Assignment 4 - large landscape VERSIONS 1 AND 2

Version 1 (not for Assessment)
Before I had finished the previous exercise (from doing a few sketches and studying the various photos of it) I had decided that I wanted to paint a view of the local field where the barn resides. This is mostly because I estimated that the view contains a range of elements waiting to be exploited, such as: aerial and linear perspective, a feeling of space, contrasting textures, an obvious focal point and fundamentally, a well arranged composition. Also, I adjusted certain features slightly. As there is quite a range of textures, I reckoned I could utilize a few different techniques I had tried out in previous exercises as mentioned above, particularly the rocks in Hard or soft landscape - a good candidate for using a knife/cards, Aerial Perspective – effects of and Painting outside – visible brushstrokes. I added some course texture paste to the list of materials for some clumps of long grass in the foreground.

Oil paint was the medium of choice for this, as I found it very amenable to building up textures for the rocks of Exercise 2: Hard or soft landscape and I like its thick buttery texture. Also I wanted try working in oils wet on wet again, after Aerial perspective, Painting outdoors and Squaring up. Although I did find it quite challenging (sometimes impossible) to avoid ending up with blended mud, this is something I want to master, if at all possible – easier not to use one complementary colour over another. Then again, another advantage of oils is having plenty of time to blend paint. Whether this subject would lend itself well to a large scale as this Assignment required I wasn’t sure of.
So, on the surface of an A1 piece of mountboard I went ahead with the above plans and applied a coat of mid tone pink for the ground and used acrylics for the underpainting. The paint certainly didn’t stretch very far on such a large area. I estimated I would be able to cover large areas more easily with oils, particularly on this type of subject, with so many elements and nuances. The basic colour palette was cobalt blue, napthol crimson, cadmium red, yellow ochre, chrome orange, naples yellow and titanium white. Although I wasn’t concerned about getting an exact reproduction of the existing shades, as I understand these can vary anyway depending on different factors ie they can look totally different from one moment to the next when the weather is changeable, altering the light from one moment to the next,  which it was. Yet it still took me some time to find what I thought was a convincing hue for the field stubble. In the end I settled on using several similar colours and values and by some freak accident it seems to have given it a little more interest than otherwise. As it was a showery changeable day the contrasts were quite strong much of the time. The finished painting seems to have captured a more settled moment however. The middle and background areas in places became quite blended, but I think they work on the whole, as they are not fighting with fussy areas like the foreground.

painting part finished in acrylics

There was a lot of contrasting detail in front of the barn, so I toned down the darks and blended the edges further, as I did with the field on the right of the barn. I was mindful of the need to also warm up the colours and increase contrast towards the foreground, but the rear mid ground trees on the right are quite dark, though I have made them much lighter than they looked in reality. I got a bit ‘bogged down’ in the field to the left of the barn and with the perspective of the stripy field patterns. Even now they don’t look as natural as those in the sketches. The barn contrasts strongly with the sky and the dark sharp edge of the bluish bush to the right contrasts with the orange of the field. Neither did I place the barn as far over to the left as in the sketches, so had more space to fill – and somehow I got confused with it. This wasn’t the only place. Other challenging aspects were: the puddles of water and mud on the track and the centre margin of the track and the rough grass to the right. I scraped all the paint off these two areas at one point. When I tried them again I used a more methodical approach and a delicate touch. It made all the difference, the next day when I wasn’t tired and running out of patience – a good lesson.

First attempt - finished

.
In this part of the course I didn’t find any of my attempts particularly groundbreaking as I was hoping for, but I can’t expect miracles.

There are certain techniques I used in previous paintings which seem to work well ie. knives and cards for the rocks in the Hard or soft landscape exercise, the scumbling on the windowsill in the first exercise: View through a window, the glow of the sunlight against the dark trees in Mood and Atmosphere, the intentionally ambiguous perspective in Squaring up, a colour study from Aerial perspective – the clouds and foreground texture.
Artists who have influenced my approach in this part (4) are fairly numerous, but amongst the most notable ones are: Emil Nolde, Van Gogh, Gustav Klimt and more  contemporary artists are: Mary Canty, Richard Clare, Stan Smith, Richard Pikesley http://www.russell-gallery.com/richardpikesley2009/images/27%20-%20Summer%20Evening,%20West%20Bay%20-%204x13.jpghttp://www.russell-gallery.com/richardpikesley2009/images/27%20-%20Summer%20Evening,%20West%20Bay%20-%204x13.jpgPikesley http://www.pinterest.com/pin/117375134008414817/
and Al Gury. http://www.algury.com/?cat=1 
A common characteristic of most the landscapes by these artists would be their expressiveness - loosely painted and textural marks. Some of them would use knives, cards, fingers and other implements for certain passages. Their palettes vary from vivid to muted. I like both, it depends on a range of factors such as subject and technique used.

In the future I would like to try out more painting using alternative materials, collage, abstracts and painting with materials like those mentioned already.  I would particularly like to try knives and cards for woodland paintings. Al Gury’s woodland paintings partly inspired this idea. Also to try the technique of scraping back with oils to produce misty effects, similar to those in Tonalism. Two particular artists whose techniques I would like to try and emulate are Mary Canty in her ability, with the help of her brushwork, to convey an essence of a place rather than be very descriptive:  http://hammondgallery.com//artist-information/mary-canty
and Emil Nolde – using vivid colours to try some landscapes similar to those I did in the Aerial perspective exercise.

