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

Spring Landscape #2 - by Berthe Morisot

I had no idea that French impressionist painter Berthe Morisot drew landscapes in coloured pencils - I think of her as somebody painted people.

However a search for spring landscapes turned up this coloured pencil drawing by Berthe Morisot of a Spring Landscape.  Not only that but it turns out that, like me, she also preferred to hatch with her coloured pencils!

Drawing of a Spring Landscape (c. 1890/1891) by Berthe Morisot
colored pencils and graphite, 23.7 x 18.4 cm (9 5/16 x 7 1/4 in.)
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection,
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington

The Musee Marmottan has the first and major retrospective exhibition of works by Berthe Morisot between 8 March to 1 July 2012 - Marmottan Monet – Berthe Morisot

I discovered a little bit about Morisot and her landscape drawings and paintings.

She was born on January 14, 1841, in Bourges, France and was the granddaughter of the influential Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard.  She studied painting with her sister Edma.  Edma was Berthe’s painting companion until 1869, and her favourite model from 1869 to 1873.

At the time women were not allowed to study at official art schools and this did not change until the latter years of the nineteenth century.  Instead the sisters copied masterpieces from the Louvre Museum in the late 1850s under Joseph Guichard.

They then studied with the well-known landscape painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, who was associated with the Barbizon school of painters, and began painting outdoor scenes and working plein air.  Corot subsequently became a friend of Morisot's and she worked with him between 1862 to 1868.  Through she was Corot introduced her to other artists.

In terms of exhibiting her art, Morisot was able to exhibit at the Salon de Paris for a decade with her first work being exhibited in Salon in 1864.  She was just 23 years old when two landscape paintings were accepted for the exhibition

In 1874, she subsequently joined the "rejected" Impressionists in the first of their own exhibitions held at the studio of the photographer Nadar. Fellow exhibitors included Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley.

Morisot was also a close friend of Manet and in 1874 she married Eugene Manet, Edouard's younger brother.  Morisot was the link which led to Manet joining the painters who formed the group known as the Impressionists.

Below is a landscape that demonstrates that Morisot also brought a touch of the domestic and woman's world to her landscape paintings. Here's a painting from her years of married life.

Percher de Blanchisseuses (English: Hanging the Laundry out to Dry) (1875) by Berthe Morisot
33 × 40.6 cm (13 × 16 in)
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Hockney: sketchbooks, iPad sketching and the Yosemite Valley

This post is about Hockney's sketching and painting using sketchbooks and iPads. and is part of a series of posts about specific aspects of the David Hockney RA - The Bigger Picture exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.  This exhibition is largely about his recent work drawing and painting the landscapes of the Yorkshire Wolds - but images of the Yosemite Valley in October creep in at the end!

Unfortunately the images made available by the Royal Academy are very limited and hence I'll be linking where I can to images elsewhere.  I don't have any image at all to show you what the Yosemite images look like - more's the pity.

The Sketchbooks

"Everything begins with the sketchbooks"
David Hockney

Gallery 12 is a room full of sketchbooks.  iPads are hung on the wall about the sketchbook proper and loop through images from the sketchbook show below.  There's a fairly good correlation between the image on screen and that in the sketchbook.

The main reason for studying the sketchbooks is to see how he chooses and isolates elements in the landscape and tries it out in different ways before making the commitment to a more involved sketch on the ipad or a "proper" painting using watercolours or oils.

There's one sketchbook with a concertina fold which he has used to record all the plants in a hedgerow.  It reminded me of how many of the landscape paintings include portrayals of the plants which are the minor players in the grander scheme of things.

There's a sense of the sketchbooks being the first step in a process which progresses from a quick drawing done from observation to an enormous painting.  The sketch for the painting used to advertise the exhibition is in the display - drawn using coloured crayons in April/May 2008.  It was first drawn in a charcoal and crayon as a landscape format double page spread in a sketchbook - and measures 21 x 60cm.  It's remarkably similar to the final painting (below) which was painted on 15 canvases and is approximately 10 times bigger.

David Hockney 
Winter Timber, 2009 
Oil on 15 canvases, 274 x 609.6 cm 
Private Collection 
Copyright David Hockney 
Photo credit: Jonathan Wilkinson

The colours used in the sketches seems to be a bit of a test for "what works".  While sympathetic to the natural colour palette of the countryside, the colours he uses are often rather more vivid.

This is a fast slideshow of Hockney creating another painting in the series related to the trees which were cut down.  From this you can see how he works from smaller sketches both to get the painting started and also to refine the final colour palette.  The sketches are essential to both the composition and design, the tonal values and the colour palette.

