RESEARCH POINT 1

The purpose of this research is, as I understand it, to look into methods  of paint application across a range of impressionists, post-impressionists, expressionists and 20th century pastel painters.
Impressionists
Monet was pre-occupied by capturing the fleeting effects of light and weather. Many painting give the impression flickering light. He was able to achieve this effect by using quick short brush strokes, slabs and dasher, small diagonal curving comma like marks and abrupt zig-zags. In La Gare St-Lazare there is a great sense of atmosphere and fleeting moment. Thick impasto and broken colour has been used. It is a restricted palette of muted complementary blues and oranges.
http://histoireontheway.blogspot.ie/2010_12_01_archive.html
Cezanne's style was as different as I think Pissaro and Monet's similar. It was typified by a distinctive look of solidity. Dense detailed modelling was used to build up a patchwork of smooth opaque shapes. His working method was slow and methodical. Even though he used thick paint, layering including wet-in-wet it is so light in place the canvas show through.
http://www.paul-cezanne.org/The-Card-Players-large.html
I see van Gogh's painting style as a kind of bridge between impressionism and expressionim.  He is famously known for his impastp brushwork often applied in swirling sinuous lines such as in the sky in Starry Night. At other times with short stabbing criss-cross and hatched strokes representing texture, and following contours. Early influence on him were the Dutch old masters and Dutch realist painters of that time. As a result of having spent some time with the impressionists he began painting outdoors. Many of the techniques acquired there weren't to last and he was soon experimenting with new technique using longer broader brushstrokes. When he moved to Arles he started to us brighter contrasting colours, reflecting the warm light of his surroundings. He was a great exponent on alla-prima, often working wet-in-wet. He began with un-diluted washes, also using a palette knife to draw attention to areas of more relief.
Wheatfield and Cypress Trees is a good example.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat_Field_with_Cypresses#mediaviewer/File:Vincent_Willem_van_Gogh_049.jpg The calmness of the background of long blue swirling line contrasts with the short choppy strokes of the warm foreground.

Early 20th century German and Austrian Expressionism. Amongst its main proponents Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Paula Modesohn-Becker. Many other artists have been described as Expressionists of one type or another since then.
This painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is typical of the genre using saturated complementary colours and impasto paint
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XFcfa1nJbtc/ToYw8FyMGRI/AAAAAAAASAI/9zCokS0haVY/s1600/Ernst+Ludwig+Kirchner+-+Tutt%2527Art%2540+%25282%2529.jpg
Paula Modersohn-Becker's technique was quite diverse, ranging between soft and diffuse to distinctly hard edged with bright unrealistic colours. I think this self portrait  is a particularly good example the latter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Paula_Modersohn-Becker_017.jpg

An impressive variety of her portraits are displayed on the following link:

http://bjws.blogspot.ie/2012/11/self-portraits-by-paula-modersohn.html
In  the self portrait - illustrated,  she has applied (as she so often did) distinct outlines, intense colours and slab like brush strokes - suggestive of Cezanne's style, who was an  influence on her own.

Self Portrait 1906, oil on paper

62.2 x 48.2 cm, 

Ludwig Roselius Museum, Bremen, Germany

A selection of 20th (and 21st) Century Pastel Painters:

Loosely applied spontaneous and inventive mark making - a beautiful cat painting in pastel pencil and colour wash by Elizabeth Blackadder:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/244531454742611200/
The medium used is not described on the next one, but again looks very much like pastel had a big part to play. A wonderful webpage for viewing a wide array of cat paintings: http://www.ruthburts.com/2013_05_01_archive.html

Jason Bowyer uses soft or chalk pastels, inventively rubbing into both wet and dry ink to achieve stunning results:
http://www.russell-gallery.com/The-New-English-Art-Club-Group-Exhibition/images/010%20Jason%20Bowyer%2028x20.jpg  The contrast in marks between the pastel on wet ink and pastel on dry ink is quite evident.
Some food for thought in this short film of Jason Bowyer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBlq1CLZZEc

