New Haven.

Somerset House Terrace from Waterloo Bridge (c 1819) by John Constable (1776-1837)
Oil on panel, 6 1/8 x 7 3/8 inches (15.6 x 18.7 cm)
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

What's also interesting about this painting is:

• it's definitely a sketch/study - given the size and the quality of the finish.  Constable simply did not paint like this for his studio paintings but he did when painting studies for studio paintings.  It would be interesting to know whether he did anything with it.
• the sketch dates from before the Embankment was built along the edge of the Thames.  In those days Somerset House was on the banks of the Thames and didn't have a couple of roads and pavements and a wall between the terrace and the river.

The other names for this painting are:

• Somerset House Terrace and the Thames: a View from the North end of Waterloo Bridge with St. Paul's and Blackfriar's Bridge
• Somerset House, A View from Waterloo Bridge looking towards St. Paul's and the City

Whatever it's called it suggests that a good place to paint the Thames and the City of London is the north end of Waterloo Bridge.

The end of the terrace at Somerset House is not such a good spot for painting - you can see how much trees now interfere with the view in my post Sunday Papers at Somerset House on my Travels with a Sketchbook blog

Richard Wilson - View of Syon House across the Thames

View of Syon House across the Thames near Kew Gardens (c. 1760) by Richard Wilson
Oil on canvas, 104 x 139 cm
Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Continuing the notion of a yellow sky and water (see View of the Thames by Childe Hassam), here's another view of the Thames - this time at Kew.

The painter of this scene is Richard Wilson - the man regarded as the father of British Landscape Painting and the finest painter Wales has ever produced.  He painted this scene shortly after his return from Italy where he developed his skills as a landscape painter.

The hazy warm yellow glow is very much redolent of the style of the artist who had profoundly influenced his landscape painting - Claude Lorrain.  It's almost as if the Roman campagna has arrived in southwest London!

That said the sun does set in the west behind Syon House and this indicates that this is an early evening painting in summer.

The important point about this painting is that has been painted the year after Kew Gardens became established as a botanical garden - in 1759.

In 1759, Princess Augusta and Lord Bute established the first botanic garden at Kew, employing William Aiton as the gardener. The Physic or Exotic Garden is the direct ancestor of today's establishment and this date is now accepted as the foundation of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.Kew, History and Heritage - Kew's first botanic garden

The place

The scene is one of my own personal "places to paint" (or rather sketch - see The Thames at Kew - in March sunshine).

Wilson's perspective is from a mound - which nowadays has a very convenient seat - at the end of the walk known as Syon Vista and next to the path at the far end of Kew Gardens.  This gives an excellent view of the River Thames and Syon House.

The Artist

Richard Wilson RA was a pioneer of landscape painting in the UK.  Both Turner and Constable admired his paintings.

He was born on 1 August 1713 in Penegoes, Montgomeryshire in Wales.  He died on 11 May 1782 age 68 at Colomendy Hall, near Llanferres, Denbighshire and is buried in St Mary's Churchyard in Mold.  He never married.

His family was well connected and a relative sent him to London to train to become a painter and he initially trained as a portrait painter.  It appears he was successful gaining commissions and setting up his own studio.

He begins to demonstrate an interest in landscape painting from the mid 40s onwards.  However it's unclear why he subsequently became more interested in landscape painting. However it is known that he went to study in Italy between 1750 - visiting Venice first and then Rome - and there became very much influenced by the paintings of Claude Lorrain. 

Wilson is sometimes called 'The English Claude'.

His approach to landscape painting

While in Italy, he earned a living and had modest success by selling picturesque paintings of Italian scenes to English aristocrats who were doing the "Grand Tour".  He devoted himself to painting idealised landscapes in the manner of Claud Lorrain.  The main contrast being that Richard Wilson was typically painting a real scene rather than an idealised picture.

As a landscape painter, Wilson was obsessed with light and the quality of light reflected from the sky - and he loved a good sunset!  His tendency to bathe a scene in golden light was well known.

However Richard Wilson was also very sensitive to colour and demonstrated in his paintings his appreciation of the very many hues found in nature.  John Ruskin wrote that Wilson "paints in a manly way, and occasionally reaches exquisite tones of colour".