Finally, I think I have learned a lot from this experience and particularly from the response of my tutor.

In short, I should now realize that much work on a painting doesn't necessarily bring appropriate reward, sometimes less is more....this is connected to the painting in its early stages (photo 1 above) - lesson learned? I certainly hope so!

Version 2 - for Assessment
This second attempt was another version of the same scene. Ironically, in this attempt at Assignment 4 (below),  I think I was unconsciously influenced much more by some of the artists I mentioned above than in the first attempt. Anselm Keifer's paintings of landscapes such as Nigredo, 1984 
http://www.arthistory.cc/auth/kiefer/nigredo.jpg
had quite a big part to play. Of course he is well known for his extensive use of fillers - in his paintings I must stress. His preferred choice of materials would often include lead, clay, straw and wires to name but a few...I made use of rough texture producing materials - sand, sawdust, cement dust mixed with pva glue and heavy gel medium. Tools used to apply them were mostly plastic cards and painting knives as well as bristle brushes for some of the later stages, mainly for glazes in parts of the track and the odd smaller detail here and there.

sketch 1 & 2

sketch 3

This time I used a portrait format intending to make the track appear longer and more dominant. The background was again red to contrast with the sky and fields so as to set up some chromatic tension.

For the early stages of the sky I applied the very light blues around the horizon line just above the mountains which I had already applied beforehand.

I took care to model the barn with defined texture and the sky and field surfaces so as to create volume and depth; plastic cards worked very well for this. To vary the textures I used different thicknesses and combinations of textural materials with the glue. Had to be mindful of not completely covering the red background while finding a balance between blandness, fussiness and monotony. Sometimes I covered too much of the red ground, so I scraped away a little textured paint to bring back its visibility.The colour and tonal combinations of the foreground of the track proved most challenging in this regard. I went over and over with thick opaque mixes and thin glazes in places - a delicate balance. I used a bristle brush, floating lightly over the ridges of thick textures with a little paint on the side of a flat bristle brush; it had more flexibility than a knife or card and helped to break up large areas of uniform colour.

The barn was relatively larger than the barn in the first painting, giving the illusion of it being closer, with more impact. At the same time, this illusion seems to be countered by the long narrowing perspective of the farm track leading towards it.
I later went back to the sky, adding more textural variety with different fillers, including heavy gel medium mixed with paint, which still has plenty of body but is smoother and easier to manipulate than the more gritty fillers. The paint this time was dulled down to blue greys with more raw umber. Burnt sienna was used again very sparingly on the mountains.
I am still a little concerned about the colours in the sky, I think they might still be a bit too blue, although this time it was a warm sunny late spring day rather than mid winter - as in the first version. I dulled down what I could see with ultramarine and phthalo blue with burnt umber,  but it does still seem to look a bit bright. Cadmium yellow was mixed with the blues, raw and burnt umbers to make varied greens. The barn is a mixture of burnt sienna and cadmium red. This time I think the barn has worked much better; it looks more ramshackle than the first and although rather large, I think it sits more comfortably in its environment. The look of movement set up in the clouds and the  ridges of parallel lines in the field help to add dynamism and depth.

Second version - for Assessment Ironically, in my second attempt at Assignment 4,  I think I was unconsciously influenced  more than in the first, by some of the artists I mentioned above

Exercise 9 Working from a photograph

Version 1 - not for assessment.
For an increasingly irritating amount of time I was looking for a photo to use. Nothing I saw seemed ‘quite right’ – trees in the mid ground or hills/mountains in the background. Ironically after all the searching round I settled on a view of a field just next to my house. It appeared to contain all the right elements. The photo is a few years old from a time when there were fence posts receding to the mid ground. These have now disappeared and the track is now more well used and worn. The field is all crop stubble, whereas it was pastureland before. Now I have plenty photos of both of views, taken from various angles.
 Not long after, I found another photo I wanted to try, from a newspaper.  Its allure was the dark silhouetted trees and buildings, but most of all the mist.





This looks like a field containing a crop of some kind, so I mixed dried crushed leaves with pva and applied these to the foreground area for texture and thinner mixture in middleground field and the line of trees. If there are any leaves on the trees, the leaves echo probably these. I took a little used stay wet palette paper with dried on paint and stuck these down for some texture in the trees.
I tried to break away from the original photo by cropping it with a viewfinder and masking off the area I decided to use.

version 1

Just by using sketches, I couldn’t seem to obtain satisfactory results with from the misty look. I suggested faint directional tracks like those on the first sketch, these weren’t in the photo but they looked out of place. So, I felt compelled to keep referring back to the photo to try and work out where I was going wrong, adding glaze after glaze, over the opaque paint base, scumble after scumble, rubbing some back with a rag just before dry, but none appeared to solve things. Funnily enough, after the point I think may be beyond repair I discovered Tonalism, but all the examples I found were done using oil paints. I may make a further attempt at improving it after some thinking time has passed.

I regretted slightly that I didn't choose an oil painting medium as a base and oil paints over the top, as I think the medium with the oil paint would be more conducive to creating a misty atmospheric effect. This is something I will have to try out on another occasion.


