Several new books

An autumn painting of mine 24 by 30 from 2006. Painted near Jackson, New Hampshire

I am proud to have been invited to sit on a panel of speakers at the Boston International Fine Arts Show. If you are in the Boston area come out and say hello.

Saturday afternoon, November 19, 2011

Boston International Fine Art Show (BIFAS) at the Cyclorama

3-4 pm

Shaping the Present: Realist Art Then and Now

For years, people have been saying realist art is coming back. Judging from its growing visibility and the mushrooming of realist art schools nationwide, it’s more accurate to say it’s here. How are top contemporary realist artists inspired or informed by their historical counterparts? Is it wise to collect today's realist artists when many museums and critics are reluctant to highlight them? Join us for this intriguing panel, moderated by two national magazine editors and popular BIFAS presenters: Joshua Rose of American Art Collector and Peter Trippi of Fine Art Connoisseur.

Panelists

Julie Bangert, Gallery Director, Tree’s Place Gallery, Orleans, Massachusetts

Elizabeth Ives Hunter, Executive Director, Cape Cod Museum of Art
Stapleton Kearns, Artist, New Hampshire

Dana Levin, Artist, Massachusetts
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I am going to do a couple of book reviews today;I buy a lot of art books and recently two of them seemed good enough to recommend. The first is the new book "The Landscapes" by Richard Schmid. Schmid has long been a hero of mine since I found one of his books in the graduate stacks at the University if Minnesota about nearly forty years ago. I thought that no one could paint like that anymore having been led to believe that Philip Pearlstein was the figurative artist of that era. Years later I saw a show of his work at the old Grand Central galleries in New York. I thought it was amazing. I have his book Alla Prima and perhaps I have already recommended that, I think, it is excellent. But being a landscape painter I was excited when I found out that Schmid was putting out a book of just his landscapes. I have always liked his landscapes the best of all of his art. A lot of focus has been placed on his still lives and figures and I am glad that his landscapes will now get their due.
This book costs around a hundred dollars so it is not a cheap thrill, but it is printed on good paper and is entirely filled with full page reproductions of the art. I think it is well worth it and I will study it closely. Is Schmid Americas best landscape painter? maybe so.....



The other book I have been studying is a giant new volume on tonalist painting. "A History of American Tonalism byDavid Cleveland. Tonalism hasn't received the scholarship it has so long deserved. It was the dominant art movement in America for around the end of the 19th century. Tonalism was an art movement that valued aesthetics and achieving a mood in the picture far more than the representation of any specific identifiable place. They tended to paint ordinary places and not grand views. In a way tonalism was a reaction to the literalism of the Hudson River School on one hand and the often scientific matter of factness of the impressionists on the other. There has been so little written about tonalism and I have always wanted to see a lot more of it. Clevelands near encyclopedic work has filled in that hole. I hope other writers will follow with monographs on the individual artists of the movement. There is almost nothing in print on any of them except for the handful who are best known and then often in other contexts than as tonalists.

This is a monstrous 600 page long book that weighs as much as a four cylinder engine. Its a fat One! And it is full of pictures of paintings you will find nowhere else. I am still reading mine a little bit at a time. It is text heavy and the pictures could in my opinion have been given more prominence. The author seems to be overly enamored with Charles Warren Eaton, a lesser known American tonalist painter. There are many others I would have given greater prominence. Cleveland also lumps a lot of painters into his tonalist camp that might or not be in there depending on how big a stadium you need to fill. So the book is idiosyncratic and labyrinthine. Still its eccentricity is a benefit as there is so much information in here. Pathfinders, visionaries and world changers are often eccentric. After they have blazed the trails the more sober but less adventurous follow their leads.

Cleveland does a nice job of examining Whistlers enormous influence on the painting of that era. Whistler is best known today as a footnote,everyone seems to know Whistlers mother and not the man himself. But he was revered in his day and influenced a whole generation of artists who became more concerned with mood and evocation and the idea of beauty as a value apart from that represented. It is not what it is a picture of....but HOW it is a picture of that is important!
The book is priced well considering its size the wonderful paintings in this book are now available for study and have been impossible to see until now.

A note found in an old John Carlson book

John Carlson (1875-1947)

I receive a number of interesting things from readers of the blog. Below is a copy of a letter that was found in an old copy of John Carlsons Guide to Landscape painting.

If you haven't read this book, you really should. It is the bible for anyone studying landscape painting. If you read only one book explaining landscape painting, this should be it.

a John Carlson painting of Gloucester

Carlson ran a summer workshop program in Gloucester, Massachusetts, for awhile with Emile Gruppe. He was later to establish his own workshop and teaching programs in Woodstock, New York, a place with which he is more commonly associated.

Here are a couple of older editions of Carlsons book from my library. The 1939 edition on the left contains a fair amount of text that was edited out of later editions and is interesting for that reason. It is not a first edition, that would be from 1929, which I don't own. The later somewhat edited versions are renamed Carlsons guide to landscape painting instead of elementary principles of landscape painting.

The book on the right is a 1972 hardcover edition that is otherwise nearly identical to the soft cover version in print today. None of these editions provide a selection of colored reproductions of Carlsons paintings. This blog however does here and here and here too I also have a few more over here.

Here is what I got in my old copy of Carlson. This is a clipping from the New York times dated March 13th, 1936. It explains that John won the Altman prize from the National Academy of Design. The article says that the prize was for an American born artist and included an award of 750 dollars. Carlson was born in Sweden. I will bet there were some artists who didn't win complaining about that!