Kew Gardens: The Pagoda and Bridge (1762) by Richard Wilson (1713-1782)
Oil on canvas,
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

When painting figures in a landscape, they play a minor role and do not intrude upon the overall impact of the landscape.

The website of records the following as being the way he approached the painting of landscapes

His landscape paintings were produced by first applying an underdrawing of brown paint, followed by ‘dead-colouring', a task which was given to the studio apprentices. Thin washes of colour were applied at this stage; Prussian blue and grey-brown for the sky, and a mixture of red and blue pigments for the landscape. The colour was applied to a thickness depending on the depth of tone required, allowing the light tone of the ground to show through more towards the horizon. Once the dead-colouring was dry it was oiled out before the second painting.

For the foreground Joseph Farington records that Wilson 'went over it a second time, heightening every part with colour and deepening the shadows, but still, brown, loose and flat, and left in a state for finishing: the half-tints laid in, without highlights.' In the third and final painting of the foreground Wilson altered the tints, adding the necessary sharpness to the different objects, before glazing them with rich warm tints, and finally adding further solid tints over this.

The sky and distant landscape, on the other hand, were worked wet-in wet after the initial dead-colouring, rather than in two separate stages. This allowed Wilson to achieve easier blending of the clouds with the blue of the sky, apparently using ultramarine rather than Prussian blue for this stage of painting. Last of all the horizon was adjusted and the distance softened with grey-brown again as necessary.

This is a complete catalogue of Richard Wilson's paintings - which has obviously been a labour of love for its creator.

The Yale Centre of British Art in America has an excellent collection of paintings by Richard Wilson.

Richard Wilson - art communities and art societies

On his return to England, Wilson took on a grand studio and was initially successful and held many exhibitions, gained a reputation and sold his landscapes to a number of different clients.

He was active in founding first the Society of Artists and then in 1768, age 55, he became a founder member of the Royal Academy of Art.  He became the Director of what became ‎(in 1765)‎ the Royal Society of Artists of Great Britain.

The prices for his paintings went up and up - along with Wilson's arrogance - until on one famous occasion he offered to let the King have a painting on an instalment plan!  After that the commissions began to dry up and at the end of his life he lived in poverty and had to rely on his family.

Wilson subsequently became an alcoholic and stared the slide into poverty and ill-health. At the end he was taken back to the family home in Wales. He died there on 11 May 1782.

Links:

• Wikipedia - Richard Wilson (painter)
• Richard Wilson, R.A. North Wales artist 1713-1782
• Visual Arts Cork - A to z of Artists - Richard Wilson
• Encyclopædia Britannica - Richard Wilson

• New York Times:
• The Mystery of the British Landscape Master
• Richard Wilson and the British Arcadia
• ArtNet - The Dawn of the Romantic
• BBC - Richard Wilson - 

Places to paint: Paul Nash and the Wittenham Clumps

I'd like to draw your attention to a brilliant website.  It's one of a kind.  However I think its scope and design might work very well for other websites about landscape painters and the places they paint.

Paul Nash and the Wittenham Clumps

Paul Nash and the Wittenham Clumps is totally devoted to one painter and one place.

• The artist is Paul Nash (1889-1946)- one of the UK'sleading landscape painters.
• The place is the Wittenham Clumps.  These are two chalk hills which are crowned by the oldest planted hilltop beeches in England.  They rise above the the flat landscape of South Oxfordshire and are apparently visible for miles around.

100 years ago this year UK landscape painter, Paul Nash , discovering the Wittenham Clumps and what he saw as a magical landscape.

From 1911 he proceeded to paint them on a periodic basis throughout his career as an artist

Take a look at the website and the amazing level of effort which has gone into recording a unique relationship between painter and landscape. It's extremely well done and provides a unique perspective on the development of an artist's work in relation to one landscape motif.

You can see:

• the paintings of the Clumps
• a list of where all the paintings are
• photographs of the Clumps over time and as they are today
• A selection of some of the paintings, sketches and collages done at three art workshops for adults and families which were held at the Earth Trust Centre, Little Wittenham on Friday 11th March and Saturday 12th March 2011 - to mark the centenery.