Version 2 -assessment

Two colour sketches

The reference photo for this as taken at a warmer time of year on a sunny day. It is a view of silage bales in a nearby field. This was the first painting I did totally using knives. I kept to a strictly limited palette and quite small surface dimensions because of the large amount of paint needed for each colour. This can also create with adequate room for mixing on the palette itself. I usually find I need at least two large tear of palettes. I also wanted to focus on practicing knife techniques here rather than worry too much about the colour palette. I found this to be one of the more enjoyable paintings. One major fault is the aerial perspective I think is lost a little due to the darkness of the distant mountains against the deep yellow next to it across the middle distance. However, I think the linear marks of the field patterns help to balance this out to some degree, lending perspective and give a look of recession into the far distance.
Changes:
As the sky was very blue all the way to the horizon, I took the advice of my tutor again and practised with some quick studies of skies as loosely as I could allow myself. Colours used cobalt blue, then prussian blue, both mixed with  a little burnt umber, gradually adding more whit approaching the horizon and a little yellow ochre - this was added to reflect the ochres of the earth tone in the field stubble. The mountains were very dark so I lightened them a little with some sky tones and to give them light reflection from the sky. This, and the gradation in the sky gave the background further depth and recession. The touch of yellow ochre has a warming effect without advancing unduly. The white, yellow ochre and prussian blue produced  attractive muted hues, compared to ultramarine used alone for instance, which is very intense.

finished version before alterations to the sky

After alterations to sky - there 
is quite a lot of light reflection off this photograph;
I don't think the sky is so bright in actuality.

The photo was dulled
down slightly

Exercise 8 Squaring up

Squaring up
I wanted to use a photograph containing linear perspective to find out if using a grid would make it easier to obtain accuracy. I tried this out with a black and white photo of an art installation, part of which I had cropped from an art journal. I also replaced one or two elements with others taken from another part of the complete photo.

By dividing the height into 10 and the width into 8 equal sized squares and numbering them, it helped me enormously to follow and decide what goes where. It was especially useful to obtain accuracy in linear perspective, though I didn’t get too worried about placing everything in exactly the same place as in the photo.

Exercise 7 Painting from a working drawing

linear sketch 1

Painting from a working drawing
I began by studying several views in my house using a viewfinder to frame them from various angles and to zoom in and out. After tweaking a few elements within my view, of all of them this one appeared to offer the most possibilities. Unfortunately I temporarily lost my instructions for the exercise and the colour studies I made were probably rather more detailed than they should have been, though I think I did describe the objects with minimum detail I thought was necessary. The main concern was getting the colour palette to my liking. The colour study with the plainest palette seemed the most suitable, especially as there was already a lot going on in the lighting of the composition. It was basically a complementary scheme. For the palette I made three different darks – all ultramarine mixed with orange in various quantities. In certain places two, or all three of them were combined until I obtained a tone that looked comfortable in its location. As I progressed through the prep sketches I also moved objects around, adjusted their size and removed them altogether, as with the dado rail.


 Soon after I started the painting I began to realize that despite having thought that some colour sketches were too detailed, ironically they helped me to simplify things. I had quite adequate information from them and didn’t feel any need to also refer to a photograph. In fact if I had used a photograph I think I would have been tempted to put more detail into every element.
After experimenting with the lighting in various ways on the subject I eventually found the most pleasing light and dark balance by  directing it from a lamp on the bottom left – the only source not visible unlike the top left – wall light and the middle right  - reflection of daylight in a wall mirror.

I think the lighting in this composition makes it perhaps fairly unusual. Because the view is on a flat wall surface it could have lacked depth (I did try other viewpoints beforehand but none of them worked) but the view in the mirror helps to alleviate this. For the painting surface I used oil sketching paper, as I had for a colour study, as the acrylic paint goes on with comparative ease. The addition of a drying retarder made blending easy.

colour study 

colour study

 I played down certain detail in the picture to draw more attention to the view of the bare winter tree through window reflected in the mirror. I also like the repeating curves and shapes in this. The shadow above the picture points roughly towards the reflection, but is maybe a bit too pointed.

finished result - 
version 1

Redone - version 2

The first version(1) didn't go down too well with my tutor - I have to agree, it is frustrating that I couldn't see the faults myself, they look so obvious now. Although on plus side there were positive comments about the loose brush marks on the colour study/ies.

In view of the above, I attempted a complete new version (above). The composition was the same but larger. This time, as suggested by the tutor I made an effort to explore the brush marks and leave them visible as opposed to what I did in the first attempt. I allowed a mania for blending/smoothing them away to take over removing any previous potential for personality and basically becomes and exercise in neatness and tidiness. Although the gradations are smooth in the first version it has no liveliness. I have to admit it was a real effort to leave many of the visible brush marks alone. 
Though it appeared to work well in the preliminary stages, I found what complicated matters now was the shadow area above the chair at the bottom left contrasting extremely with the very  light/bright area above. After leaving it alone for a few days I blended it in with the light area above in pale white/yellow, scrubbing on some lighter tones to reduce the hardness and contrast. In this respect it worked but seemed to make other contrasting lights and darks in the picture more exaggerated, so I carefully toned many of the darkest darks down with a little medium to light tones. Hopefully this looks reasonably balanced now, and perhaps even a little painterly.