It seems as if the whole process for the larger paintings works as follows:

• sketchbook study - identifies what interests him
• charcoal drawing which is more refine - defines shapes and tonal values
• small colour oil sketches - initial plans for paintings
• large single canvas oil paintings
• multi-canvas-larger paintings - which are developed from all the supporting material back in the studio

The sketchbooks he uses are of every size and they vary in the weight of paper - although it looks like they're all capable of taking watercolour sketching.  He mostly sketches in watercolours, although he sometimes uses a graphic pen - especially if drawing people.  He also uses felt markers, coloured pencils and crayons.  I think it's very likely that he's mostly using Neocolor II wax crayons judging by the marks made and the fact that he then sometimes uses water to create a wash after he's completed the sketch.

He's an inveterate panoramic double page spread man - done in landscape format sketchbooks!  (I felt better about my sketching and own sketchbooks as a result.  I keep increasing the size of my sketchbooks and every time I do I seem to still want to use the double page spread.  I've only finally stopped and stuck to one sheet after I got to the A3 sketchbook!)

You can read my Book review: A Yorkshire Sketchbook by David Hockney on Making A Mark reviews.  You can also view the Yorkshire Sketchbook (Yorkshire 04) on the official Hockney website (please note Hockney is a stickler for copyright - so no stealing images from the website!)

RECOMMENDED (for fans only) - This is the nearest you'll ever get to handling a Hockney sketchbook.

The iPad Sketches

David Hockney 
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) - 2 January 
iPad drawing printed on paper 
144.1 x 108 cm; one of a 52-part work 
Courtesy of the artist 
Copyright David Hockney

Gallery 12 also houses 6 iPads which are set up to run through all the iPads sketches in sequence.

I was disappointed to see that there is no iPad set up to show how he makes his sketches while using the Brushes app for his iPad (which won the Apple Design Award in 2010).  The Brushes app has a very neat aspect to its functionality which shows you how you constructed your drawing - in stages, one stroke at a time!

One of the films makes it clear that Steve Jobs would not have been happy - as he clearly uses a stylus to draw.  It looks very like the one I bought and promptly lost!

The iPad sketches are interesting - mainly because it was not apparent to me until I visited this exhibition just how big iPad sketches can be printed.  Of course the great thing about the iPad is you can move in and out of an area of the artwork.  If you know you're going to print big you can adjust the level you work at.

I'm not actually quite sure when they stop being sketches and start being paintings in their own right - although I guess it might be something to do with how long they take to do and refine.  We also need to remember for all the iPad work we see in the show there's bound to be a lore more which just didn't work - just as there always is in any sketchbook.

The 51 iPad sketches which form part of The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire 2011 (twenty eleven) are all printed on paper which is 144cm x 108cm (that's c. 57" x 42").

I had no idea one could contemplate digital sketches on an iPad translating through to work of that size.  I guarantee there will be quite a few wiPad owners looking at their iPads with renewed interest after seeing this exhibition.  Me for one!  The main reason being that at the end of the day these are still unique hand drawn paintings.  You can see all the marks.  It doesn't look like a hyper-realistic photograph.  You know a person created it!

This in part is, I guess, Hockney's response to all the people who are photoshopping photographs and then calling it art.  His preoccupation is with the eye, the hand and the heart and having all three working together to produce the image.

[Note:  I'm trying to find out what software is used to produce the very large prints - and will report back!]

The Yosemite Valley Sketches

I'm really surprised not to have an image of these iPad sketches.  They are simply ginormous!  They're also displayed in a small gallery so that one gets the sense of the enormity of the place itself.

I'm guessing that they must have given the publishers of the catalogue and the gallery guide a bit of a rollercoaster ride too - as Hockney produced these specifically for the exhibition but only produced them between October 5th and October 16th 2011!!!

The catalogue indicates he's using a special piece of software which prevents the iPad drawings from pixelating as they are increased in size.  (see How to produce a large 300dpi TiFF print of an iPad sketch for my best guess at the moment of what they are doing)

However the super ginormous Yosemite sketches are in effect like his multi canvas paintings.

The overall dimension of most is 365.8 x 274.3cm (That's 144inches x 108" or 12 feet by 9 feet).  However they are actually printed on six sheets of paper mounted on six sheets of dibond.

So now you know!

You too can have an iPad sketch enlarged to a 12 foot by 9 foot image!

Portraying the Bristol Channel Floods 1607

Art can create a record of catastropic events so that long after they have been forgotten there is still a record of what it was like.