Angela A'Court's still life paintings are minimalistic in nature. Line and form are emphasized and the compositions appear to be built up in many layers.
http://www.artistsinpastel.com/2012/12/angela-acourt.html
Taking a closer look it appears that more than one tone of each colour has been applied. It possible to view a selection of her work in great detail via this website:
https://artsy.net/artwork/angela-acourt-two-jugs-with-peony

Tony Allain describes himself as 'a brisk, no nonsense impressionist', aptly summing up my own response on looking at this example. In this landscape he appears to have employed the pastels on their sides, both horizontally and vertically giving a chunky hard edged look, and cleverly manages to make a complete statement with relatively few marks.
http://www.artistsinpastel.com/search/label/Tony%20Allain

Oversized cartoonish figures are the hallmark of Fernando Botero's work, containing an underlying serious political commentary. There appears to be a dense build up of layers giving a luminous quality to the surface, especially the woman's skin, in this painting:
http://museumsofohio.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/MoO_Woman.jpg
This blog describes the purpose of his work in some detail:
http://miryanb.blogspot.ie/2011/05/fernando-botero.html

Looking at Botero's figures called to mind Paula Rego's. There is no denying their powerful effect, again full of ambiguous narrative, they are altogether more disturbing to look at.
In a snapshot from a lengthy  interview on http://www.webofstories.com/play/paula.rego/42
she mentions beginning with hard pastels and finishing off with soft.
In Dog Woman 1994, pastel on canvas  a wide variety of mark making is evident. The skin looks to be made up of a mass of tonal blending and directional strokes, the shadows suggestive of knocks and bruises. Whereas the facial area has a broken crusty look.
http://culturoid.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/paula-rego-dog-woman.jpg

Odilon Redon's  pastels radiate a mysterious ephemeral atmosphere. He began to use this medium with oils later in his career, just before the turn of the 20th century. There is a velvety quality to the surface - perhaps aided by his use of wetted pastel, and wiping or brushing and applying fixative between layers. He also combined pastels with other media i.e. graphite for outlines, or black conte crayon.
http://www.wikiart.org/en/odilon-redon/lady-macbeth#supersized-artistPaintings-248047
Further artists of interest would be: Wolf Kahn and R.B. Kitaj.

1 Exercise 1 PART 5 IMPASTO and SGRAFITTO

a) Using a brush - a simple still life.  Oils, colours: burnt sienna, raw sienna, cadmium yellow, cadmium red, ultramarine, titanium white on oil sketching paper. I was a bit confused about the instructions regarding mixing of colours - not sure if the idea was to use unmixed tube colours only or not, but I suspect it was. I know this wasn't exactly what the exercise was about either, but in the end the temptation to mix colours on the palette got the better of me as I wasn't comfortable with the thought of them turning out looking totally unrealistic. For the first attempt I set up an apple, a pear and a banana. The first pear attempt was a disaster as I placed one colour over another so they merged together. They were certainly thick smears as requested in the manual, but they mixed together too early on. The second pear was a little easier and the banana, no problem. By the time I reached the fourth attempt at a piece of fruit: an apple there was a slight improvement in technique as I managed to keep the colours slightly more separate, though the shadow at the base went a little haywire. The paint seemed to have quite a lively appearance, despite colours merging here and there. Although I set up the composition carefully this care soon went into oblivion as I struggled to handle the paint.