Exercise 6 Painting a landscape outside

Painting a landscape outside

On thinking about where to go and what kind of view to use for this painting:
I wanted a location which would be sheltered. As it would most likely be during November when I did the outdoor painting, I took into consideration whether it would sheltered from wind and rain and if isolated and quiet, or busy and noisy. As it happened, I was fortunate enough to spot a location while out walking one day September/October. There were good open views on the side of a haill . it was elevated above a valley, yet sheltered, as surrounded by trees on three sides. It was a quitet spot and there were two long benches end to end. I wasn’t likely to be disturbed by passers-by, especially if I chose a week day.

sketch 1

As far as equipment went I didn’t possess any kind of easel for outdoor painting, so I did a little research on them in books and online. Initially I considered a sketching easel but I found the relatively high price and weight rather off putting. I was more concerned about having something much more maneuverable as well as having a box for storing materials. Fortunately I found the item to meet my preferred criteria when I spotted pochade boxes in a book ‘Oils Workshop’ by Richard Pikesley. In many respects these are designed to be balanced on the knees as they are not self supporting.  However, when doing a comparison between the two it was an easy decision to opt for the latter. Since I would need to walk up quite a steep incline for about 15 to 20 minutes there was no competition really.  Pochade boxes also have the advantage of containing slots in the lid where several painting boards can be stored behind one another with a gap between them.
During my outing to do the painting I found it was fairly easy to transport all the equipment I needed with the assistance of a small rucksack. Just before setting off I discovered that a container of turps had leaked all over the bottom of the bag so it was transferred to another container in kitchen paper and a thick plastic bag.
Firstly I took a few photographs to help me frame the views in one way, then used my viewfinder to help me find views from which I made three sketches from varying angles.
I also used them to zoom the views in and out a little. It was a fresh windy day, but fairly overcast and the sun was shining intermittently from my left. Initially I tried a low horizon line, but raised it after realizing that the sky on that day was relatively uninteresting compared to the ground: hills down to the valley and upwards again to the stone and earth banking just a couple of metres in front to me. So, after the third sketch I decided to raise the horizon line.

sketch 3

outdoor painting

The view that I chose to do was similar to the third sketch, as it seemed to have a good range of interesting features, while not too fussy. After outlining roughly the largest shapes in thin paint I used undiluted paint to lay in the large masses.  There wasn't much contrast of light and shade due to the weather being quite overcast. It wasn't too difficult to make some out on the foreground wooden posts, banking and trees, but I had to half close my eyes, looking hard to pick out the value changes in other areas. I rearranged and altered some of the existing elements to suit my desired composition. I didn’t want to take more than an hour painting, partly because there was the danger of it looking too laboured if I continued beyond a certain stage. It wasn’t such a difficult decision to make as I started to feel the cold and knew before long my hands would be numb, even though I was wearing thin woolly gloves. In total I was there for 1.5 hours, including making the three sketches and a painting. When I got home and looked over the photos I had taken while there, I was surprised to see how much the light had changed during the time as I didn’t notice much then. I felt that the painting looked unfinished, like a quick study. In fact that’s what it was, but it had taken slightly longer – about 30 to 40 minutes.

second version painted indoors

I went ahead with a second version as I had a hankering to try to see how much progress I could make with a longer version based on the first. The second version took a bit longer to do – about two hours. Even then I had omitted a lot of detail and moved some elements around and left out the wooden posts in the foreground. It turned out that I went back to it a couple of days later to finish the detail in the stones because I had been getting the wet on wet paint turning into a muddy mess. I also added further shadows to the lower clouds, and later realized they became too heavy looking.  I should have left them as they were beforehand..

Exercise 5 Creating Mood and Atmosphere

On  looking through a book ‘Alla Prima’ by Al Gury I felt quite inspired by his paintings portraying woodlands. To me they evoke differing moods and plenty of atmosphere – intriguing and mysterious. Consequently I couldn’t resist having a try at my own version. Gustav Klimt’s woodland paintings also probably had a part to play.
The next hurdle was to find my own subject material. I had a browse through some woodland photos taken during a walk a couple of miles away from where I live. Eventually found something which appeared to fit the bill.  After a couple of rough sketches from different photos I did a monochrome study. I thought it was a good idea as the source photos looked almost devoid of colour and very dark in the foreground. I reckoned it would be easier to pick out the values for my painting from this, rather than from the photos. I mixed 6 values, initially 8 but found it was too complex, so I cut the number down a little more. Firstly I painted in the darks for the tree trunks and some main branches. These were simplified and reduced somewhat from the photo.

 For the second (colour) study I experimented with oils to get and idea if I would find them suitable for my chosen approach this subject.  Early on in the process I had put on the paint for the middle background. This was a midtone, covering a large area. It was more diffucult to obtain the same amount of brightness from the palest tones as in the upper half, though I kept adding thick paint with a light touch of the brush. Eventually it appeared to work. After finding acrylic worked well on the monochrome study and struggling to avoid dullness, even mud with the oils, I decided on acrylic for the next painting of woodlands.