In recent days we've been reminded of the forces of natural events and how these can change the landscape.  I became interested in the extent to which art has been used in the past to

• either record the event itself
• or record how it has changed the landscape
• or possibly, through memory painting, to record what was there before a catastrophic natural event

Which is how I came to discover the Bristol Floods of 1607, which many now believe may have been a tsunami.  What follows is a summary of what I've discovered.

The Deluge of 1607 - in England

Woodcut image from
"A true report of certaine wonderfull ouerflowings of Waters, now lately in Summerset-shire, Norfolke and other places of England...",
printed in London 1607

On 20 January 1606 there was extensive flooding in southwest England and South Wales.  This is now referred to as the 1607 floods because of the changes to the calendar made later in 1606 to correct problems with how days had been counted up until that point.

There are a variety of views which seek to explain what caused it - from a storm surge to a tsunami.

The wave height was some 4 metres in the outer Bristol Channel to more than 6 metres in the inner Severn Estuary.  (That's very nearly 20 feet high).  A number of churches in the area bear plaques which record how high thee water reached.  It's also estimated to have reached a speed of some 25mph.

More than an estimated 200 square miles (518 km²) of land were flooded on either side of the Bristol Channel along some 570 km of coastline and associated land in North Devon, Gloucestershire, Somerset and along the South Wales coast from Monmouthshire to Carmarthenshire.  It's clear that flood defences were inadequate for holding the sea back in a number of places.  There was scope for the water to flow a considerable distance inland where the land was flat - such as on the Gwent and Somerset Levels with the water reaching as far inland as Glastonbury Tor.

It caused 2,000 deaths and considerable economic loss. 

At the time of the great flood there were no newspapers.  However it was custom and practice to poduce and print pamphlets to mak news about some great event.  In this instance it would appear from the research done that these pamplets had been tailored to each of the counties affected.

“Many there were which fled into the tops of high trees, and there were inforced to abide some three daies, some more, and some lesse, without any victuals at all, there suffring much colde besides many other calamities, and some of them in such sort, that through overmuch hunger and cold, some of them fell down againe out of the Trees, and so were like to perish for want of succour. Othersome, safe in the tops of high Trees as aforesaid, beholding their wives, children and servants, swimming (remediles of all succour) in the Waters.

Woodcut images were used to convey how much of the land was covered and what it was like for the people affected.  I've looked for indications of other forms of artwork but can find none online which survive apart from various references to the pamphlet which was printed by printers who operated in the courtyard of St Paul's Cathedral and also printed William Shakespeare's plays.

I'm somewhat surprised as I'd have expected to have found at least some paintings which attempted to recreate what happened on canvas.

The water changed the coastline in places.  For those interested in the history of the changing landscape and/or geology and/or geomorphology (like me!) can.....

• WATCH a clip from the BBC TimeWatch programme - Britain's Forgotten Flood
• READ  
• Gods Warning to His People (1607)  - an account of the flood which is in the British Library
• Wikipedia - Bristol Channel Floods 1607
• BBC - Bristol:  The Great Flood of 1607 
• Burnham on Sea website - Was it a Tsunami?
• an accessible account of the possible causes of the flood
• Flood 400 - an account of the 400th celebrations
• Professor Simon Hazlitt's blog - Great Flood of 1607: tsunami or storm?
• "Catastrophic Wave Erosion, Bristol Channel, United Kingdom: Impact of Tsunami?". Journal of Geology 115 (3): 253–270

Sherrie York draws and prints the landscape underfoot

Sherrie York (Brush and Baren) is a fine art printmaker who primarily produces original, hand-pulled relief prints in woodcut and linocut of the environment where she lives.

Most of the images reflect my ongoing curiosity about the natural world: wildlife, wildlands, and sometimes not-so-wild places, too.

Longing
Reduction linocut - 10 colors
Edition of 10 | Image size 12" x 16 "
Hand printed on Hosho paper.
copyright Sherrie York

I think her work is totally stunning and I'm impressed by it every time I review her website or blog. Sherrie has a huge talent in terms of draughtsmanship, the ability to see pictures where others wouldn't think to look and a wonderful sense of colour which enriches without being overwhelming.

Sherrie is currently featuring as the Artist of the Month at the Pikes Peak Library Distric.  As a result of which she gets to have an exhibition - and to be on TV!

This is a video which was made for the latter which explains:

• how she became to become interested in the landscape underfoot
• how she produces her linocuts of her enivironment using the reduction method and up to 12 colour printing (using a baren)

PPLD Off the Wall: February 2011 from PPLD TV on Vimeo.

Sherrie York: Art Underfoot

I recommend you go take a good look at her blog and website if you like what you see in the video.