The website is a project by Anna Dillon and Christopher Baines.   I've been corresponding with Anna and found out that they met due to a shared passion for the work of Paul Nash, plus they both live near the Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire.

To celebrate the centenary of Paul Nash's connection with this landscape, they made this new website in order to explore the many paintings he made in the area and also to encourage people to visit the area. The project has been supported by North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

I've certainly been encouraged to visit next time I'm in the area!

John Constable documentary - view online

For those who like John Constable's work there is an excellent documentary by Andrew Graham Dixon about the painter currently available to download from BBC Two iPlayer Secret Lives of the Artists - 1. Constable in Love

John Constable's painting The Haywain embodies pretty and cosy England, adorning many a tea towel and postcard. But behind the image of rural calm lies a passionate artist whose pictures hide an erotic undercurrent - a story of forbidden love to rival even Shakespeare's ill-fated lovers. Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals the true story of Constable and an untold love story sublimated on canvas.

I've watched it through once and can highly recommend it.  I'll be watching it again before it expires in six days time.

"Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Garden," by John Constable.
oil on canvas, 13.63" X 17.32"

Ostensibly about the love story between Constable and his wife Maria Bricknell, it also tells us a lot about how Andrew Graham Dixon and other art historians see the role and impact of emotion and personal relationships on his landscape paintings and career.  It also tells us about his relationships with others in his Circle such as John Fisher, the Bishop of Salisbury, who commissioned the painting below and who is included with his wife behind the fence and under the shade of the trees.

You can also view clips via Andrew Graham Dixon's website where Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the life of Constable, his painting and love life.

• Constable in Love 1-7  (view clip)
• Constable in Love 2-7  (view clip)
• Constable in Love 3-7 (view clip)
• Constable in Love 4-7 (view clip)
• Constable in Love 5-7 (view clip)
• Constable in Love 6-7 (view clip)
• Constable in Love 7-7 (view clip)

Happy New Year! (plus a landscape art reading list)

Happy New Year to all subscribers to and readers of The Art of the Landscape.

Tomorrow this blog - and this project - is one year old.  This was the very first post on Saturday 2nd January 2010 - Introducing the The Art of the Landscape Project

A View in the Alps

John Ruskin - 1835
Private collection
Painting - watercolor
Height: 21 cm (8.27 in.), Width: 27.5 cm (10.83 in.)

Very early this morning we had a powercut in the area where I live.  This morning when I woke up I discovered they hadn't even started to fix the problem - which made a very grey day even greyer.   I couldn't see to read - having discovered last night that my torch wasn't where it should be!

Study of Gneiss Rock, Glenfinlass
by John Ruskin
Pen, brown ink, ink wash (lamp-back) and bodycolour,
47.7 x 32.7 cm.
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England

That's when I discovered that an ipad screen with a nice light background - such as can be found with a good downloaded book - doubles as a torch!  It certainly makes for very easy reading in the middle of a power cut.

Which is how this morning I came to be reading an ibooks version of John Ruskin's The Elements of Drawing and most particularly how to draw trees and landscapes while I ate breakfast.   

(In brief, Ruskin was the man who championed the landscape art of JMW Turner and fostered the development of the Pre-Raphaelite movement.  He also was an inspiration for the Arts and Crafts Movement, the founding of the National Trust, the National Art Collections Fund, and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.)

When the power came back on I decided to see which other books were available through ibooks and discovered I could access a number of works including

• The Stones of Venice
• Modern Painters
• Lectures on Landscape

Modern Painters (1843) is book on art by John Ruskin which argues that recent painters emerging from the tradition of the picturesque are superior in the art of landscape to the old masters. The book was primarily written as a defence of the later work of J.M.W. Turner. Ruskin used the book to argue that art should devote itself to the accurate documentation of nature. In Ruskin's view Turner had developed from early detailed documentation of nature to a later more profound insight into natural forces and atmospheric effects.

Ruskin added later volumes in subsequent years. Volume two (1846) placed emphasis on symbolism in art, expressed through nature. The second volume was influential on the early development of Pre-Raphaelitism. Ruskin also added third and fourth volumes in later years.