The Montana trip and some remarks on Emile Gruppes book and palette

Above, Emile Gruppe

I have returned from a week in Montana. I was a guest artist at the Western Rendezvous of Art. I met a lot of really fine painters that I had long heard about but never met. A few of the artists I met were, Matt Smith, Josh Elliot and Ralph Oberg, I also met Robert Lemler and John Potter. There were a lot of fine paintings in the show, and we had several large banquets together that provided an opportunity to talk to each other. One of the days was a paint out.

I stayed in Montana for a couple of days after the event and painted with two blog readers who had come a long way to meet me. I took them each out for a days lesson and painted myself too. I really enjoy meeting, and when I can helping the readers of this blog. I am used, therefore I am useful!

One of you contacted me and asked if I was going to do a fall camping workshop in Acadia this year, I dunno? Maybe I should, any interest out there? If you are willing to camp, this is by far the cheapest way to take one of my workshops as camping is very cheap. I like the camping part of that workshop. We hang out till late at night and drink tonic.
There are motels nearby too for the fainthearted.

A reader wrote
Hi Stape,

I am reading Gruppe on painting. He explains that yellow is warm, red a modifier and Blue cool.

In his palette he has a cool and a warm for each primaries. He also says to not introduce a warm yellow into shadows. Until then I have no problem.

My understanding will be to use the cool primaries for the shadows and the warm primaries for the light and never mix a cool primary with a warm primary but ...

When he shows how he creates complements with his palette (see attached) I start to be confused. For the green he uses phthalo blue with lemon yellow but lemon yellow should be the cool yellow. But I can understand that any yellow can be considered warm .... I guess. He goes on with umber and that is confusing. He mixed the cool purple with madder or cad red or cad orange ??? Cad orange has a warm yellow in it ! ??? (but maybe it works because red a modifier)

If I had to do cool umbers I would use ultramarine, madder and lemon yellow (cool yellow). And for a warm umber I would use phthalo blue, cad red and cad yellow.

How should I think to make Gruppe's palette work ? HELP !!!! Thanks !
....................Larry Mantlebiter Jr.

Larry;

Whoa! you are losing me. I think I will just talk about the Gruppe palette a little and offer one possible answer to your dilemma.

Emile Gruppe ( 1896-1978) was one of the best known painters of the Cape Ann school. He kept a studio in Gloucester for many years and was known for his rapid style of painting. A major influence on many New England landscape painters, Gruppe is best known for his harbor scenes with fishing boats.



As you can see from the chart above, Gruppe used a relatively small chromatic palette. That means it contains only pure colors, no earth colors. I have used this palette a little in the past, but not extensively. This palette contains a warm and a cool pigment in each of the three hues, red, yellow and blue. If you want punch in your colors, this palette will help. If you have been using a three color palette, this might be an interesting way to expand your choice of colors

I think you should chart your colors. Richard Schmid explains how to do this in his book "Alla Prima". Here is a basic description of how to do that. On a piece of Masonite or canvas about the size of a place mat, lines are drawn to divide the surface into as many columns as you have pigments. Here is a link to a blogger who has written about that and explains it well.

If you "chart" your colors you will then know all they they can do and I think it will answer your question and any others you might have. With a relatively small palette such as this charting it should go more quickly.

There were once three Gruppe books. I have them all, but they are out of print except for one. I have posted a link to the one that is still in print below and a link to a used copy that is affordable. These are excellent books.

Gruppe talks about mixing "umbers" from this palette.He does this by mixing compliments together. He believed that making your own "umbres" gave you more interesting and varied grays and taught you more about mixing than actually having dulled earth colors on your palette. I don't use umber, but I would miss my earth colors. If I had to choose:

I WOULD GIVE UP MY CADMIUMS BEFORE I WOULD GIVE UP MY EARTH COLORS.

The Gruppe on Painting is a restrike and while its quality is acceptable and you can learn from it, the older original book like the one above it is a better printing. The Gruppe books contain a large assortment of his paintings and even if they were not excellent as art instruction they would still be valuable on that count.

John Pike

Here I am again. Thank you for tolerating my reduced schedule on the blog, again I am not going away, just spacing things out so I can paint more. I wrote almost a thousand posts in a row without missing a day. I need to adopt a less driven system for a while., but I may return to that when winter comes. If you are new to reading this blog, I would point you towards the archives. I began this with the intention of writing down everything I thought an artist ought to know. That turned into a big project. The first 400 or so posts are like an art school, I started with the materials and worked outwards from there. If you want to get the most from the blog I suppose the best way is to go back to the beginning and read forward from there.

The blog has been described as a rabbit hole. There is no good way to know what is in it in order, but a reader is working to build an index to the site, an enormous task, and I am grateful to him for undertaking that effort. When it is ready I will post a link to it. I am afraid it will take him a very long time.

John Pike was an American watercolorist, who was born in Boston in 1911. Pike was a student of Richard Miller, and Charles Hawthorne. Pike did a lot of magazine illustration and ran a watercolor school in Woodstock, New York, the same town as John Carlson's summer extension of the Art Students League. He died in 1979.


I bring John Pike to your attention because he wrote a wonderful book on painting, "John Pike Paints Watercolors". There is an Amazon link below if you want a copy. I have read my copy many times. The book was originally published in 1978 right before the authors death.

Pikes paintings are far less direct than my own work, he is a broad watercolorist. There was a school of American watercolor that existed up until about his death that had a look to it and many practitioners. Someday there are about 10 blog posts to do on that, but that is a ways out there. Many of them were from California, although Pike was not. Watercolor now seems to be a drug on the market ( I always wondered why that means hard to sell, you would think the opposite) and few of my galleries show them anymore. The best watercolorists I know are now painting in oil. I am sure That is cyclical though and watercolor will come back.