You can also purchase small prints through her Etsy store, Rio Salida Art. 

Links:

• Sherrie York - website http://www.sherrieyork.com/index.html
• Sherrie York -Brush and Baren blog http://brushandbaren.blogspot.com/
• Sherrie York on Etsy - http://www.etsy.com/shop/riosalidaart

Bill Guffey and Virtual Paintout on Canadian TV

Congratulations to Bill Guffey and his Virtual Paintout project which last night featured in an interview with Mark Kelley on the Connect Programme on CBC News (Canada).  I guess this month's location of Prince Edward Island generated some interest!

Click the link and then slide the bar over to just about the 00:49:15 mark to watch Bill's part of the show.

Virtual Paintout August - in Prince Edward Island

A view of Newfoundland from Prince Edward Island

The place which the Virtual Paintout is visiting in August is Prince Edward Island - off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada and very close to both Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

Prince Edward Island (PEI or P.E.I.; French: Île-du-Prince-Édouard, Scottish Gaelic: Eilean a' Phrionnsa) is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population (excluding the territories). The island has a few other names: "Garden of the Gulf" referring to the pastoral scenery and lush agricultural lands throughout the province
Prince Edward Island - wikipedia

These are the links to:

• The August post/thread about Prince Edward Island - which includes paintings from those who have contributed to date
• This is the Large Google Map
•  - what you have to do next is

...drag the little Yellow Man onto the map, let go while he's over a blue area, and start exploring. Find an interesting subject/area. Change it all you want. Or paint it straight up as you see it. Instructions are in the sidebar to the right. Any questions, ask 'em in the comments or email me directly.
Bill Guffey - The Virtual Paintout: Prince Edward Island

The image of the lighthouse in my screen capture from Google Maps Streetview is....

20 minutes east of Souris. East Point Lighthouse is situated on the extreme eastern end of Prince Edward Island where the mighty tides of the St. Lawrence and Northumberland Strait meet to create a show of nature's force. As one of the Island's itinerant lighthouses, the East Point Lighthouse has been moved several times due to poor positioning of the light and continuing erosion of the coastline.
Lighthouses of PEI

The rules

The rules are simple but must be adhered to:

• participation for this virtual paintout finishes on 31st August 2010
• the location must be a picture from Google Streetview (not a photo linked to the spot) 
• each artist must now include the URL of the location that the artwork is based upon
• the image has to be at a resolution of 72 and no larger than 1000 pixels on the widest side
• you cannot post to the blog direct - you have to send your pic to Bill Guffey 

Links:

• Prince Edward Island - government website
• Prince Edward Island  - tourism website
• Prince Edward Island - wikipedia

What's your favourite place to paint?

Durham Cathedral and Bridge from the River Weir

Thomas Girtin 1799
Pencil, watercolour , scratching out on laid cartridge paper
41.6cm x 53.7cm (approx. 16 x 21in)
The Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester

I've been fascinated recently while reading a biography of Tom Girtin to find that he embarked on a number of sketching tours around the UK - and that Turner then followed him around the country drawing the places he'd already drawn - from more or less the same spot! As they were good friends I had mental visions of them spending time pouritng over maps while Girtin explained where to go and what were the best views!

It's certainly very apparent from reading his biography that even in eighteenth century England, certain places were very popular. Sometimes because they were easy to sell. Sometimes because they were a great view. Sometimes because they fitted with the romantic notions of the time about what was a 'a good view'.

Durham Cathedral (see top) has been a favourite subject for visual artists for hundreds of years. I used to stare at it for many years while travelling back and to school on the train. I could see why it worked as a view but it really didn't appeal to me personally.

I also remember puzzling a lot when I started to draw and paint about how one was supposed to select 'a good view'. Gradually I found that the more I looked and looked the more I began to see possibilities. I knew I was in trouble when I'd find myself driving in new areas mentally framing and then ticking off 'good views' as I passed them as placed to go back to if I had the time!

However it took quite a while for me to discover that I love doing really big views.

I have in fact driven long distances across France to go back to views I've seen once and never had the chance to draw at the time. Or wanted to draw again. I haven't got a clue as to why they attract me. I didn't even realise they did until I started to put my website together and realised I had an awful lot of big views. What I think used to be called "a vista" - hence the title of the gallery Views and Vistas.

vista noun (vistas) 1 a view into the distance, especially one bounded narrowly on both sides, eg by rows of trees. 2 a mental vision extending over a lengthy period of time into the future or past.
ETYMOLOGY: 17c: Italian, meaning 'view', from Latin videre, visum to see.

