Monet on Painting

Monet said, "When you go out to paint, try to forget what objects you have in front of you, a tree, a field. Merely think, here is a little square of blue, here is an oblong of pink, here a streak of yellow, and paint it just as it looks to you, the exact color and shape until it gives you your own naive impression of the scene." (Quote from River of Light, by Douglas Skeggs, p.53)

Do you agree with Monet? There is some truth to what he is saying, certainly focusing on just object shapes, angles and negative shapes revolutionized my drawing. But when I tried it with trees...it definitely didn't work. I had to think about trees and how they are structured. So, I generally agree with Monet, but not specifically. But then, he was a master and I am not, so maybe I should try it again :-).

Above you see the completed "backside" of my next Gawler Ranges piece. I added some more value from yesterday. Then I flipped it over and have begun coloring on the front. Another update tomorrow.

Web-Wise Wednesday 9/19/2007

Gawler Ranges, Australia, WIP
colored pencil on drafting film, 12 in x15 in
(see below for more information)
copyright J. Rose Welty

Web-Wise Wednesday - my weekly look at what I use around the web.

Site of the Week: Tutorial Man
This site is a massive collection of free photoshop tutorials. When I say massive, I mean massive. There are tutorials for several versions of Photoshop. Unfortunately, they all seem to be mixed up. But, even one tutorial that I looked at for a very old version of PS, was useful for me with the latest PS Elements.

Tutorial of the Week: Coloring Your Artwork
This tutorial was one of the ones that I found particularly useful in understanding how PS can be used in the art world. I haven't colored a sketch yet, but I do understand now how it could be done.

Gawler Ranges:
So I am continuing my series on the Gawler Ranges. My last piece was the same reference done in acrylics. This piece I will do in CPs. I started again with the grisaille technique. I've done about three hours work so far on this. I plan to do a little more on this, then flip it over and begin the coloring. I haven't done a CP piece this large before, but I just threw caution to the wind and went for it. Come to think of it, I haven't done any piece this large before!

Monet and the presence of light

River of Light by Douglas Skeggs is one of my resources for Monet this month. There are several books on Monet, and I doubt that this is one of the highly ranked ones, but it is helping me to understand Monet better.

The picture referenced in the following quote is Terrace at Sainte-Adresse:

"The subject matter of this picture has begun to slip into second place. Monet is no longer interested in what he looks at, only in what he sees: in this sense it makes little difference to him whether he paints his aunt's portrait or her parasol. What is quite evident is that light has now become a physical presence in the painting. " (p.36, River of Light, Skeggs)

Of course, everyone talks about Monet and light. But when I read the above quote, the penny dropped in my mind. Ah, yes, that's it. I guess that I've always seen movement in Monet's work, but never asked myself movement of what - movement of light. Light as a presence, extending itself all over surfaces in a scene - itself being the action of the painting.

The image at top is where I've come to with the poplars. Honestly, this just isn't what I had in mind when I started this piece. I had a large tree, maybe even a forest in mind. In this post, I describe how I came to wanting to draw poplar trees with light in and amongst them. These few leaves just aren't that. So, I'm off to a new piece, with a short reflection:

What I learned here:

• I like using a grisaille technique, it really helps me.
• Colored pencils are magnificent on drafting film and I almost never want to use them on paper again. (To me, they feel like painting should feel!)
• You can back away from drawing trees because you are afraid of their structure, but then you'll find that leaves have structure too.
• Copic markers for my tool of choice for value studies.