As I am exclusively an oil painter it might seem odd that I am recommending a watercolor "how to" book. But this book is useful to anyone painting in any medium. The book is mostly demos.
Each of the demonstrations in the book begins with the charcoal drawing from which it was made and most of the plates are in color so you do get a good look at how the paintings were made.

Pike shows how he progresses from sketches to the paintings which are done in the studio from them. The second half of the book is a gallery of his paintings, and he was very good. The paintings are in a style that seems a little dated today, but they are very well done and if there were no art instruction in the book I would recommend it on the strength of his art. I have little interest in books about painting by people who don't do it well.

This was in the comments from the last post. I thought it was great and am posting it here.

Maineland said...Something that works for me. I make all my appointments on Wednesdays. Dentist, hair cut, car repairs. I used to do this for environmental reasons now that and so I don't have to cut into studio time.

THERE is a great idea. Thanks Maineland whoever you are. That seems so obvious. If I had to guess, I would guess that this is an idea from a mom managing small children a home and operating on a tight budget. They are a special class of experts with expertise in time management and accustomed to the challenge of pecking away at tasks that are open ended and larger than can actually be accomplished.

Figure Drawing for all it's worth

Andrew Loomis cover for the Saturday Evening post

Armand Cabrera has posted an excellent collection of quotes from the great American illustrator Harvey Dunn on his blog Art and Influence. you can read that Here.

A publisher call Titian is reproducing the classic texts by Andrew Loomis. They are very reasonably priced , used copies of these books sell for hundreds of dollars. I actually have an old copy of this book.

Andrerw Loomis (1892 to 1959) was a successful illustrator, trained at the Art Students League in New York, he studied with George Bridgeman and Frank Vincent Dumond. Loomis kept his studio in Chicago, and also taught at the American Academy of Art. He published his first instructing book "Fun with a Pencil" in 1939. The most sought after Loomis book is "Creative Illustration", hopefully this rare book will be available from this publisher too. These books are available online for free, but I prefer a real book to reading online. I get a better idea of the flow of a book from the paper version and find it much easier to study.

All that I show professionally is landscapes, but I draw figures one night a week with a group of atelier students in Manchester. You should too, if you want to improve your drawing. Drawing the nude is the best training for your drawing.. Nothing looks so wrong as a badly drawn figure, we all know what a figure looks like and notice any problems in a drawing of one.

Loomis drew hundreds of illustrations of figures showing proportions and tricks to remember them, He shows drawings of all the features, anatomy and construction lines for building the armature of the figure. His drawings from the golden age of illustration show different styles and techniques of drawing and although they are a little dated looking the figure hasn't changed much over the years. The information is as useful as when the book was written. The book is not scholarly but accessible and easy to understand

This classic text has been used by generations of artists and illustrators and is one of the simplest books on the subject.

My current reading list

Cryptoprocta Ferox or Malgasy Fossa, undoubtedly bites.

The following is an e-mail I recently received and its answer.

Hey Stape,
I've got a couple of ideas for your blog posts.
You mentioned your reading list, I would love to see what you have on there! Historical, instructional or cotton candy(tastes great, gone quick, no substance). It's not that easy to find well written history books. Most of them read like history books.
Also, I'm taking a quick trip to the NE, and I would love to see a post on area galleries. Anywhere between Boston and Hanover would fit my bill, but any in general would be great to see.
Thanks! ............. Tupak Saday

Tupak:
The latter part of your question I cannot answer, if I list some galleries the others will complain at their exclusion. So I avoid that question. I will however give you a list of the books that I have recently acquired, some are in my studio and others are spilling from my bedside table.

1) The Judgement of Paris, is a history of the French salon painters Manet and Messionier. I am enjoying this and learning more about two of the great painters of the French 19th century.



2) de Lazlo A Brush with Grandeur, a monograph on the successful portrait painter who painted the swells of Europe at about the time of Sargent. I love this guys stuff. He is not the equal of Sargent, but he was real good. I am enjoying studying the clear exposition of the planar structure in his heads. This is a recently renovated artist who should be better known. Great book!



3) Thomas Moran; by Nancy K. Anderson. This 1997 book seems to be the best Moran book. I am enamored with Moran lately, an artist to whom I had previously paid little attention thinking his work too colored for my Presbyterian taste. I had always liked and clipped from magazines reproductions of his Long Island paintings but never really was sold on his theatrical western art for which he is fart better known.
I still like the East coast paintings better but I am certainly going to use some Moran ideas in the Texas paintings I am assembling for Kornye galleries in Fort Worth.



4) Thomas Moran, The Field Sketches. Crammed with reproductions of his location studies for the paintings. It is very useful to see the drawings from which the artist made the paintings. A great landscape draftsman, a little reminiscent of Constable of all people, seeing the drawings explains much about how the paintings were made.



5) The Hudson River School, Nature and the American Vision. The catalogue from the show I saw at the Amon Carter Museum. This contains many excellent reproductions and I have yet to read the text, I probably will but I have so many books going and I am often searching for pictures of paintings. Nicely illustrated and contains some excellent detail shots that are helpful to someone trying to actually paint landscapes. Social history of art is cool but I first of all am out to study these things to improve my own painting.



6) Raeburn, by Duncan Thomson, another monograph on a great portrait painter. This catalogue from a show at the Scottish National Gallery is full of good reproductions of beautifully painted heads from one of the greatest portrait painters. This is a big softcover book with lots of good reproductions. This guy was really fluid, I think him the equal of Sargent at portraiture but that's all he did, Sargent was good at so many other things too.



