old memories dock n boat...

[LarrySeiler]

decided to take a smaller 11x14 plein air oil from upper Michigan done this past summer, and do a larger 20"x 24" on linen. Using the plein air and memory only, no reference photo.

11"x 14"
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/02-Feb-2005/532-oldmemories_pleinair.jpg

20"x 24"
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/02-Feb-2005/532-oldboatmemories.jpg

Now...why? One, I liked the smaller one enough to think a larger piece would hold presence framed in a larger room's space. Secondly, the larger pieces I am doing for the moment are not trying to outdo the smaller works to be more realistic, detailed and so forth...but as exercises trying with larger brushes and more paint put out...to explore what might be possible to state with even less strokes or movements.

When painting afield, in that zone...I am not so concerned with the how paint gets on. That seems to work itself out of me naturally...but I am more concerned at that time about making the expression work, or fighting against what inclinations warring within might cause it not to work.

Instudio, I am thinking more about the paint, the stroke, its application.

I'm thinking that as an exercise it will help to prepare me for an even greater decisiveness and directness outdoors.

For me...at least for the time being, the larger painting is not an invitation to come closer and see what MORE could be done than the smaller one reveals, but rather the suggestive apparent ease with which it suggests to have been done.

Also, working these larger ones prepares my mind for a sense of what I might need to do outdoors working larger. I still have those works of Edward Redfield (50"x 56") done afield looming over my shoulders.

This larger work is still in the works btw, dabbling still some areas of water, the distant trees and shoreline. You'll note I changed the structure slightly of the boat to give more a "boat" feeling than a canoe feeling.

Should be done as occasion gives me time within the week.

Larry

[LarrySeiler]

Though painting detail for many years...there was something about that first time at the Chicago Art Institute around spring of 1979 that I saw my first Frans Hals painting up close and personal.

Hals, the Dutch painter known for his rip roaring celebrating townsfolk lifting up a glass of wine and cheer with the big broad dutch hats and silk clothing.

I saw from about 20 steps away the most perfectly anatomically painted hand at rest, the other holding up the glass.

Now if you've painted portraits before, you know how the hand is one of the most difficult to get right without much toil, but there it was the most perfect hand, and I had to get closer to investigate. However, when I got closer it suddenly became apparent that Hals had crafted the hand with about a dozen well placed buttery strokes of paint.

My mouth dropped, my head no doubt shaking disbelief and awe at the same time. Many were the realistic paintings to be seen in the museum, painstakingly laboriously painted, but here for me was REAL mastery and genuis. To suggest so much having deceptively done so very little.

That hand, that alla prima style of Frans Hals never quite left my mind.

Its with that impression that I am haunted by the potential of a mark. A mark seen from paces back working as one part of a greater whole; seen as a very lovely painting. Its getting closer and seeing the audacity, the boldness, the nerve to let a stroke of paint sit there unabashedly, unashamed...well, its that thing that I experiment with in many of my larger instudio works made from plein airs.

This painting is nowhere near done yet...but, I thought without sharing the closeups of the strokes and butteryness of the paint I'm attempting to orchestrate in a Hals-like'ness, no one would quite understand what I'm trying to do. ITs not just copying a small one over to sell at a larger price, but to engage a painter's game here. Much...with less, seen from afar to appear one way....seen from up close a form of chaos.

Here is one of water up close....thick dabs of paint applied as intended, left with purpose-

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/02-Feb-2005/532-watercloseup.jpg

the top rail of the old steel hull row boat-

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/02-Feb-2005/532-boatcloseup.jpg

water up just ahead of the bow...

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/02-Feb-2005/532-bowwater_closeup.jpg

distant shore-

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/02-Feb-2005/532-shorecloseup.jpg

and finally, that jutting point of distant pines-

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/02-Feb-2005/532-treepoint_closeup.jpg

now...I'm nowhere claiming the mastery belonging rightly to Frans Hals status, but am hoping that by assigning myself the task to approximate this alla prima manner of applying the paint I am attempting to learn control, immediacy, and learn to trust in viewer interaction/participation.

Larry

[nancymae]

Larry,

This one is going to be very interesting to watch...the detail develop...as I think the plein air one is already very detailed. I'll be interested to see where you take this one! I just love your brush strokes...thank you for putting in the detail photos. I love the way you use your brush to show that lovely backlit pine tree...also the peeling paint on the boat is amazing!

It is soooo telling to see an artist's work in a museum....so much more than in a picture. You can see the brush strokes...and values. How seemingly effortless they put dabs of paint here and there...and step back..and you have a hand, or face! One painting that always captivated me at the Art Institute was the one of Renior...with the woman sitting at the piano...with the white dress that had sheer sleeves. How he painted her figure...and the sheer fabric...looked like a million brush strokes..but when you got up close...there were just a few...with color and value changes. It's amazing to see. Also, Monet's faces...where he just has a couple of brush strokes to show an entire child's face. I just love to go to museums...and look at that. It's almost magic.

Thanks for posting this...anxiously waiting for more! :wave:

Nancy

[LarrySeiler]

thanks Nancy...