View from the l'Esplanade at Domme
12" x 16", coloured pencils on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This one was started while I had lunch on the terrace overlooking this view of the River Dordogne beneath the bastide town of Domme in the Périgord Noir area of France.

Interestingly Wikipedia says remarkably little about what is a 'view' - and yet artists spend a lot of time trying to find a 'view' to paint.

I talked in the previous post about how I've always used maps to try and find good places to draw and paint. I've also listened a lot to what other people have had to say about their favourite places to paint and why they liked them.

Hence this post is an invitation to say a bit about what's your favourite place to paint.

Even better if you've done a blog post about it I'd like to highlight this on this blog.

I'm also going to try and develop an inventory of 'good places to paint' in the Location Page (see top - underneath the title). A sort of reference site for if you're going somewhere new and want to know good places to paint.

Of course you can't beat finding somewhere that only you know about - but if you'd like to share - feel free to say what's your favourite place to paint. (You don't have to stop at just one!)

Note: Girtin's painting at the top is a salutary lesson in what happens when you use fugitive colours - the blue in the sky faded long ago! (See What are fugitive colours?)

Old Volcanoes in Gran Canaria

The Virtual Paintout in April - my contribution
coloured pencils on Saunders Waterford HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is my interpretation of the landscape which can be viewed from the street in front of 35 Lugar Diseminado la Degollada, Tejeda, on Gran Canaria in the Canary islands - it's quite something! I liked it because it's got that combination of the weird contours you can get with volcanic geomorphology and the acid greens often seen where cultivation occurs.

I think this is also the view of what is left of the central cone of the extinct volcano which is Gran Canaria. The location is close to the centre of the island and the view is towards the very centre.

The Canary Islands are located off the coast of Western Sahara and Morocco, Africa. The Islands are located on a volcanic hotspot, away from plate boundaries. The island chain is approximately linear with a rough decrease in age of the volcanism is recognized from east to west.

Volcano Live

What I like about the The Virtual Paintout and using Google Maps Streetview to find a view to draw is it is almost exactly like what I do in real life.

Being a geographer from way back I almost always study maps before trying to find new views. Given I can read contours I can often find good places to draw just from studying the map. Not always though. Many is the time I've got there only to find that trees completely obscure the view!

When I'm using Streetview I start by studying the map and then try various locations. I then spend ages going backwards and forwards trying to find the 'perfect' perspective. Just like I do in real life when I'm sketching plein air and hauling ` sketching stool and backpack backwards and forwards as I try to find where to put the stool down!

It all feels very familiar! :)

How is it for you?

Desert sandhills and an elephant

Desert Sandhills stretching to the Horizon
Elephant Skull Plate XXII 1969
etching by Henry Moore
all photos copyright Katherine Tyrrell / Courtesy The Henry Moore Foundation

You can find landscapes in odd places.

When I saw this etching by Henry Moore at the Sheep Barn Galleries in Perry Green I was convinced it was a landscape - which I thought very odd since Moore wasn't given to drawing landscapes.

When I walked over the title confirmed it.

What's odd is that he found this landscape while drawing an elephant skull.

Henry Moore at work on an etching plate in 1968 (Elephant Skull album)
original photo by Errol Jackson in 1968 / Henry Moore Archive

You can see my review of the latest Henry Moore Exhibition Henry Moore Deluxe: Books Prints & Portfolios on Making A Mark.

I think this one was my favourite of all the etchings I saw when visiting the exhibition last week.

Have you ever found a landscape somewhere unexpected?

Links:

• Henry Moore - Resources for Art Lovers
• Henry Moore Foundation - Perry Green
• Google Maps - Hoglands and the Henry Moore Foundation
• Visiting Henry Moore - Perry Green

From completed landscape drawing to Streetview

Monterchi from the Via Madonna del Parto
8" x 10", coloured pencil on Arches HP
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

This is the reverse version of the Virtual paintout process. First the drawing and then the Streetview perspective!

Above is a drawing of Monterchi in Tuscany - home of the Madonna del Parto by Piero della Francesco and below is the scene from Streetview of very nearly the place where I got this view. I was stood one row into the vines on the right hand side. The Streetview is from the Via Madonna del Parto.

The Streetview perspective seems to me to be mid afternoon whereas my view was on my regular drive from Citerna to a house near Lippiano - which involved going past this view at about 9am each morning - hence mine has a rather different light and the shadows are different.

I'm tickled pink to see that the very tall post for the vines is still there and is still leaning precariously!



Visualizzazione ingrandita della mappa

Has anybody else gone back to find the view they drew or painted on holiday via Streetview?