For this I got the ‘not’ so bright idea of sketching in the forms with inktense blocks first, then covering the ground with yellow ochre acrylic. In the meantime I had forgotten that inktense is not waterproof when wetted, so when a river of mud began to appear I had to try and seal them using dark acrylic, losing time unnecessarily. Fortunately it was relatively plain sailing after this near catastrophe. There was only one further small hiccup along the way: after a fairly short while into the process it became increasingly clear to me that my brushwork looked mechanical in comparison to the previous studies. I remembered that I’d rotated my wrist much more in those studies, so once I did this it soon began to take on a more varied and interesting appearance. I used transparent and opaque paint consistencies in layers, scumbling some areas to blend edges and leaving hard edges in others. I intended all the tree branches to be opaque but as some of them became transparent I decided I quite liked them, so left them alone. I was aiming for an impression of something elusive and curious and hopefully have at least gone a good part of the way to achieving this.

final painting

Part 4 Research Point 2: EXPRESSIVE LANDSCAPE

Expressive Landscape

1.After WW2 the Surrealist Max Ernst moved to Arizona where he began to paint strange landscapes. In 'Europe after the Rain 2', 1941 he used a collage technique which he had invented, called decalcomania. This produces a multilayered effect by pressing gouache  onto a surface with paper. After his bad experiences in Europe during the war he produced this painting very reminiscent of the war. It portrays a twisted landscape in which there appears to be inhabited by ruins, broken figures and wreckage. If this is what the painting is about, it is a powerful denouncement of the ravages of war.
http://uploads7.wikipaintings.org/images/max-ernst/europe-after-the-rain-ii(1).jpg

Giorgio de Chirico I will have to assume this is the original as there are many copies out there apparently:
http://lucaantara.blogspot.ie/2005/11/enigma-of-autumn-afternoon.html
Founded the style of Metaphysical painting in the early 1900s. Had a profound influence on the Surrealists. His early paintings juxtaposed the familiar with the strange or fantastical. This was partly due to influences of Arnold Bocklin and Max Klinger. His paintings became more realistic in style from the 1920s onwards.
The early paintings such as 'Enigma of an Autumn Afternoon' 1910 are strange simplified scenes of old towns, with large empty spaces occasionally inhabited by one or two isolated figures, pieces of old classical sculpture, buildings with exaggerated perspective and foreshortening. Usually the colours are sombre greens, greys and ochres. There is either a distant view, sometimes containing a train in the distance going across a landscape. Sometimes there is a high wall, behind which might be the top of a figure or other object and long shadows as in 'The Long Shadows of an Afternoon'. The skies are  dark, dramatic and threatening.

Salvador Dali  a Surrealist noted as one of the most versatile artists of the 20th century who was successful in many areas from sculpture to fashion design. He was fascinated by classical and Renaissance art, evident in his style of hyper realism. He built up very detailed images with thin layers of paint using thin brushes. The themes he used were symbolic of eroticism, death and decay, influenced by Freuds's theories on psychoanalysis.

  

2.Paul Nash 'Pillar and Moon'. Nash had an interest in Surrealism. He often placed apparently unrelated objects together in unusual situations, although this isn't as mark in this painting. http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/nash-pillar-and-moon-n05392
Nash was interested in Surrealism and was very affected by his experiences of World War as a soldier and artist. His landscapes were largely symbolic and he often placed apparently unrelated objects together in unusual situations. In 'Pillar and Moon' this isn't as apparent as in others. Dominating the scene is a tall stone crumbling pale toned old pillar with a sphere on the top which is situated almost centrally and reaches almost to the top of the painting. To the right, on the same level is a white yellow ringed full moon in a mid blue sky. This seems to set up a sort of mysterious connection between the two. At the base of the pillar is a stone wall going across from one side to the other. Behind the pillar are lines of tall bare trees receding into the distance, again going across the whole composition. The moon casts a yellow eerie glow onto the large empty space on both sides of the trees. The colours are muted blues, greys, reds and ochres. There is a diagonal downward slope on the far right of the wall, echoing the shadows cast by the trees on the banking filling the large empty space behind it. This combination sets up a desolate looking lonely kind of scene.

John Piper
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/piper-glaciated-rocks-nant-ffrancon-t06446


Graham Sutherland who, as well as Nash, was also affected by his experiences of World War I. Many of his landscapes contain contorted forms and appear to portray nature's constant struggle.
'Entrance to a Lane' 1939 is semi-abstract in appearance. A certain feeling of tension existing between the elements. It shows a small arched entrance or doorway in the centre with bright toned small amorphous shapes above and to its right suggesting a light source. This is enveloped in tightly knit overhanging shapes in muted colours and tones. The overhanging dark branches and leaves are the only indication that they are trees forming and arched entrance as the forms are more like smooth bending walls. The directional lines and shapes of the 'walls' wrap themselves around the scene like a protective blanket emerge outwards with a strong linear perspective, towards the viewer. On the left, underneath a mysterious object hanging from a branch, and inside a long dark menacing looking shadow, there is a strange reflection from the yellow area in the entrance.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/sutherland-entrance-to-a-lane-n06190

3.Gustav Klimt's symbolist landscapes have a characteristically square format and standard size. Many of his woodland paintings appear quite flattened, highly stylized and full of intricate patterning, rather similar to his portraits. 'Fir Forest II' is one such scene - quite dark and claustrophobic, containing  a multitude of tall narrow trees, with only small glimmers of light towards the top. The colours are uniformly muted greens and browns and the tree trunks appear to merge into one another. Although it is very detailed  and I think, is a good example of his pointillist technique:
http://www.klimt.com/en/gallery/landscapes/klimt-tannenwald2-1901.ihtml
'Roses Under the Trees' 1905 is another example of pointillism. This time the colours are more cheerful, though still a flattened composition devoid of light and shadow:

http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/gustav-klimt/roses-under-the-trees