I then took at look at the Project Gutenburg site - and found that has a lot of his writing (and associated images) is available to download in various formats - see links at end for just some of them.

So one of my New Year's Resolutions will be to read Lectures on Landscapes!

The Field behind Ruskin's House at Denmark Hill by John Ruskin
1860. Watercolor.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about Ruskin's theories about art

Ruskin's views on art, wrote Kenneth Clark, "cannot be made to form a logical system, and perhaps owe to this fact a part of their value." Ruskin's accounts of art are descriptions of a superior type that conjure images vividly in the mind's eye.^[10] Certain principles, however, remain consistent throughout his work, which Clark summarised as:

1. Art is not a matter of taste, but involves the whole man. Whether in making or perceiving a work of art, we bring to bear on it feeling, intellect, morals, knowledge, memory, and every other human capacity, all focused in a flash on a single point. Aesthetic man is a concept as false and dehumanizing as economic man.
2. Even the most superior mind and the most powerful imagination must found itself on facts, which must be recognized for what they are. The imagination will often reshape them in a way which the prosaic mind cannot understand; but this recreation will be based on facts, not on formulas or illusions.
3. These facts must be perceived by the senses, or felt; not learnt.
4. The greatest artists and schools of art have believed it their duty to impart vital truths, not only about the facts of vision, but about religion and the conduct of life.
5. Beauty of form is revealed in organisms which have developed perfectly according to their laws of growth, and so give, in his own words, 'the appearance of felicitous fulfillment of function.'
6. This fulfillment of function depends on all parts of an organism cohering and cooperating. This was what he called the 'Law of Help,' one of Ruskin's fundamental beliefs, extending from nature and art to society.
7. Good art is done with enjoyment. The artist must feel that, within certain reasonable limits, he is free, that he is wanted by society, and that the ideas he is asked to express are true and important.
8. Great art is the expression of epochs where people are united by a common faith and a common purpose, accept their laws, believe in their leaders, and take a serious view of human destiny.^[11]

I'll finish with another winter landscape - this time by John Ruskin - painted from his home at Brantwood overlooking Coniston water in the Lake District. 

Study of Ice Clouds over Coniston by John Ruskin

You can visit Brantwood - said to be the most beautifully situated house anywhere in the Lake District - between March and November. 

It also has a regular schedule of art exhibitions - many of which relate to explorations of the wonderful Lake District landscape.

Links: Project Gutenburg - files to download

• Lectures on Landscape
  Delivered at Oxford in Lent Term, 1871 (English) (as Author)
• Stones of Venice [introductions] (English) (as Author)
• The Stones of Venice, Volume I (of 3) (English) (as Author)
• The Stones of Venice, Volume II (of 3), (English) (as Author)
• The Stones of Venice, Volume III (of 3) (English) (as Author)
• Modern Painters Volume I (of V) (English) (as Author)
• Modern Painters Volume II (of V) (English) (as Author)
• Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) (English) (as Author)

Graham Brace's Environmental Inspiration

Hook Quay by Graham Brace

One of the themes of this blog is favourite locations for places to paint.  

This is a guest post by Graham Brace who is a fellow coloured pencil artist and a founder member of the UK Coloured Pencil Society - about his favourite place for stimulating his art.  It was prompted by a recent post in the UKCPS Yahoo Forum.  I've inserted a few links to places Graham mentions.  

Being essentially a landscape and seascape artist, I’ve often wondered if my specialism would be different or if my creative enthusiasm would be diminished if I lived in an urban/city/industrial environment, much different from the one in which I currently reside.

Although I find many things visually (and mentally) stimulating, throughout my entire life I have always had a deep interest in natural history and been drawn to the natural environment. For this reason, early in my graphics career, I made the positive decision to move from central London back to Pembrokeshire, where my wife and I were born and brought up.

For 24 years I ran a graphic design and advertising business in Pembrokeshire before succumbing to the long held desire to turn my energies to drawing and painting for a living in 2000.

Since returning here in 1976 we have lived in an estuary-side village in the heart of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park within spitting distance of the entire spectacular Pembrokeshire coast and the moors and crags of the Preseli Hills in the north of the county (Bluestone country). Indeed, for an artist like myself it is absolute heaven. And believe me, I count my lucky stars every single day!