b) Acrylics: avocado, mango and onion on canvas paper. The paint was unmixed tube colours this time. I did however mix in heavy body medium to thicken the colours. The process was going okay, apart from when I left it alone for half an hour after applying the darks, so they were virtually dry on my return. I added the mid and light tones and blended the edges a little in the darks. I added a few more darks over the darks so I could blend the edges with other colours. Of course I found it impossible to obtain to obtain accurate matching of the actual colours and tones on my arrangement. I felt more confident this time than I did  with the oils. It could have been due to the different medium - acrylics. I was more certain of where to put the appropriate colours and keep them confined to intended areas.
c) Oils. fruit: apple, pear, lime, banana. Cols: cad red, cad yell, mixed green, white. banana, cols: cad yell, yell ochre, white, touch ultramarine,  pear: raw sienna, cad yell, touch u/mne. and lime, cad yell, touch u/marine and touch viridian - this was ideal to lift the dullness of the green mix I had. on canvas paper. Burnt umber and u/mne for some darks. The colours were mixed this occasion rather using straight from tube.
The paint didn't sink into the surface as the acrylics did, but I was guilty of fiddling about for too long with the paint in attempt to obtain a convincing representation - what it was not for a good part of the process.
The brush sizes ranged between no.s 4 - 8 - a mix of flats, rounds and a filbert.
d) Acrylics. Banana, apple, lime and avocado. Used mostly tube colours, mixing occasionally for dark red and green shades. I couldn't help going over the lime and parts of the apple on the dried paint as the previous colours and tones didn't look at all convincing. Though I employed very rough brushwork and, as with the other three thick paint the acrylic did sink into the surface a bit, unlike oils. Acrylic is deceptive in the sense that also shrinks on drying.

2. Using a painting knife. Oils were used for all of these experiments. I basically just messed around with various styles of painting knife.
They are great for defined ridged or smooth contours and edges. Also fantastic for quicly obtaining texture with two or more colours wet on wet yet the colours don't blend as they would with a brush. Each colour seems to keep its own integrity.

Paint was pulled along  to make parallel lines with a flat straight blade. This produced thick straight linear marks. A rather three dimensional effect resulted.I twisted it from side to side in different ways - one of which produced interesing wiggly lines rather like a gnarled tree trunk and  branches.Another was hit and miss smooth and ighly textured surface in parallel lines reminiscent of aged posts or columns perhaps. When I pulled the paint and knife across these at 45 degrees.  When the paint was double loaded (two colours on the knife blade) they went on adjacent to one another. When I pulled and pushed the flat of the blade from side to side the colours intermixed gave off a beautiful effect.


In a simple woodland landscape I used a knife and scratching with end of a brush handle/crochet hook or fishing hook. Used various knives - including thin rectangular bladed one for the tree branches. Dark thick paint over light base of acrylic. Easily able to sculpt and scrape the paint producing very raised and textural surface. And for extended time due using oils. Acrylics would have needed retarder to do this and would shrink when dry. However the oil paint used in this took several weeks before it was even touch dry in the thickest parts. Having said that I think this method and medium would have improved a previous woodland painting I did in Part 4 I think would have been tactile and more expressive with both brush and/or knives. I used cards to apply the paint on some rocks in another landscape painting in Part4 (Ex2 hard/soft landscape), though I think the whole painting looking at it now, was completely overdone. Also some previous still life exercises in Part 2, but I got the impression the emphasis in the course manual was on using just brushes. The particular painting was of an onion and garlic, using oil paints . I did obtain some raised texture but I did use a knife to increase the raised effect. I tried scratching the paint in the garlic but wasn't enough contrast with the colour of the underlayer and the paint could have been thicker without fighting with the onion for attention. I had some trouble with both acrylic and oil on canvas. Though surface was well prepared the paint sunk in. Think could have enhanced some light areas with a painting knife. Knowing what I know now I would have used a surface like primed paper or card, not canvas, and a much darker underlayer. Again in this section, with another experiment on thick paper, I tried out a quick study of a vase useng fairly thick light toned oil paint on a smooth textured surface. I scratched away some of the paint around the contours and patterned areas to reveal the dark base layer. Using this method proved easy to obtain an effect I was happy with. I would certainly like to use oils again in this way.
The simple landscapes from imagination, I did at the start of this course, I think could have been made a bit more expressive if I had used other ways of applying paint apart from brushes, as indeed could many other exercises.
Partly because it  was on my mind, at the end of this exercise I did an experimental painting of imaginary still life - bottles and 'other' objects in acrylics. I used a card and rough loose brushmarks of white, pink, red and green paint on a dried green painted ground. Plus scratched into semi-dry paint on the left bottle and tonked wet red paint - using pressure to remove paint with a piece of paper. The process of chance and discovery was quite fun, some accidental effects emanated. The end result leaves a bit to the imagination,  which I was pleased about, leaving me with a keenness to try and approach more of my work in the same way - not so easy when I know something's going to be critiqued though.
Another part of my motive was that I had been looking at some of Cy Twombley, Willem de Kooning and Howard Hodgkin's work and was in admiration of the loose gestural brushmarks. I was also intrigued by the way de Kooning and Hodgkin used the effect of a frame or opening into a room or entrance or view on something. There was also some influence there, I think of Mel McCuddin (described as a figurative expressionist) in the way he paints his quirky figures from the imagination, akin to carving positive shapes out of negative space.
http://www.spokanehowsbusiness.com/news/archiveStory.asp?theArticle=1054