Emil Nolde was for a short time, a member of the Die Brucke group of German Expressionists. When I googled Nolde's landscapes I was taken aback by a veritable feast for the eyes at the stunning vibrancy of colours on display.
During the 1910s Nolde painted powerful almost abstract seascapes in oils,. In 'The Sea III' 1913 depicts an unsettled deep blue sea with dramatically defined surf capped waves rising up in sharp peaks to a high horizon. Moving forwards the waves, topped by chunky white ridges of surf containing hints of green and yellow from the sky, decidedly increase in size, as do the dark and deeply undulating spaces underneath and between. The effect is increased by the use of thickly applied paint. The sky is a relatively small area, but still has great impact as it has been painted in a vivid green over dark blue and contrasts with the dark blue of the sea. To me, these elements combined promote such a strong impression of movement, that if I looked at this image for long enough I could imagine getting sea sickness.
http://www.thearttribune.com/spip.php?page=docbig&id_document=1341
Here is a vivid landscape depicting an isolated vivid and dramatic landscape. I think it has a great sense of space resulting from the large flat area of green, while also claustrophobic from the dark low looming sky:
http://www.thearttribune.com/spip.php?page=docbig&id_document=1337

J

Exercise 4 Aerial Perspective

This is taken from Wikipedia, which I think sums up the meaning in detail but very clearly: Aerial perspective or atmospheric perspective refers to the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of an object as it is viewed from a distance. As the distance between an object and a viewer increases, the contrast between the object and its background decreases, and the contrast of any markings or details within the object also decreases. The colours of the object also become less saturated and shift towards the background color, which is usually blue, but under some conditions may be some other color (for example, at sunrise or sunset distant colors may shift towards red).
In addition the colours become gradually  cooler.
.
Before putting together the final painting, I tried out some techniques of aerial perspective in two simple acrylic colour studies of nearby moorland. I found in these it was necessary to try and use all three principles - moving into the distance what we should be able to see is: controlled loss of focus, reduction of contrasts and cooler colours.

no 1 - acrylic

I used the same sequence in all three paintings – beginning with the sky, reducing the size of the clouds towards the horizon line. Next I used a slightly darker mixture on the distant mountains and blended the edges into the sky. I continued in this fashion, gradually adding warmer tones ie. from pale cool blue in the far distance to warm purple-reds or dark yellowy greens in the foreground, thicker more textured paint and stronger contrasts.
Colourwise, I used cool blues in one painting and purples in the two colour studies, adding more white to reduce contrasts towards the horizon. In the colour studies I also added more white paint towards the horizon. The ground is cool blue shade so I didn’t need to add any of this.

no 2 - acrylic

I one of them (no 2) I like the small dark blotches of nearer clouds. They really seem to add  a sense of receding space and movement to the sky. This was an idea inspired by the artist Richard Pikesley who is very fond of doing the same thing with the clouds in his paintings, giving them what I would call a distinctive quirky look.
In the final one (no3) I laid a ground of artist's painting medium (linseed oil and petroleum distillate) on the surface beforehand. I found this idea in a book called All About Techniques in Oils by Parramon publishers, various artists. According to the project instructions, painting over a base of oil helps to create hazy atmospheric effects. Certainly the paint went on smoothly and it was very easy to blend, but not too much so. The only drawback was the extra drying time and the resulting very shiny surface - this could always be alleviated by a matt varnish when the painting is fully dry. The brushes were a combination of flats and a new filbert brush size 6 which I found to be very versatile and best for depicting tree tops and texture in the foreground.  I also moved the still wet paint around in places with paint pushers and fingers. When the acrylic colour studies were partly dry I rubbed off some paint to expose the ground of streaky cyan and ultramarine on gessoed paper.
However of all three paintings I would say my preference is for no.2. I prefer the palette and I think the overall paint application is more interesting.

painting (no3) - oil

Project Perspective Exercise 3 Linear Perspective

This is a definition of linear perspective taken from the Collins English Dictionary:
n
1. (Art Terms) the branch of perspective in which the apparent size and shape of objects and their position with respect to foreground and background are established by actual or suggested lines converging on the horizon
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

I made use of a nice morning and went to a nearby village to make sketches and take a few photos. When I arrived there despite looking around for quite a while I had a little difficulty in settling on a view which was to my liking. I wanted to find something with curving lines of buildings for added interest and with a low horizon line to give a sense of space and distance, but it seemed impossible to come by. Finally I chose a spot with a good view of some interesting looking old ramshackle buildings in an alleyway off a crossroads on the main street. Somewhere that I could sit down to sketch relatively undisturbed, or so I thought.. Anyhow, the first sketch  focused only on the old buildings. I decided this looked rather closed in and although the building were receding into the distance there wasn't  much depth. When I zoomed out with my viewfinder a bit more so that the view of the street on my side of the crossroads was visible there was a big improvement in this respect. It also brought into view what I thought was an interesting juxtaposition of angles and shapes. There was  a curve on the edge of the pavement and some beer barrels outside a pub on the corner where there was a tall street lamp outside. Also, being a bright clear morning, there were good contrasts of light and shade, evident in the long shadows. Both the sketch displayed on here and the more finished composition were completed using watercolour pencils and crayons.