From my desk in my small studio (which used to be my eldest daughter’s bedroom before she flew the nest) I can see over the rooftops of the terraced cottages below us to the river (which is tidal) and the oak wooded shore beyond and watch boats going by and water birds on the mudflats at low tide. The changing light on this scene is sometimes a wonder to behold.

Bright December Day by Graham Brace

My daily early morning walks take me over fields, through woodland and along long stretches of shore. I often don’t see a soul and the silence (bird calls apart) is sometimes almost ‘deafening’! These walks not only sort my head out but set me up for the day and provide for me endless inspiration and subject matter. I often think that I could spend virtually my entire life just drawing and painting the views and features of interest within a two mile radius of my house. In fact, there is so much to draw on that I occasionally have a real conflict as to what I should prioritise…and I wonder if I’ll find the time to do it all. ‘Is this a form of stress?’ I ask myself!

Having once lived in Cardiff and London for a combined period of 10 years I don’t recall my morning walks around Holland Park (as pleasant as it is) and Shepherd’s Bush stirring me quite so dramatically.

Consequently, I strongly believe that the quality of my environment is essential to what I do and the standard to which I do it.

Pembrokeshire, like Cornwall and East Anglia, attracts creative people and consequently has a large and diverse creative community. From the many conversations that I have had with fellow artists, it appears that we are all inspired by the same stimulus…Pembrokeshire and its natural (and spiritual) attributes.

I can’t be completely sure but if I was a conceptual or fantasy artist then, perhaps, I would not necessarily need to live in such a stunning location. Different people require and react to different stimuli. For my part, I need and feed on my surroundings and without that kind of continual nourishment I doubt if I’d start each day with such a big smile on my face!

Graham Brace is a full time professional artist and illustrator producing landscape and seascape paintings and marketing a range of limited edition prints.  He was born and brought up in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire and currently lives and works in the heart of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park.

Places to Paint:  You are invited to write about your special place.  Please click the link to find out how you can contribute to my "favourite places to paint" project.

Two landscape exhibitions in London and Christen Købke

Frederiksborg Slot ved Aftenbelysning

("Frederiksborg Palace in the Evening Light") 1835 by Christen Købke

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Two exhibitions of paintings by renowned landscape painters are coming to an end of their run in London - and both exhibitions finish on the 13th June 2010. These are:

• Paul Sandby RA (1731 – 1809): Picturing Britain, A Bicentenary Exhibition in the Sackler Wing Galleries at the Royal Academy of Arts is due to finish on the 13th June 2010. (Read my review of the exhibition Review: Paul Sandby - Picturing Britain Exhibition at the RA); and
• Christen Købke: Danish Master of Light in the Sunley Room of the National Gallery.

The latter moves next to the National Galleries of Scotland where it will be on display from 4 July - 3 October 2010.

I've not written about Købke (1810–1848) before but have been to see the exhibition

Købke is a painter of realism - adjusted to suit closely associated with what's called the Golden Age of Danish Painting. He's not well known and this is the first exhibition wholly devoted to his work outside Denmark.

Emphasising his exquisite originality and experimental outlook, the exhibition focuses on the most innovative  aspects of his work – including outdoor sketching, his fascination with painterly immediacy, and treatment of light and atmosphere.

This is a guide to the pictorial art associated with the Golden Age - which is worthy of a post in its own right at some point.< I'm going to limit comments here to the exhibition, because his work probably deserves more attention but within the context of the development of landscape painting in Denmark by artists influenced by C.W. Eckersberg. While Købke is obviously a very talented painter (particularly in relation to portraits and figures which demonstrated his very fine skills as a draughtsman) I found a number of the landscapes on the wall to be disappointing in terms of the billing given to him by the National Gallery. The theme of the exhibition is about him being a Master of Light. However a number of the paintings, when viewed in the exhibition, appeared to me to be rather less impressive than those seen in the video film which accompanies the exhibition.