Sketching Cezanne's landscapes

On Friday I met up with the group I go sketching London with at St Martins in the Fields. As it was very cold I decided that I needed to do a spot of landscape sketching - in the warmth and comfort of the National Gallery!

Part of my Art of the Landscape Project is about learning more about how past masters constructed their landscape paintings. I've found that a good way of doing that is to actually sketch them - because in looking at them intently to sketch you learn about the composition, their predisposition to work with mass or line and how they worked with colour - and anything else which mattered to each individual as an artist.

It's not about reproducing their work exactly so much as getting a better sense and understanding of it.

On Friday I sketched two works by Cezanne and started on Het Steen by Rubens - but the latter is a BIG painting and I need to go back to that one.

After Cezanne - Avenue at Chantilly
(L’Allee a Chantilly), 1888
National Gallery, London
8" x 6", coloured pencils in Winsor & Newton Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

One of the things I've learned about Cezanne in constructing this post is that once he found a motif he liked he had no hesitation about painting it repeatedly. I knew about Mont St Victoire but wasn't aware that the Alley at Chantilly was another favoured motif. Here's another couple of paintings of the same subject - each treated slightly differently

• The Alley at Chantilly (1888) (private collection)
• The Alley at Chantilly (1888) Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, United States of America

It's interesting that we can think sometimes that somehow if we've painted a subject once we've said all we have to say about it and we now ought to move on to aother subject. However, I'm more and more convinced that artists that keep painting the same subject learn more and more about their subject, themselves and their art.

I sat on the bench in the middle of the room to sketch this and didn't take a close look at how he had put down the paint until I'd finished. One of the things I've found is that I very much identify with the way Cezanne lays paint down in hatching strokes of the brush - while I hatch with the pencil.

I found an interesting quotation from Lawrence Gowing on the Tate website

Cézanne’s method, as he once said, was ‘hatred of the imaginative’, and we can feel that the hatred extended to all that was implied in the derived, fictitious contour of the early works.

His task was to hold in equilibrium the two conceptions which were vital to him, the conception of reality and of the picture.

This second sketch is of a painting which isn't in the National Gallery's listings which I assume means it comes from whoever has currently got Les Grands Baigneuses as that's out on loan.

? (not sure and forgot to note it down!)
National Gallery, London
8" x 6", coloured pencils in Winsor & Newton Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I've also discovered that there is a book which reviews how he constructed his paintings - Cézannes Composition: Analysis of His Form with Diagrams and Photographs of His Motifs - which I might try and get hold of.

More about Cezanne

• Paul Cézanne - Resources for Art Lovers is a website I've developed (and continue to develop) a website about Cézanne
• There's a very good overview (with images) of oil and watercolour paintings by Cezanne - in every genre - on The Atheneaum website and another on the Artilim website List of Paul Cézanne Paintings
• This is a link to a pdf file about the Cezanne in Provence exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington - which gives a good overview of his Provencal landscapes
  

Art Instruction: Drawing and Painting Landscapes in Watercolour

The Practice of Drawing and Painting Landscape from Nature in Water Colours was written by Francis Nicholson in the early nineteenth century.

Its title page is very precise as to its aim and the potential benefits for the reader:

• exemplified in a series of instructions
• calculated to faciliate the progress of the learner
• including the elements of perspective, their application in drawing from nature and the explanation of the various processes of colouring, for producing from the sketch the finished picture
• with observations on the study of nature
• and various other matters relative from the arts

The first edition sold out.

This second edition was published by Thomas Davison, Whitefriars in London in 1823 - and subsequently found its way into the New York Public Library system

The language is obviously somewhat stilted to that which we are used to today. However for those who are prepared to put in the effort to reading this book you'll find it long on explanation and that it includes images to help explain the instruction. All in all quite a contrast to the art instruction book of today. This is one for those who prefer their art instruction books to not be dumbed down!

Read this book for FREE

This book has been digitized by Google and is now available to download as PDF or EPUB files - for FREE! Alternatively you can read it online.

The contents page is displayed on the right. I like the titles of some of his chapters such as "Accidents in Painting" and "Licences in Drawing". I've only dipped into it so far but it looks very interesting. It includes for example a detailed explanation of how of how to use a Claude mirror ('the blackened convex mirror') on page 21 and 22.

The contents page in Google Books includes hyperlinks to the different sections.

I also found it interesting how many references are included to landscape painters from the past. It gives you an insight into the thinking behind landscape drawing and painting at the time as well as useful tips on 'how to'. His language (starting on page 33) when he doubts the advice of Sir Joshua Reynolds on drawing vs painting and quotes Michael Angelo (sic) in support of his view had me grinning from ear to ear!