 As there is a lot going on below the horizon line I didn’t intend to do much with the sky. As it happened it was blue and cloudless at the time. However I did put some scribbly lines in which possibly detract from it. The foreground shadow is very dominant as it is large and dark and runs from one side to the other. I’m not sure if this is acting as a barrier to the elements behind it. Also the beer barrels – they don’t seem to look as spontaneous and convincing as I would like. Otherwise I do like the way the medium has reacted with the surface watercolour paper giving a broken almost shimmering effect.  I think I have the perspective and proportions reasonable accurate and the composition seems to work.

The second sketch in wax crayon of a street in Kinsale.  Thinking about the techniques Giacometti used in his paintings and drawings I decided to add directional perspective lines from the buildings, continuing out to the edges of the paper, in as many places as possible. It was an interesting exercise. I would also like to try out a painting using a similar technique to one Raoul Dufy would often use - to quote a sentence from the exercise guidelines: using painting diluted to washes to create a sense of indeterminate space that is structured just by line. 

Exercise 2 Hard or Soft Landscape

I took this opportunity to do a painting of rock formations by the sea, as it is something I've wanted to try for a long time. For me, materials like plastic cards and palette knives, along with oil paints would have to be instrumental in putting it all together. Although I didn't get this idea until doing a couple of studies in acrylic and realised these materials would be far more suitable for what I had in mind. So I went ahead, after writing out a rough plan and doing a few tests with the intended medium and materials.

To obtain a sense of layers I tried to use strongly contrasting shapes and tonal areas - the sky, water and sand are flat and horizontal and quite smooth, applied with a brush. Whereas plastic cards and knives were used for the hard upright solid forms of many rocks, particularly the largest and most prominent at left centre. I exaggerated the height of the large central rock to add impact and the diagonal angle to increase the sense of perspective. I angled the upper half inwards to make it sharper and more angular. The lower more rounded rocks look soft in comparison. The overlapping shapes of the rocks move across the mid ground from one side to the other. Water and sand in the foreground and the sand in the mid ground form a receding figure of eight which curves and snakes its way backwards. I like the effects of where the cards and knives have been scraped through the still wet paint to reveal some of the dried layers and ground colour producing scratched out lines alternating with built up ridges of paint. Rags came in useful too, as they often do, for obliterating and altering certain passages.

The colours I chose, particularly for the rocks, have been exaggerated.  They are contrasting (blues and deep yellow-oranges) and quite unrealistic, which I thought would look more striking than what was actually there. The sand and water colours are closer to the real thing, unlike in the colour study in which the sand had a rather strong deep tone. I prefer the darks to look more unrealistic than the lights. It also helped with the process of this painting to do a certain amount of work on it, then return and finish it at least a week later, well after the first applications had dried.

finished

Research Point 1 Evolution of Landscape Painting

Evolution of landscape painting from the eighteenth century to the present day.
Historically landscape painting once ranked quite low on the list of important genres. Indeed painting/sculpture wasn't even considered as 'art' until about 1400.

In Europe it wasn't generally taken seriously in relation to most other genres until the 18th century when 'view' paintings became more fashionable, exemplified by the 'Grand Tour' in Italy, reflecting the climate of prosperity. However, it was an 'ordered' form of landscape compared to what was to follow later. Gainsborough and others would make preparatory sketches on the spot before completing their paintings in the studio. In the late 18th century Jean Baptist-Camille Corot was one artist who benefited from this new found popularity, also partly brought about by the popularity of a book in France by Pierre-Henri de Vallenciennes - 'Elements de perspective practique' which stressed the importance of the study of real nature.

Landscape painting in the 19th century  experienced unprecedented changes and enjoyed a major rise in popularity. This was  brought about by economic and social changes connected with events such as the Industrial Revolution in Britain and the Revolution in France. Idealized classical scenes became less and less important .

Watercolour as a medium became more prominent along with a trend towards feeling in landscape rather than exact representation. John Robert Cozens sought to emphasize the amazing vastness and atmospheric effects of the landscape. Both Alexander Cozens and his son John Robert were leading proponents in this regard. . Alexander Cozens was famous for developing the 'ink blot' technique based on a product of accident as opposed to design and which was quite cutting-edge for the time. Excellent examples and more information shown here:http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/blogs/watercolour-alexander-cozens-aka-blot-man

Other artists who dominated watercolour landscape painting at the time were:  John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, John Sell Cotman and Thomas Girtin. Cotman's work was exacting, yet the way he painted shapes and forms was bordering on the abstract.
Turner had a fascination with the elements and his watercolours were also often quite abstract.
Norham Castle, Northumberland: Sunrise. As with many of Turner's paintings there is at least one watercolour version and a painting in oils. It is bathed in a warm golden glow and an atmospheric haze, there is an impression of vast space and minimal detail. In the foreground there are soft warm yet clear contrasts. The tones are warm yellows and subtle pinks and there is a grazing animal in warm orange yellow. Warm yellow tones to each side and in the reflections on the central area of still water  bring the area forward. Moving back, the middleground contains some cooler blues. The horizon is very blurred and colours merge even more. Golden reflection on the water from the sun is quite noticeable and contrasts with the blue of the castle, while it is also very subtle. The background is bluer still and so indistinct as to give only a slight suggestion of a high object (the castle?) and distant hills, giving the illusion of great distance.
http://evermore.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/artists/images/turner/turner_norham_castle_sunrise.html
Constable like to capture the weather at certain times of day, then used them as references for his watercolour paintings. There's a good range of his work, including many cloud studies, on this link:

http://www.pinterest.com/austenonly/john-constable/

By this time artists increasingly sketched out of doors and the immediacy and portability of this medium was ideal for the purpose of capturing fleeting moments. Their watercolours became more experimental, often painting with bold sweeping strokes on rough textured papers. Skies and atmosphere played a prominent part in most of these artist's compositions.