The latter gives a very good impression of the paintings as they must have been when first painted but that's partly due to the backlighting which enhances the sense of light. In reality, to me, a number of the paintings were considerably more subdued when viewed with some being really rather dull - in a literal sense. There was no question in my mind that this was probably because of their age, because virtually all are on loan from other collections and because some probably haven't been properly cleaned of late.

It's difficult when somebody paints in the muted tones necessary to produce an effective sense of light. The lights in a painting then need to be kept clean and unsullied by time or the effect and impact can be much reduced. These are incredibly subtle paintings but for me some of that subtlety had been lost - and this was apparent when one saw some of the paintings in the exhibition where the overall effect appeared to be much closer to what the painter had intended.

As a result I suspect that these might be paintings which may well look rather better in a book or film than they do when hanging on a wall.

The painting which persuaded me that he was actually a fantastic painter of light was oddly enough his Portrait of the Landscape Painter Frederik Sødring (1832) from the Hirschsprung Collection where the luminous freshness of its colour scheme came across much more effectively. It's also a story of the influences on landscape painting in Denmark at the time - and serves to remind us how young Købke was when he painted most of his paintings (he died age 38). 

Another influential painting was his rather romantic painting of Frederiksborg Palace in the Evening Light (see top).  This is in good condition and is very impressive in terms of the portrayal of that very curious light one gets just before the sun sets. 

A third was the painting of boys on a bridge - an extract from which has been chosen for the catalogue of the exhibition - Christen Kobke: Danish Master of Light (see image on right).  This painting, again in good condition, is a fascinating depiction of the colour of warm stone - as well as a great composition and figurative painting.

Where the paintings are in good condition - and it's certainly the case that some are - it was very interesting to see and study

• how very little white/light paint needs to be applied to get a highlight effect if the rest of the painting is using suitably muted (clean) colours
• how extreme subtleties are possible in the colour of warm stone, evening shadows and reflected light

His landscape paintings are usually based on plein air studies.  He often drew and painted subjects close to the different places he lived in Copenhagen.  What I found fascinating was his impeccable portrayal of figures in a landscape - one of the best artists I've ever seen in this respect and some truly innovative and radical compositions for the age.

James Gurney did a post about him recently - see Christen Købke

In conclusion, I like the artist, I really appreciate his draughtsmanship and talent and I wish that those who looked after paintings would have some regard for how dirty and dull they can get over time.  

Here are some other reviews of the exhibition

• Laura Cumming's review of Christen Købke: Danish Master of Light
• Nordic exposure painted empty skies, intimate portraits and melancholy landscapes. Jonathan Jones gets lost in a world of infinite mystery
• Christen Købke: Great Dane He may not have been a rebellious artist, but the Danish master did have an astonishing eye for colour and detail, says Tom Lubbock

Interestingly this last review uses the same image - "Frederiksborg Palace in the Evening Light" - which looks nothing like it does in the article in reality!

Links:

• Exhibition Catalogue - Christen Kobke: Danish Master of Light
• Christen Købke - Wikipedia article
• The History of Landscape Painting

Pictures of Britain by David Gentleman

'Reed-beds at Iken Cliff, with skeleton oak and Iken church 

(illustration from Ask The Fellows who cut the Hay)', 2009

The Fine Art Society / copyright  David Gentleman 

A lot of UK readers of this blog will be very familiar with the watercolours and drawings of topographical artist David Gentleman, who was 80 last month.

Many of his images are of landscape scenes and buildings around the UK - in books like David Gentleman's Britain (Phoenix Illustrated

I know the view of Iken Church in Suffolk which is pictured at the top of the page.  It stopped me in my tracks when I saw it and reminded me that it's one of those locations that I need to go back to!

You can see many more images of his work at:

• 46 works (lithographs etc) online in the Tate Collection
• in a new exhibition by the Fine Art Society in Bond Street and on their website David Gentleman at Eighty (24th March - 15th April) which unfortunately has just finished.  However you can still see the works online. I have sense that there has been no post-production mainpulation of the photographs - and wonder whether they were actually painted on grey paper or whether it was the lighting when the photographs were taken
• at Cambridge Book and Print Gallery

You can also read about him and see some of his artwork in:

• David Gentleman: images of postwar Britain by Julian Bell - which for some reason The Guardian chose to publish the day after the exhibition finished!!!
• Fifty years of looking and learning for artist David and Scenes from the Streets - in the Camden New Journal

Theer doesn't appear to be a website - more's the pity.