Reviews: If you write a review of this book on your blog do let me know and I'll highlight your review on this blog.

Sir Francis Nicholson

I tried to find out a little bit about the author Francis Nicholson and concluded that he was in all probability Sir Francis Nicholson (14 November 1753 – 6 March 1844) who was a Yorkshire born landscape painter who worked in both watercolours and oils but grew to focus on landscapes in watercolour.

He was also a founding member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours now known as the Royal Watercolour Society. It's not every day that you get to read a book by a leading member of such an august body!

Van Gogh's Perspective Frame

One of the most fascinating aspects of the The Real Van Gogh - the Artist and his Letters exhibition is the letter which illustrates the perspective tool which Van Gogh used - and a sketch of him using it!

Perpsective is an aspect of drawing which a number of artists struggle with. Van Gioh was no exception and he studied various handbooks and diligently did various exercises to improve his grasp of perspective and proportions. I was very impressed with some of the drawings which he'd tackled to develop his skills in drawing the perspective of both built and natural forms.

The first room in the exhibition provides some examples of drawings he did - plus the two letters which indicate how he also used technical aids - in the shape of a perspective frame.

• illustrate the perspective frame (Letter 254 To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Saturday, 5 or Sunday, 6 August 1882)
• demonstrate him using it (Letter 253
  

I've quoted from these letters letters below.

A sketch by Vincent Van Gogh illustrating how he expected to use the perspective frame he had ordered
Letter 253 To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Saturday, 5 August 1882

I’ll start with small things — but before the summer ends I hope to practise bigger sketches in charcoal with an eye to painting in a rather larger format later.

This is why I’m having a new and, I hope, better perspective frame made, which will stand firmly on two legs in uneven ground like the dunes.

Like this, for example.

What we saw together at Scheveningen, sand — sea — sky — is something I certainly hope to express one day.

He described it in more detail in the next letter which also includes three sketches of the post, peg and perspective frame.

In my last letter you’ll have found a little scratch of that perspective frame. I’ve just come back from the blacksmith, who has put iron spikes on the legs and iron corners on the frame.

It consists of two long legs:

The frame is fixed to them by means of strong wooden pegs either horizontally or vertically

The result is that on the beach or in a meadow or a field you have a view as if through a window. The perpendicular and horizontal lines of the frame, together with the diagonals and the cross — or otherwise a grid of squares — provide a clear guide to some of the principal features, so that one can make a drawing with a firm hand, setting out the broad outlines and proportions. Assuming, that is, that one has a feeling for perspective and an understanding of why and how perspective appears to change the direction of lines and the size of masses and planes. Without that, the frame is little or no help, and makes your head spin when you look through it.

I expect you can imagine how delightful it is to train this view-finder on the sea, on the green fields — or in the winter on snow-covered land or in the autumn on the fantastic network of thin and thick trunks and branches, or on a stormy sky.

With CONSIDERABLE practice and with lengthy practice, it enables one to draw at lightning speed and, once the lines are fixed, to paint at lightning speed.

It’s in fact especially good for painting, because a brush must be used for sky, ground, sea. Or, rather, to render them through drawing alone, it’s necessary to know and feel how to work with the brush. I also firmly believe my drawing would be strongly influenced if I were to paint for a while. I tried it back in January but that came to a halt — the reason for stopping, apart from a few other things,was that I was still too hesitant when drawing. Now six months have passed, devoted entirely to drawing. So now I’m beginning anew with fresh heart. The frame really has become an excellent piece of equipment — it’s a pity you still haven’t seen it. It has cost me a pretty penny, too, but I had it made so solidly that I shan’t wear it out in a hurry.
Letter 254 To Theo van Gogh. The Hague, Saturday, 5 or Sunday, 6 August 1882

How do you tackle drawing perspective when working plein air?

Note: Royal Academy of Arts: The Real Van Gogh Exhibition - The Artist and his Letters exhibition

• Opens to the public: 23rd January 2010
• Closes: Sunday 18th April 2010
• Open 10am - 6pm daily; Fridays open until 10pm; Saturdays open until 9pm.
  
• All days last admission 30 minutes before closing time

Links:

• Making A Mark - Making A Mark - The Real Van Gogh at the Royal Academy
• The Art of the Landscape - Van Gogh's Palette 1882
• The Best Books about Drawing and Sketching
  

How to make landscape art

This post will provide an index of links to posts on this blog or elsewhere about the different practical aspects of how to translate landscape into art - in terms of drawings, paintings, prints or photography.

It will be updated with links to the relevant posts as they are posted and/or the index is revised.