Some of the ways in which modern and contemporary artists have chosen to interpret this genre are through reflecting social, political and environmental concerns for example:

Sophie Iremonger  is one such artist who uses post apocalyptic vision of animals taking over urban landscapes:
http://www.artfetch.com/edition/168/order-in-chaos/

Of her work she is quoted as saying on  http://fagcity.blogspot.ie/2012_08_01_archive.html

"Glamour, the erotic and nostalgia: those are the building blocks of my practice," says painter Sophie Iremonger, who moved to Berlin after finishing art school in her native Dublin in 2008. "I'm not an old master painter," she asserts. "I'm a woman. And I'm here now." Well that's a revelation!

Bernard Pras
Pras uses found discarded objects in his work to recreated classic paintings such as Hokusai's famous woodcut 'The Great Wave'
and Van Gogh's 'Starry Night'.  His technique follows the historic system of anamorphosis. 

A clear description of the term can found on here: http://www.anamorphosis.com/what-is.html
To quote wikipedia: Anamorphosis is a distorted projection or perspective requiring the viewer to use special devices or occupy a specific - . vantage point to reconstitute the image. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphosis
When viewed from afar they appear like authentic paintings, but on closer inspection, instead of paint or paper collage, we see old drinks cans, barbie dolls, toilet rolls, coloured wires and old plastic bags to name but a few. He takes a photo of the finished work and uses these for display purposes. These huge striking constructions give new purpose to things meant for the landfill.
 http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/photos/14-artists-with-a-green-message/bernard-pras

Exercise 1 View from a window or doorway

It's easy to find many images online views looking out of windows. Many artists over the years must have been inspired by these views which, if it is a view seen everyday can easily be taken for granted. All of them seem to convey to me a sense of contemplation and solitude. There are adequate views from my own house to choose from but all seemed to have their drawbacks but find it hard to be enthused. I had t o start somewhere, so did a few small sketches and a colour sketch of slightly differing views from kitchen window, dining room - of conifers and finally, from the lounge. A charcoal sketch of this view worked out more to my liking, so went ahead with this. A colour study and a painting later, I feel generally pleased with how things have turned out.

charcoal sketch

A view onto garden from lounge. This has the edge over the other views I think. The elements seem to balance better and there is a line leading the eye into the distant dark shadows behind the white garden pillar. The perspective of the hedge promotes a sense of recession.
Acrylics - on a ground of ultramarine and red mix.
During process I sprayed the canvas surface frequently when needed more time to blend the paint, it worked well.
I discovered that by using a dry brush with the paint on the background trees was very effective with the darks. After applying basic mid tone using repeated layers of paint (not just glazes) the paint kept on sinking into the canvas, virtually drinking it up, despite having three layers of gesso - albeit homemade from emulsion paint and pva. Whereas on paper I've found that the sinking reaction doesn't occur as long as one or two coats are applied first.
The time of day was around late afternoon. The sky looks a bit turbulent with a strange light as though just before a storm - it wasn't but that's how it turned out. As it happened it was a false alarm. I think this appearance is due to the fuzzy edges, especially in the garden, sky and the reflection on the windowsill.

Paul Nash Pink Hyacinth http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/pink-hyacinth-30020
I admire the way he has depicted the vase of flowers on the windowsill, my attention is drawn to this, hence the reason for the title.  It looks to have been done with just a few quick casual lines, asymmetrical, off balance and quirky. Alternating thick black contours balance it up well. It is quite simple looking and has a
very limited palette of muted colours - warm oranges and pinks with just a touch of green.

As a fauvist painter Raoul Dufy's main interests were saturated colour and decorative design. This is certainly evident in his painting 'Interior with Open Windows', where both the interior and exterior seem to have equal prominence. These kind of scenes actually became his hallmark and he was criticized for his paintings lacking substance, yet they were also a reflection of his optimistic personality. They depicted a sunny side of life, inviting luxurious interiors often looking out onto luxurious resort/locations, such as the French Riviera.http://uploads7.wikipaintings.org/images/raoul-dufy/open-window-1928.jpg!Large.jpg

In contrast, Edward Hopper had a spare manner of painting. He depicted realistic scenes of urban life, containing isolated figures and highly contrasting light and shadow. There is almost always a certain sense of isolation about at least one of them even when two of the characters appear to be in conversation with one another, as in 'Nighthawks'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nighthawks_by_Edward_Hopper_1942.jpg
His viewpoints were often unusual and exude a sense of of mystery and loneliness. Some of the people in his paintings could easily have been on the margins of society in some way.

I noticed that 'Corner of the Artist's Room' by Gwen John, painted during her affair in Paris with Auguste Rodinis, is displayed in several colour schemes on various websites. This one particularly appeals to me, a quiet, almost monochromatic scheme. It seems to be shrouded in a veil of mist, giving a feeling of mysterious isolation, the same time it looks inviting and restful.
https://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/whatson/?event_id=3648

colour study

completed painting