 

Turner's Sketchbooks: 1790s

JMW Turner seems to have been a bit of a hoarder and kept an awful lot of his artwork and preparatory work. Fortunately for us, the Turner Bequest gave all this work to the country and this bequest included all his surviving sketchbooks which were mainly used for plein air landscape sketching on his travels.

They have been digitized and very systematically put online in a very detailed way (eg each page with a drawing has a web page) and you can find all the Turner Sketchbooks online on the Tate Britain website.

The sketchbooks are accessible in a considered structure and academic way. They are not small and many run to over a hundred pages. If you want to study I recommend setting aside some time to have a realy good look.

If you click one of these links below it presents you with the sketchbook. You can then navigate through the sketchbook using the arrow keys. If you click on an image it will appear larger and you can then see details of what it is thought to be and its size and what media were used to produce it. If you then click the image again it will appear at an even larger size. You also have the option to view a digitally enhanced image.

You will then see how 'sketchy' his landscape sketches are. Given there were no cameras at the time, bear in mind that these sketches and any watercolours done on the spot were the only reference material he had for producing much larger landscape paintings

These are links to his Turner's Sketchbooks from the 1790s. They include:

• sketchbooks devoted to specific places - almost all in the UK in this decade
• sketchbooks dedicated to specific animals (eg cows, swans)
• deliberate studies for paintings
• work done for Dr Munro's Academy which is where Turner worked with other young watercolour artists of his day.

The sketchbooks in order of age are:

• Academical Sketchbook [Finberg XLIII]
• Bristol and Malmesbury Sketchbook [Finberg VI]
• Calais Pier Sketchbook [Finberg LXXXI]
• Cows Sketchbook [Finberg LXII] - just cows! Sketches which aid the creation of paintings in the future
  
• Dolbadarn Sketchbook [Finberg XLVI]
• Dr Monro's Album of Italian Views [Finberg CCCLXXIII] the sketchbooks relating to Dr Munro's Academy include ones which Turner and Girtin worked on together. Girtin tended to do the drawings which Turner then coloured.
  
• Dr Monro's Album of Swiss and Italian Views [Finberg CCCLXXIV]
• Dynevor Castle Sketchbook [Finberg XL]
• Egyptian Details Sketchbook [Finberg LXVI]
• Hereford Court Sketchbook [Finberg XXXVIII]
• Isle of Wight Sketchbook [Finberg XXIV]
• Lancashire and North Wales Sketchbook [Finberg XLV]
• Marford Mill Sketchbook [Finberg XX]
• Matlock Sketchbook [Finberg XIX]
• North Wales Sketchbook [Finberg XXXIX]
• North of England Sketchbook [Finberg XXXIV]
• On the Cliffs Sketchbook [Finberg LXIV]
• Salisbury Sketchbook [Finberg XLIX]
• Smaller South Wales Sketchbook [Finberg XXV]
• South Wales Sketchbook [Finberg XXVI]
• Studies for Pictures Sketchbook [Finberg LXIX]
• Studies near Brighton Sketchbook [Finberg XXX]
• Swans Sketchbook [Finberg XLII]
• Tweed and Lakes Sketchbook [Finberg XXXV]
• Wilson Sketchbook [Finberg XXXVII]

Note the extent of his travels in this decade - mainly around the UK including a number of trips to the north of Britain and Wales.

Sometimes the descriptions are very specific, often they just state things like 'Part of a Castle with Sea and Hills Beyond'

Inscriptions at the beginning of
the Matlock Sketchbook 1794

How do the archivists know what he's sketched? In some of the sketchbooks he makes a list at the beginning of what's included in the sketchbook. Those of who work from sketches will know how useful it is to be able to pick up a sketchbook and look at a label or list of contents which saves so much time when you are looking for a particular sketch! For archivists this and Turner's very clear handwriting must have been a huge asset to the classification of his sketchbooks.

Besides inscriptions Tuner also used either end of his sketchbook to practice colour weashes. How many of us do the same?