7) Soviet Impressionist Painting, a great big picture book of Russian 20th century realist painting. Far better art than you might expect, although some of the boy loves tractor stuff is well painted and colored but silly in its subject matter. These guys often had great color. The Russians kept alive their realist painting after the rest of the world went modern. Lots of ideas here for the landscape painter and for those interested in convincing society that communism is a good lifestyle choice.



8) George Inness and the Science of Landscape. A somewhat scholarly exposition of the thought processes of Inness. George was a bizarre man, this is an attempt to understand his perspective on designing paintings. It was not written by a painter but I am finding it useful anyway. I am only about halfway through this volume but expect I will walk away with some useful ideas. Very interesting ideas here, some so obvious to me that I get impatient with the author, but I am not a casual reader who just happened upon Inness, and others that are eyeopening. Perhaps I will do a book report on this one at a later date. I have often stared at an Inness and wondered "how does this thing work?" something I seldom have to do with other landscape painters.



9) Vicksburg 1863 I can't read about art all of the time and I read history also. I visited the Vicksburg battle field lately and am enjoying this history of the campaign by Grant to cut the Confederacy in two at the Mississippi. The western campaigns receive less attention than those in the east, but this was probably the turning point in the war between the states. Grant laid siege to Vicksburg until its fall, the revetments and landmarks of the battle are still there along with a huge and impressive ironclad raised from the waters of the Mississippi.

Constable 8

Above is the sketch for Dedham lock and Mill. Constable probably did the sketch on location. I have found the drawing for this, for that is how the picture seemed to begin. It is in a new book called "Constable: The Great Landscapes" written by Sarah Cove, Anne Lyles and Charles Rhyne and published by the Tate gallery in London. So here I am again recommending expensive books. This really IS the Constable book to have theses days. It is full of beautiful illustrations of his paintings but most importantly an intelligent description of the working methods of the artists. If the link to Amazon is below.

Constable did a series of huge and important salon paintings to secure reputation and notice at the Royal Academy ( the painting above, is incidentally not one of them) The book is mostly focused on these blockbuster pictures and their preparatory studies.

I was painting in Paris a number of years ago and saw a Constable show in a museum just off the Champs-Elysees. The show was of the six footers as these big pictures are called and the full size sketches done for them. Oddly enough the show was curated by Lucian Freud, who did a good job. The drawings and studies and all that a painter would want to see to understand the making of these pictures were all grouped together. So I have had the good fortune to actually see a lot of the work that is in the book. I have also seen a great number of this drawings in a show at the Victoria and Albert in London. That is one of the places you hunt Constable, which I was doing. The Tate is of course another.

Constable made at least three versions of the Dedham Lock painting from this sketch and drawing. Tomorrow I will begin on the "great landscapes"

James Gurney's "Color and Light"

I received my copy of Color and Light today from Jim Gurney. I have to tell you you MUST get this book. This book is like nothing written on color before. Most books I have read on color are hard to understand and harder still to apply to your art. James has really sorted it out from a painters perspective AND explained the science of color too.

James Gurney is an illustrator and does mostly science fiction or fantasy work. He has worked for National Geographic, done book covers and published the wildly successful series of Dinotopia books that have been translated into about 2,900 different languages except that weird one with the clicks in it.

I have little interest in fantasy literature, but Gurneys drawing skills and his amazing abilities put him in a class all by himself. I don't think I know of anybody today who draws better. He is an amazing artist. Check THIS out. That image should be clickable, click it and stare. That friends, is an amazing tour de force.



He also has an insatiable curiosity that leads him into all sorts of research on the "why" of the things that we painters wrestle with.
Here is an example of one of his paintings that he uses to explain multiple light sources for instance. This book is filled with plates of his own works, the masters, great illustrators and the academics of the 19th century.


He also shows photographs of light effects the painter will encounter when painting skies, reflections, sunsets, and well........dinosaurs.Below is an explanatory photo about the color in skies for instance.


Below is a you-tube flip through of the book.




I think this is one of those books an aspiring painter needs. It is easy and fun to read and will equip you to deal with the problems of color in your painting and cheerfully explain the reasons why things look the way they do, all without being hard to read or tedious.
You can get a copy, signed if you like from Jim himself Here.
Or you can get it from Amazon or your local bookseller. Jame's last book was a New York Times best seller in the art instruction category and this one will probably be too.

Pen Drawing book for free

I would like to call your attention to a great little old book on pen drawing, mostly architectural subjects, that is a quick read and has some good ideas for the landscape painter. It is Pen Drawing by Charles Miginnis It can be read in HTML or downloaded for free at the Archive.org site. There are lots of fabulous books in there. Here follows an excerpt from the book that discusses the changes he has made to a drawing from a photograph. The thought process sounds like some of the things that I have written about on design.
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From the book Pen Drawing;

I have thought it advisable in this chapter to select, and to work out in some detail, a few actual problems in illustration, so as to familiarize the student with the practical application of some of the principles previously laid down.