SGRAFFITO is a technique of ornamentation in which the surface layer of paint is scratched into to reveal areas (usually contrasting) of the surface underneath. Historically it has been used in several areas, such as in wall design and ceramics and glass manufacture for many centuries, where it has been used to scratch back an area of glazing or plaster.
Cy Twombley is a notable 20th century artist who made use of this technique in his multi layered paintings, using many different media and materials. 
http://www.theartsdesk.com/visual-arts/twombly-and-poussin-arcadian-painters-dulwich-picture-gallery

As a contemporary artist using scraffito, part of Robert Joyner's technique is often to scratch back into the paint as part of his loose and painterly style.http://napavalleyartcamp.blogspot.ie/2011/07/making-lines-with-robert-joyner.html

I scratched back through the wet oil paint
into the dried dark backgroundof acrylic in this quick study
of a vase.

Scraffito could be described as scratching into a layer of usually wet thick paint with a tool such as the end of a brush handle, a piece of card or even a fingernail to reveal a layer or layers of an underlying surface. The colour or tone of this surface usually contrasts with the paint being scraped off. It can be used for a whole range of effects, from complex pattern to a single thin line. This technique can even work with dry paint using very sharp tools and as long as the support is sufficiently resilient and thick to withstand the pressure. Wet impasto oil paint is a typical example of where it would be easy to use. Dried acrylic would take a bit more working out.

Notes on Part 5

Even at this late stage of my course I still feel a deep seated compulsion to try and hide brushwork.
Looking upon Part 5 as my opportunity to finally bring more spontaneity to my final paintings, using painting  a more expressive way than earlier. Throughout the course I felt there wasn't enough scope for this, but if I am totally honest with myself (often not easy) it was really more a case of myself holding myself back, so I haven't been brave or relaxed enough in my approach much of the time and the result is often restrained.
In doing so the result is to remove any previous potential for personality so it basically becomes an exercise in neatness and tidiness. When it is finished I then see something crucial is lacking - life..

Exhibition: Analyzing Cubism, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork

'After Cubism painting will never be the same' Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who first exhibited the cubist work of Braque and Picasso. How true this was in the case of the development of modern painting in Ireland, becoming the dominant influence. Most early writing on Cubism was done by the Salon Cubists. Braque and Picasso did not associate themselves with this movement. The advance of Cubism opened a whole world of freedom, liberating many artists from former constraints.
However, it was late (the 1920s) before it took off in Ireland. Its development there, while related to its centre in Paris, was from a limited contact and was often characterized by a provincial style with local narrative and was, in many cases more representational. Cubism became widely regarded as the style that defined Modernism. Academie d'Andre Lhote was run by artists who followed on from Braque and Picasso and was the influence of most Irish artists involved in Cubism. Yet it was regarded as the most progressive of Parisian academies. It was based on structural methods rather than subject matter. But most Irish artists used traditional subject matter and used Cubist formulas only in a limited way. There was a distinct influence also of other movements such as Impressionism, Futurism and Fauvism. Of all the Irish painters who studied there only Evie Hone and Mainie Jellett were most noted for their originality, absorbing Cubist principles more fully.
Mainie Jellett http://www.crawfordartgallery.ie/pages/paintings/MainieJellet2.html
Evie Hone:
http://www.askart.com/AskART/photos/WHY20071126_5026/68.jpg