CONCEPTUAL

• why paint landscapes
• concepts and landscapes
  
• "first impression, then expression" - the emotional response to a landscape subject

TECHNICAL -COMPOSITION

• the landscape format
• different approaches to composition
• placement of the horizon line
• zones - foreground /middle ground/ background
• simplifying the landscape
• massing and shapes in the landscape
• landscape and value patterns
• aerial perspective
• perspective in the landscape
• landscape and scale
• landscapes through the window
• staffage - the figure in the landscape

TECHNICAL - COLOUR

• landscape colour palettes
• how colours vary according to different locations and latitudes
  
• how colours vary according to different seasons
• the colour of atmospheric effects

HOW TO......

• how to draw/paint a tree
• how to draw/paint water
• how to draw/paint clouds
• how to draw/paint buildings
• how to draw/paint figures in the landscape
• how to paint the landscape in the sky
• how to develop a landscape series
  
• landscapes and mark-making
  
• landscape and line
• landscape and dots
• use photos to create landscape art (and what NOT to do)
  
• how to abstract a landscape

PLEIN AIR SPECIFIC

• plein air kits
• the best plein air easel is...
• choosing a location
• pros and cons of the familiar

MEDIA: OIL PAINTING

• painting landscapes using oils

MEDIA: ACRYLICS

• painting landscapes using acrylics

MEDIA: WATERCOLOUR

• painting landscapes using mixed media

MEDIA: PASTELS

• painting landscapes using pastels

MEDIA: COLOURED PENCILS

• drawing landscapes using coloured pencils

MEDIA: PEN AND INK

• drawing landscapes using pen and ink

MEDIA: MIXED MEDIA

• painting landscapes using mixed media

MEDIA: PRINT-MAKING

• creating prints of landscapes
  

MEDIA: PHOTOGRAPHY

• shooting the landscape

TIPS

• how to eliminate details

LESSONS LEARNED FROM LANDSCAPE TEACHERS

• John Carlsson
• Arthur Dow (notan)
  

HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE

Your input is welcomed in relation to:

• suggestions as to what else needs to be considered for inclusion in the list
• comments on the suggested topics

You can also identify a post on your blog which could usefully be referenced in the above index (although please note I'm aiming to keep the standard high in terms of the content that gets referenced)

This post will be updated and revised with links, as they are posted, to

• new threads in The Art in the Landscape ning community
• new posts on the Art of the Landscape
• new posts on the blogs of individuals

Please use this thread to make requests for an update and supply the URL for your linkand I'll review it.

Van Gogh's approach to drawing landscapes

This is a link to a post on my main blog about Van Gogh: Drawing Landscapes.

I wrote this as part of a month long project studying Van Gogh in 2007. It specifically deals with his drawings rather than paintings of landscapes

Wheat Field with Cypresses at the Haude Galline near Eygalieres

Vincent van Gogh - 1889
Drawing Height: 47 cm (18.5 in.), Width: 62 cm (24.41 in.)
Van Gogh Museum (Netherlands)

It summarises my conclusions from studying his drawings of landscapes in terms of:

• Proportion (landscapes)
• Townscapes and realism
• Gardens and parks
• Trees
• Japanese influence (Ukiyo-e) on Van Gogh
• the Montmajour series

The Park at Arles Vincent van Gogh - 1889
Drawing - chalk; Height: 49 cm (19.29 in.), Width: 61.5 cm (24.21 in.)
The Art Institute of Chicago (United States)

I also developed this list of links to the Van Gogh Letters which discussed aspects of landscape

• Van Gogh letters - 209 references to 'trees'
• Van Gogh letters - 177 references to 'landscape'
• Van Gogh letters - 156 references to 'garden'
• Van Gogh letters - 43 references to 'perspective'
• Van Gogh letters - 32 references to 'park'
• Van Gogh letters - 13 references to 'Japan'

[Update: I should have remembered to also provide a link to my information site - Vincent Van Gogh - Resources for Art Lovers.

Find out about Vincent Van Gogh, his drawings and paintings and where you can see and read about them. This site shares information about:

• the life of Vincent Van Gogh
• Van Gogh's letters and where you can see and read them
• the art of Vincent Van Gogh - his drawings, watercolours and oil paintings
• museums, art galleries and exhibitions where you can see Van Gogh's paintings in person or images of them online,
• books and articles about Van Gogh's life and artwork; and
• other resources for artists wanting to improve their knowledge about how Van Gogh worked

References to famous artists and their approach to landscape art

Do you have a past post on your blog which discusses landscape art in the context of a specific artist in art history?

If you do why not contact me by e-mail with a note of the URL and a suitable summary for inclusion in this blog.