FIG. 35	FROM A PHOTOGRAPH

FIG. 36	D. A. GREGG

First Problem In the first example the photograph, Fig. 35, shows the porch of an old English country church. Let us see how this subject has been interpreted in pen and ink by Mr. D. A. Gregg, Fig. 36. In respect to the lines, the original composition presents nothing essentially unpleasant. Where the strong accent of a picture occurs in the centre, however, it is generally desirable to avoid much emphasis at the edges. For this reason the pen drawing has been "vignetted,"—that is to say, permitted to fade away irregularly at the edges. Regarding the values, it will be seen that there is no absolute white in the photograph. A literal rendering of such low color would, as we saw in the preceding chapter, be out of the question; and so the essential values which directly contribute to the expression of the subject and which are independent of local color or accidental effect have to be sought out. We observe, then, that the principal note of the photograph is made by the dark part of the roof under the porch relieved against the light wall beyond. This is the direct result of light and shade, and is therefore logically adopted as the principal note of Mr. Gregg's sketch also. The wall at this point is made perfectly white to heighten the contrast. To still further increase the light area, the upper part of the porch has been left almost white, the markings suggesting the construction of the weather-beaten timber serving to give it a faint gray tone sufficient to relieve it from the white wall. The low color of the grass, were it rendered literally, would make the drawing too heavy and uninteresting, and this is therefore only suggested in the sketch. The roof of the main building, being equally objectionable on account of its mass of low tone, is similarly treated. Mr. Gregg's excellent handling of the old woodwork of the porch is well worthy of study.

Second Problem Let us take another example. The photograph in Fig. 37 shows a moat-house in Normandy; and, except that the low tones of the foliage are exaggerated by the camera, the conditions are practically those which we would have to consider were we making a sketch on the spot. First of all, then, does the subject, from the point of view at which the photograph is taken, compose well?* It cannot be said that it does. The vertical lines made by the two towers are unpleasantly emphasized by the trees behind them. The tree on the left were much better reduced in height and placed somewhat to the right, so that the top should fill out the awkward angles of the roof formed by the junction of the tower and the main building. The trees on the right might be lowered also, but otherwise permitted to retain their present relation. The growth of ivy on the tower takes an ugly outline, and might be made more interestingly irregular in form.

[Footnote *: The student is advised to consult "Composition," by Arthur W. Dow. [New York, 1898]]

FIG. 37	FROM A PHOTOGRAPH

The next consideration is the disposition of the values. In the photograph the whites are confined to the roadway of the bridge and the bottom of the tower. This is evidently due, however, to local color rather than to the direction of the light, which strikes the nearer tower from the right, the rest of the walls being in shadow. While the black areas of the picture are large enough to carry a mass of gray without sacrificing the sunny look, such a scheme would be likely to produce a labored effect. Two alternative schemes readily suggest themselves: First, to make the archway the principal dark, the walls light, with a light half-tone for the roof, and a darker effect for the trees on the right. Or, second, to make these trees themselves the principal dark, as suggested by the photograph, allowing them to count against the gray of the roof and the ivy of the tower. This latter scheme is that which has been adopted in the sketch, Fig. 38.

FIG. 38	C. D. M.

It will be noticed that the trees are not nearly so dark as in the photograph. If they were, they would be overpowering in so large an area of white. It was thought better, also, to change the direction of the light, so that the dark ivy, instead of acting contradictorily to the effect, might lend character to the shaded side. The lower portion of the nearer tower was toned in, partly to qualify the vertical line of the tower, which would have been unpleasant if the shading were uniform, and partly to carry the gray around to the entrance. It was thought advisable, also, to cut from the foreground, raising the upper limit of the picture correspondingly. (It is far from my intention, however, to convey the impression that any liberties may be taken with a subject in order to persuade it into a particular scheme of composition; and in this very instance an artistic photographer could probably have discovered a position for his camera which would have obviated the necessity for any change whatever;—a nearer view of the building, for one thing, would have considerably lowered the trees.)

Yet more Josh Reynolds and a tune

Johnny A, Bostons guitar hero. I heard him on the RADIO in the car today. He's getting long deserved recognition. My favorite albums this summer are "Get Inside" and One November Night by Johnny A.

More from Josh Reynolds tonight, followed by my translation. I am going to plunder Josh for another night or two and then move on. Oh, yeah, check out Mathew Innis writing for the last couple of days in his blog "Underpaintings" about my teacher R. H. Ives Gammell.

In a composition, when the objects are scattered and divided into many equal parts, the eye is perplexed and fatigued, from not knowing where to find the principal action, or which is the principal figure; for where all are making equal pretensions to notice, all are in equal danger of neglect.

If you, when designing a picture, scatter subjects all over the canvas and divide that canvas up into similar shapes, measurements and intervals, the viewers eye quickly tires. They don't know what the important thing is, and at what they should be looking. When everything on the canvas demands equal attention, everything gets overlooked.


It is in art as in morals; no character would inspire us with an enthusiastic admiration of his virtue, if that virtue consisted only in an absence of vice; something more is required; a man must do more than merely his duty to be a hero.

In art, just like in morals, nobody would impress us with their goodness if that goodness was merely that they behaved decently. More is required, a man must do more than what is expected as his duty to be a hero. ( In other words an artist must do something exemplary with that paint, just making an average and usual picture is not enough. The artist needs to do something special. Average doesn't cut it).

I have in a former discourse" endeavoured to impress you with a fixed opinion, that a comprehensive and critical knowledge of the works of nature is the only source of beauty and grandeur. But when we speak to painters, we must always consider this rule and all rules with a reference to the mechanical practice of their own particular Art. It is not properly in the learning, the taste, and the dignity of the ideas that genius appears as belonging to a painter. There is a genius particular and appropriated to his own trade (as I may call it), distinguished from all others. For that power, which enables the artist to conceive his subject with dignity, may be said to belong to general education; and is as much the genius of a poet, or the professor of any other liberal art, or even a good critic in any of those arts, as of a painter. Whatever sublime ideas may fill his mind, he is a painter only as he can put in practice what he knows, and communicate those ideas by visible representation.