Cubism could be understood as deconstructing and rebuilding elements in another way. This exhibition focused on Cubism as it applied to artists in Ireland such as Evie Hone, Mainie Jellett, Mary Swanzy, Paul Egestorff and Elizabeth Rivers, Jack Hanlon, Norah McGuinness and May Guinness. I found it intriguing that works of their European tutors Albert Gleizes and Andre Lhote were also included, and shown alongside that of their pupils, demonstrating how they were influenced. The paintings on display ranged from quite representational to completely abstract in varying degrees. And this was further illustrated with examples of preliminary sketches or workbooks.
There was a list of important dates on display helping to put the featured artists and paintings within the broader context of the local and wider world. One criticism I had  was a virtual absence of work by Braque or Picasso, to help make comparisons, and what little was shown were minor works.
Also, it would have been nice to have more comprehensive information available without having to buy the catalogue.

To me the painting by Jack Hanlon, Still Life c. 1942-45, Oil on canvas, 52.5 x 71.5 cm  is one of the more representational examples of the exhibition. The elements are very recognisable, made up of geometric shapes. There is a hint of light and shadow for instance behind the large narrow necked vessel on the left, and on the onion to the lower right. Visible brushstrokes  appear applied quite loosely. The surface on which the objects stand look ambiguous and closer to Cubism. Saturated and muted hues through to greys are juxtaposed creating a lively atmosphere.
Please note: The only image of this painting I have located is in the exhibition catalogue, so unfortunately possible copyright restrictions prevent me from displaying it and neither can I provide a link as it is nowhere to be found online.
In its place I have supplemented it with another similar painting. It is located on the left hand side, second from top.
http://www.mutualart.com/Artist/Jack-P--Hanlon/67175238302D303D/Artworks?Params=3936382C43757272656E74506167652C312C31

Exhibition Absence of Realism, Lavitt Gallery, Cork

This was a group exhibition of artists working in the abstract and semi abstract genre.

Displayed on the first floor of a small intimate gallery. While there was an absence of realistic description (as the exhibition title would infer) in any of the works, not all  were described as completely abstract - this was certainly true aswell. For example one artist (Wesley Triggs) described his work as having a sense of looking at something which is  familiar. Even so, it all kept one guessing, which I found compelling.

Carol Hodder's three paintings were predominantly dark with an impression of light emerging from, and described as having a connection with memory and place. In one such painting 'Stroke' it was possible to discern a figure veiled in light mist amongst the darkness, emitting a mysterious ephemeral atmosphere.
http://irishartscape.com/artists/details/51  Carol Hodder

Sabine Weissbech paintings were loose painterly semi-abstracted landscapes in acrylic. On close scrutiny there appeared a combination of layers of opaque and transparent, muted diluted opaque over thicker saturated opaques. Then there are more muted pale thicker opaques, some allowed to drip.  Particularly apparent in the overlayers are scraped and rubbed on paint, possible and process of adding and removing, I would guess with the help of painting knives or spatulas or some kind and large brushes.  Ethereal sketchy loose yet sensitive lines, drawn linear elements and perhaps scratching or 'scraffito' add a linear quality. It all culminates in an atmospheric feeling of natural elements.  

http://www.sabineweissbach.com/landscapes.html

Sam Curtin's work contained no hint of landscape and was very muted, monochromatic and minimal. The fleeting shapes of shadows etc are transformed into something more solid and permanent in the form of geometric shapes alongside and crossing over one another in diagonal directions. 
http://www.lavitgallery.com/page87.htm

I'm not sure if these oil paintings of Tom Climent's were on display at the time, although he is a gallery artist. They appeal to me due to the way geometric shapes are explored through the nature of paint application and colours, the combination of three dimensionality and flatness giving a sense of optical illusions.
http://tomcliment.com/2014/02/18/2013-2/

A general impression emanating  from the exhibition is that most of the paintings on view evoke the essence of landscape, or  aspects of it in one form or another, extracted sometimes from memories and imaginary places in time, with only one or two exceptions. I have found from reading artist's statements over time, this seems to be a popular theme in many genres.

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