Having fun yet guessing which 3 painters informed "Banty Rooster"?
You might not have caught this one, who was well known for his expressive depictions of hands and legs, and he certainly liked to look at legs!
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I don't often paint mutiples, variants of the same scene. That's not the same as returning to a place and finding new inspiration with different light and composition however.
This time our plein air group was out at Portola Vineyards, where repeated drizzle showers chased a lot of the group away. I stuck with it because I was determined to finish this triptych of a gnarled tree. I have painted this lovely tree twice before. This time I wanted to try it in a different style with widely varying colors. The style is as close to sumi-e as I could get using soft pastels. And I feel that composition and style choice worked well. Here it is on 3 primary saturated colored papers - same tree, same composition, same drawing. Only this time it is designed to be presented as a full set, not individual paintings, hence a triptych, which I titled "Treeptych" for fun. Enjoy! "Tonalism" is an art term that confuses some folks. It has nothing to do with musical tones (though I admit that Jobin's "One Note Samba" is a musical fellow traveler.)
It's the use of limited muted color range and most often low key. Low key translates into most of the picture being on the darker side. Though the hues may appear duller, the paintings are anything but dull, and usually convey an emotional sense in a landscape. George Innes was the renowned American tonalism master. This painting above is done from imagination, derived from a zillion walks mostly in the Eastern US woodlands. Think of it as an archetype, not a photograph. It is deliberately restricted in color range, but like many tonalist paintings, there is at least one point of value contrast (light against dark) to draw the eye. FWIW, it's also one of my first paintings in Ceracolors. Those are cold water soluble wax based paints that have been modernized from a 2,000+ year old recipe. Ancient medium, classic composition, modern rendition. Can you hear the music of the fall forest in the morning mist? |