I have in past lectures tried to communicate my view that a thorough and searching knowledge of nature is the only source of beauty and grandeur. But when we speak about painting we must be aware that this rule, and all rules are subject to the technical means needed to produce a painting. It is not particularly in the learning, taste or seriousness of ideas that excellence appears in a painter. Painting has it's own kind of excellence, different from the other human pursuits. The ability to conceive a subject, in a way that makes it important, is a part of a good general education, a poet, a professor of any other discipline in the arts or even a skilled critic could do that. No matter what glorious ideas he may have in his mind, he excels as a painter only when he can use his technical mastery to put those ideas on the canvas in a recognizable way.

That was almost a transliteration, but I think I got the general idea there.
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I will be holding a three day workshop at the Bass Harbor Campground in Bass Harbor, Maine. the 25-26-27th of September. That's Saturday-Monday. We will paint outside and I will teach beginners to experts the art of outdoor landscape painting.
Here is a link to where you can sign up
Reservations at the Bass Harbor campground can be made here.

More translation from Joshua Reynolds

Here is a painting I just dropped off at Bayview gallery in Camden, Maine. I placed about a half a dozen there. If you are in that area and you want to see some of my paintings there is now a collection there.

Routinely readers whine about the difficulty of reading the white text on a black background. I like the way it looks, so I ain't changin it. However, if you don't like it, you can read the blog in plain text (black on white). My browser is Mozilla but your browser probably has a similar feature. Go to "view", click on "page style" and select "no style". That should change it over to black text on white.

Here is another passage from Joshua Reynolds, written just before the American Revolution and delivered as one of a series of speeches in London.

The first endeavours of a young Painter, as I have remarked in a former discourse, must be employed in the attainment of mechanical dexterity, and confined to the mere imitation of the object before him. Those who have advanced beyond the rudiments, may, perhaps, find advantage in reflecting on the advice which I have likewise given them, when I recommended the diligent study of the works of our great predecessors ; but I at the same time endeavoured to guard them against an implicit submission to the authority of any one master however excellent: or by a strict imitation of his manner, precluding themselves from the abundance and variety of Nature. I will now add, that Nature herself is not to be too closely copied. There are excellences in the Art of painting beyond what is commonly called the imitation of Nature; and these excellences I wish to point out. The Students who, having passed through the initiatory exercises, are more advanced in the Art, and who, sure of their hand, have leisure to exert their understanding, must now be told, that a mere copier of Nature can never produce any thing great; can never raise and enlarge the conceptions or warm the heart of the spectator.

This is an interesting passage. Many people today suppose that the artists of our history served as human camera surrogates and that the coming of photography made that art obsolete. But here we have the president of the Royal Academy in 1769 arguing against rote representation and for a far more artistic presentation. Below is my translation into Stapletonian quasi English.

The earliest efforts of a young painter must be to develop his mechanical dexterity and learn to represent nature faithfully. Those students who have understood the basics might find it worthwhile to take my advice and study the great historical painters. But I have cautioned them against being too influenced or too imitative of any one historical painter no matter how good they were, because that will lead them away from the study of the great variety and diversity found in nature. However nature is not to be slavishly copied either. There are great qualities in painting that are not achieved by copying nature. A student who has successfully learned the beginning lessons about painting and are more advanced in their art have the time and ability to learn the next principle.They need to be told that a mere copier of nature will never do anything great. They can never enlarge the perceptions of their viewers or effect those viewers emotionally.

Gee, that was hard! See you tomorrow. Below is another notice of my upcoming workshop in Acadia.
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I will be holding a three day workshop at the Bass Harbor Campground in Bass Harbor, Maine. the 25-26-27th of September. That's Saturday-Monday. We will paint outside and I will teach beginners to experts the art of outdoor landscape painting. The class size is limited to ten.
There are restaurants and other amenities close by, including a motel if you don't want to rough it. There are tenting sites and simple cabins available and it will be very inexpensive. I know the cost of the workshop plus lodging as kept some of you from taking my workshops and I have been asked whether camping was available. So if you want to take a workshop as affordably as possible, this is your chance.
Part of the workshop experience is always the social scene, this should be particularly fun as we can build a campfire at night. Camping with the artists should be a lot of fun. Acadia should be starting to color up with autumn and the days should be warm and the nights chilly, but easy camping weather. The park will be fabulous that time of year. If we do get a rainy day I will teach seascape and coach the students on ways to improve their paintings in the studio.
The cost of the workshop is $300. I require a $150 dollar deposit which is non refundable, the balance to be paid at the event. Here is a link to where you can sign up
Reservations at the Bass Harbor campground can be made here.

The discourses of Joshua Reynolds 3

Someone in the comments asked where I was today, where's Monday's post? Well... There actually was one, just like every single day for over 600 days (OK, I missed two when I was traveling and couldn't get on the internet) but it was marked as Sunday. I write the blog the night before and then after I publish it, I go back in and set the date for the next day. I forgot to do that for two days running. So it only looked like I missed a day.

I am planning a workshop, in about three weeks in Acadia, that's is on Mt. Desert, (Bar Harbor) in Maine. I have been working out the details with a campground here. I know that's short notice, but I had the opportunity and I liked the idea of doing it at a campground. Lodging will be super cheap. Bring a tent.There is a real motel close by if you don't feel like roughing it. I have spent almost the whole summer painting in Acadia and various places in Maine and I want to do that with a group, I do love the social aspect of leading a workshop. It will be the usual total immersion thing. I will give you more details tomorrow. e-mail me if you are interested, I will post a sign up form over the next few days.

Here again, is a passage from Reynolds, several of you have remarked on the difficulty of his language. Remember this was written in 1769, that's before the American revolution. Napoleon was born that year and Marie Antoinette was 13 years old. The first Spanish missions in California were being founded.