Find out more about Turner by consulting my Turner resource site which provides links to further information about the man, his work and where you can see it and read about it - see JMW Turner - Resources for Art Lovers.

Find out more about Dr Munro and how important he was to the development of watercolour landscape painting in the UK on the handprint website.

Find out more about where Turner sketched in the British Isles by consulting the map on the website. Click a county or area to find an annotated list of sketches plus the images.

Visiting Constable Country

In 2006 there was an exhibition of Constable - The Great Landscapes at Tate Britain which featured the "six footer" canvases that John Constable produced of the views around and about the River Stour and other places in the UK.

The Tate Britain exhibition briefing indicates that his move to larger canvases was part of a strategy to become noticed by the Royal Academy of Arts and to paint on a scale equivalent to the classical landscape artists.

The exhibition was particularly interesting as it showed how his paintings were produced and we saw the different stages from tiny sketchbooks to full-scale preliminary oil sketches for some of them. The Tate site says

These large sketches, with their free and vigorous brushwork were unprecedented at the time and they continue to fascinate artists, scholars and the general public. It has been said that it is this practice more than any other aspect of Constable's work which establishes him as an avant-garde painter, resolved to re-think the demands of his art and to address them in an entirely new way. The exhibition re-unites the full-scale sketches with their corresponding finished pictures in order to explore their role in Constable's working practice

You can see more of Constable's paintings on the Art Renewal website - John Constable

It's well worth visiting Constable Country and especially Flatford and the River Stour as much of it is very recognisable from Constable's paintings.

The last time I visited the National Trust's Bridge Cottage museum at Flatford Mill had an exhibition of reproductions of the six foot canvases of working life on the River Stour that his finished paintings were produced from in his studio.

That exhibition also shows where each painting was done and also displayed reproductions of some of the small sketches that he did for each painting.

Below you can see some of my photographs of the painting of the boatyard "Boat-Building" and what it looks like today

(Left) A reproduction of Boat-building near Flatford Mill (1815) by John Constable (1776-1837); Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 61.6 cm
(Right: Dry Dock photographed by me 2nd October 2005
all photos copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This portrays the construction of a barge at a dry-dock owned by Constable's father. It is based on a tiny pencil drawing in a sketchbook at the V&A. Constable painted the landscape entirely in the open air. His biographer praised its 'atmospheric truth', such that 'the tremulous vibration of the heated air near the ground seems visible'.
Narrative by Victoria and Albert Museum

This is the mill pond next to Willy Lott's cottage made famous in The Hay Wain (for further details see here)

all photos copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Walking and Cycling in Constable Country

To my mind you can' beat visiting the places where great landscape art was produced to really get a full appreciation of the landscape that the artist was painting - and how well they captured the sense of place in their work.

The National Trust has created a Constable Country walk

One of the best ways to experience the countryside that John Constable knew and loved is to walk around the picturesque Stour Valley.

By following in the footsteps of Constable you’ll have a better appreciation of the trees, rivers, sounds and light captured on canvass by one of the greatest British painters of all time.

To help guide you, we’ve added a special downloadable Constable Walk on the website, featuring a walk from Manningtree Station to Flatford. Manningtree Station is on the London Liverpool Street – Ipswich/Norwich line.

• Download the Constable Walk
  (PDF/920KB)

The 60-mile Painters Trail cycle route is another great way to experience the areas of Suffolk and Essex made famous by painters such as Constable. There are also bus routes across the county to the Stour Valley.

National Trust - Constable Country Walk

While Suffolk County Council has set up the Suffolk Painters Trail Cycle Route

Painter's Trail

If you enjoy painting, you may be interested in the Painter's Trail, which is a 69 mile long cycle route through the picturesque and historic Dedham Vale, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The Trail pack at £3.50 includes a map of the route and essential information on places to see, where to stay, and a painter's fact file.

To obtain a pack, contact the Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley Project, telephone: 01473 264263.
Suffolk County Council Cycle Routes

Have you visited the places where great landscape art was produced?

Have you made a point of visiting the places frequented by great landscape artists? If so, who's the artist and where did you go?

If you produce a blog post about your visit, let me know and I'll reference it on this blog.