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

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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