The detail of particulars which does not assist the expression of the main characteristic is worse than useless, it is mischievous, as it dissipates the attention and draws it from the principal point. It may be remarked that the impression which is left on our mind even of things which are familiar to us, is seldom more than their general effect, beyond which we do not look in recognising such objects

Here is my "translation".
Little details and descriptions of specific but minor features of a subject, are more than ineffective, they are detrimental.. They draw attention away from the subject. Even things and places that are very familiar to us and we are unaware of their details, recognizing them because of their"big look".

If we examine with a critical view the manner of those painters whom we consider as patterns, we shall find that their great fame does not from their works being more highly finished than those of other artists, or from a more minute attention to details, but from that enlarged comprehension which sees the whole object at once, and that energy of art which gives its characteristic effect by adequate expression.

If we look at the painters who we take as examples ton ourselves, we find that their fame is not because their work is tighter or more painstakingly rendered than than other painters. Instead their work is broader and the whole subject is seen as a whole and simply, and that "big look" presents the artists subject most effectively.Reynolds is again calling for large simple presentation of the subject , rather than a feverish description of its minute details.

So far is my disquisition from giving countenance to idleness, that is nothing in our art which enforces such continual exertion and circumspection, as an attention to the general effect of the whole. It requires much study and much practice; it requires the painter's entire mind: whereas the parts may be finishing by nice touches while his is engaged on other matters he may even hear a play or a novel without much disturbance.

I have no intention of speaking approvingly of laziness. There is nothing that is as much work as getting the "big look" of nature. That requires the painters entire mind to do. Little details and finishing can be done even while distracted, such as when listening to a play or a novel. In other words Reynolds describes painting details as busywork and not requiring the full abilities and focus of the artist.

All of these passages have in common a call for largeness of vision, for seizing upon the appearance of nature in the broadest possible manner, rather than as an accumulation of carefully rendered yet meaningless detail. While Reynolds text points to examples from the Italians, like Titian, this broad vision is also found in painters who lived long after him, like Monet, Hopper or Homer, whose work is broadly painted rather than bristling with nonessential detail.

Tomorrow I will move on to more Reynolds but I will focus on a different subject, I have devoted several nights now to his call for broad vision.

The discourses of Joshua Reynolds 2

Joshua Reynolds, self portrait from artrenewal.org.

Here I am again, excerpting selections from J.Reynolds discourses. I will publish the text, in italics and then "translate" in contemporary language.

If deceiving the eye were the only business of the Art there is no doubt indeed but the minute painter would be more apt to succeed but it is not the eye it is the mind which the painter of genius desires to address nor will he waste a moment upon those smaller objects which only serve to catch the sense to divide the attention and to counteract his great design of speaking to the heart

If looking just like nature was the only purpose of art, the most detailed painter would be most effective. But it is not the eye, but the mind, to which the great painter wants to speak. He won't waste his time upon small details that catch the eye and divide the attention of the viewer from his larger purpose of speaking to the heart.

They who have never observed the gradation by which art is acquired who see only what is the full result of long labour and application of an infinite number and infinite variety of acts are apt to conclude from their entire inability to do the same at once that it is not only inaccessible to themselves but can be done by those only who have some gift of the nature of inspiration bestowed upon them.

Those who have never seen the slow process by which skill in art is acquired, but instead only the results of that long effort, are apt to think they are unable to do the same thing because it is a gift that the artist has. They think that they could never do the same thing because they havn't received that special gift.

Reynolds is talking about those people who are unaware of the work and training that goes into being an artist, and how their opinion that it is a gift, belittles all the efforts that the artist has made to be able to practice his craft.

The great use of studying our predecessors is to open the mind to shorten our labour and to give us the result of the selection made by those great minds of what is grand or beautiful in Nature her rich stores are all spread out before us but it is an art and no easy art to know how or what to choose and how to attain and secure the object of our choice.

The purpose of studying the art of the past is to open us to possibilities, to make it easier to make and to show us what great painters thought was beautiful in nature. There is so much available in nature it is hard to know what to select to paint,or how best to represent it.

This genius consists I conceive in the power of expressing that which employs your pencil whatever it may be as a whole so that the general effect and power of the whole may take possession of the mind and for a while suspend the consideration of the subordinate and particular beauties or defects

This ability is to represent whatever you wish in its entirety. That way the whole image will capture the viewers attention, instead of dwelling on little details or faults or interesting non essential characteristics of that which is represented. The large important aspect of the subject is presented preventing the viewer from becoming mired in its nonessential qualities, good or bad.

The discourses of Joshua Reynolds

Image courtesy: artrenewal.org



Joshua Reynolds 1723-1792 was a fashionable English portrait painter and was one of the most successful portrait painters in English history. England produced a lot of great portrait painters and he is remembered as one of its finest.Reynolds was a founding member of the Royal Academy and was its first president. He painted about three thousand portraits. Reynolds was a friend and companion to Dr. Johnson, and Edward Burke so he kept company with some of the finest minds of his generation. Boswells life of Dr. Johnson is dedicated to Reynolds.

Between 1769 and 1790 Reynolds delivered a series of lectures on art that were later published as
"The Discourses of Joshua Reynolds". When I was a student of Ives Gammell, this book was required reading and Gammell would often quote it. Many of the obscure books from the artistic past have been made available in recent years and that is a good thing. However they have tended to be "how to" books rather than books written by artists on the larger subject of art and aesthetics. The few books of this sort referred to these days are 20th century books like Hawthorne on painting.

Joshua Reynolds book is a little difficult to read and I think a lot of it is of limited usefulness to a painter today. However there are passages which are valuable. I will mine a number of these from the text for you as I think they are great advice for painters. The entire book is available online as a PDF and you can find it here. I am going to present the words of Reynolds in italics, so you can know them from my own. Here is the first followed by my own annotation.

It has been my uniform endeavour since I first addressed you from this place to impress you strongly with one ruling idea I wished you to be persuaded that success in your art depends almost entirely on your own industry but the industry which I principally recommended is not the industry of the hands but of the mind

In other words, Your success in art is up to you and you must work to have it. By work Reynolds means an effort of the mind, a study by the intellect. He means we must work to perfect our understanding of art. Art is a mental skill, not a manual, or a copyists skill.

Those who have undertaken to write on our art and have represented it as a kind of inspiration as a gift bestowed upon peculiar favourites at their birth seem to insure a much more favourable disposition from their readers and have a much more captivating and liberal air than he who attempts to examine coldly whether there are any means by which this art may be acquired how the mind may be strengthened and expanded and what guides will show the way to eminence

Read that a couple more times until you have followed what he said, because it is deeply perceptive. I know for some of you the language is dated, so I will paraphrase it in modern English below. Perhaps this is unnecessary, but as I can't see your faces, nor can you raise your hand in this class I will to be sure all the readers have followed it. The elegance of Reynolds writing and its precision is irreducible, but here that is:

Writers on art who want the public to like them and appear enlightened and interesting have represented talent in art as an inborn gift for a special few. They have done this rather than analyze dispassionately whether the artist can increase his knowledge and what steps he might take to outstanding ability.
I will return with more of this tomorrow.

Seascape book report.

Fredrick Waugh above from artrenewal.org
One of the comments I received last night was this;

I purchased two books recently; the first is Paint the Sea in Oils by E. John Robinson which I found to be very helpful. It is available on Amazon. The second is one I found on Alibris, published in 1975, called How to Paint Successful Seascapes by Roger Curtis. I wonder if you have any thoughts on these two books particularly the Curtis book since you and he have a similar Rockport experience.

I guess I will start with a list of some of the books on seascape and some opinions on those. The E. John Robinson book is available and I think it is useful. A lot of good information is in there and it is one of the better books . There is much good information on designing foam patterns and understanding the form of a wave. I don't believe that any book on the market is ideal and I suggest you read as many as you can and try to synthesize them.. ( I know that's a tall order, but there is no John Carlson for seascape painting).

The commenter also mentions Roger Curtis. Rogers son, David, was my roommate when I studied with Ives Gammell. I went for a visit to his home and met his father the year that book was published I believe in 1975. I haven't seen a copy of it in many years and can't say much about it. If you have it, and like it, let me know.

The classic text is : Borlase Smart's Seascape painting step by step. Smarts book is the best I guess, but it is a bit odd in my opinion. Smart's palette seems very strange to me and the whole thing is sort of pre Beatles English poofter. Still there is a lot of good information to be extracted from it. It reminds me a little of Rickenbacker guitars and Humble Hawks. Sometimes the British can be very, well,........foreign. Sometimes not. In this instance they are a little quaint. Still this is probably the best available text.

Walter Foster, those people who sell the thin "how to" books in the art supply stores published a book on Waugh paintings that is still in print. It is the only available source of Waugh reproductions commonly available. Waugh had a collector named Ulrich who made his large collection available to Walter Foster. If you want to study seascape, this thin book is a must.

There is really no Waugh book currently available. I read a bio of him years ago form the library. It seems unfindable now. Some of you who like to hunt books might find it. It has a hard cover and must be 20 or 30 years out of print. Perhaps your local library can find it within their system for you.

Jack Coggins wrote a book entitled "The Marine Painters Guide" It is a good all around text for the beginner marine painter.Tthat really means boats, and harbors and sailing craft more than surf painting. Jack does however, throw in one chapter on surf painting and it is OK, but not exhaustive.

There are also about 50 titles with free and easy in the name. There are stacks of really amateur texts for the most amateur market. Particularly from the great era of amateur watercolor from 1950 to 1985. I have no idea why there would be so many weak books for absolute tyro's, but there are. Avoid em!

Creative Illustration

Creative Illustration is the best of the Loomis books, although they are all excellent. I began discussing the Figure Drawing book last night because it related to the question that had been asked. If I could have only one of his books this is the one I would choose.

Other books have similar information on figure drawing to the Loomis book on the subject. But this book "Creative Illustration is unique. The information in this book is pretty singular. Written in a time when there were illustrations in a ll of the magazines, this book was aimed at young artists who needed the particular set of skills necessary to make it into that trade. Much of what they needed to know then, is the same as what artists need to know today .

Loomis lays out his principles in clear drawings and his explanations are easy to follow. Above is a difficult concept made readily understandable. I like that his books are "simple". There is a place for dense tomes that require careful study, but the basic ideas a young artist needs to know should be gained first from easily aproachable material. The illustration above for instance shows the same scene in a number if different keys, and it can be understood at a glance.

Above is a drawing explaining the steps of difference in different intensities of light. I referred a reader of this blog to this chart some time ago. Again I don't know where else I have seen this concept well explained.

Here Loomis explains ways to generate thumbnails for a painting. Some of the pictures in the book are dated, but most of the ideas are timeless. Creative Illustration is long out of print and the copies that are available bring a high price generally. Evidently they occasionally come up on
EBay, and sell for more a reasonable sum. You can read them online though, here.
You could save them to a disk and take them to a printer if you don't like reading on a screen.