I painted a bit this morning, put it in a glass case to dry up a bit and protect from clay dust in the room.

I'll suggest a bit more with distant trees, and work up some greater detail on the boat. For the time being, I'm stretching up another piece of linen to start another painting. Mainly to make use of some mounds of paint I have mixed up so as not to waste. (Good excuse, eh? hee heee)

Hopefully will get out this weekend, but they say rain on Saturday. Just gettn' over this awful flu that's been going around, so I hope it doesn't rain, otherwise I'll have to wait 'till Sunday.

I love museums. They instill confidence. Its easy for the mind to question what can be done, gotten away with...and intimidation can often be great, then to see what others have done so well with boldness, well...you either want to hang up your brushes and forget it, or you run out of that place hopin' people get out of your way if they know what's good for 'em; beatin a direct path to your easel! hahaaa...
take care

larry

[tk04]

I became a little intrigued by the composition - wondered what it would look like if you had painted the boat alone - from the beginning it was the boat that I found most attractive. That boat is very much alive. I also have some photos of boats that I might like to paint one day, but I believe those that I have thought about painting have a boat in focus. So then - I cut the upper half of your painting on the monitor, to see what your piciture would look like if you had made it with just the boat and this gangway of three - don't know what you call it - and went away from the screen - long story. I then discovered that there must be a lot of dept in this picture, seen alive on a wall. You must be very close to have rendered that sea receding as much as it would if one saw it for real. Interesting to see what happens next - I understand it like you haven't finished it yet.

[Brad M.]

Larry,
I remember this plein air and liked it very much when you first posted it. I can see why it attracted you to do a larger studio piece.
I have a question about the color. Now, I am going by the jpegs here, so I realize my comments may be based on inaccurate info.
The studio piece seems to be done in a higher tonal key. Especially the yellows, which are lighter and cooler. Is this a choice you are making?
Thanks for the close ups.

[LarrySeiler]

I became a little intrigued by the composition - wondered what it would look like if you had painted the boat alone - from the beginning it was the boat that I found most attractive. That boat is very much alive.

Actually, I did a series of three other boat scenes, where the boat is very much alone. The same boat. Here is a link to those, and you'll have to scroll about 1/3rd the page down-
http://www.artlandishconcepts.org/up_pleinairjune04.htm

the old steel boat has many fond memories as a young lad growing up, from the first time I was permitted to take it alone to the many many hours I spent fishing and exploring shorelines.

Those first three, I work some of those personal feelings out in the boat as an image. The last one, the one here I am working up...it is remembering that as a lad my thoughts were about the potential the boat itself offered. The chance to be "out there"...perhaps to be alone, feel grown up, perhaps catch a good sized fish to bring back. So the "out there" was important to capture as well, as least for personal reasons...

thanks for comments!
Larry

[LarrySeiler]

Larry,
I remember this plein air and liked it very much when you first posted it. I can see why it attracted you to do a larger studio piece.
I have a question about the color. Now, I am going by the jpegs here, so I realize my comments may be based on inaccurate info.
The studio piece seems to be done in a higher tonal key. Especially the yellows, which are lighter and cooler. Is this a choice you are making?
Thanks for the close ups.


I brightened it up a bit, true...and the shadows are stronger too...more or less experimenting, but that may change. The plein air is more accurate from that standpoint, but I just seeing what a slight alteration instudio might emit mood wise, a bit less subdued. I'll see if I care for it more or less here as the piece sits around a bit. A few moments is all it takes to tone it back down.

good eye!

Larry

[LarrySeiler]

got me wonderin' a bit now though Brad, and that's good...but, (not looking for an excuse) I wonder if the fact the plein air was painted in natural light, and I'm painting in a classroom with overhead flourescent lamps if that doesn't effect my perceptions.

Things tend toward yellows and gaudy greens...a reason children and people tend to look sickly in such places, as it sucks some of the reds out. It should be somewhat relative, but I'll have to give it more serious thought......hmm

Larry

[tk04]

Thanks for the link. I like the way you have sliced the boat and the gangway in these smaller pictures. Difficult to get it right, but it adds a lot of interest if it works out like here. All in all, with the colors, I like them a lot.

I was slightly puzzled by the perspective in the picture you are enlarging, but I couldn't figure out completely what it was. It didn't appear to be wrong in any way so I wondered what it was. A more conventional approach might have been to show directly that you are looking out from the boat. Like say showing just one side of the boat from the inside, like a boy are hanging out over the water over the edge of the boat. Your approach here is quite exciting actually, make it possible to interpret the picture in different ways.

[Brad M.]

got me wonderin' a bit now though Brad, and that's good...but, (not looking for an excuse) I wonder if the fact the plein air was painted in natural light, and I'm painting in a classroom with overhead flourescent lamps if that doesn't effect my perceptions.

Things tend toward yellows and gaudy greens...a reason children and people tend to look sickly in such places, as it sucks some of the reds out. It should be somewhat relative, but I'll have to give it more serious thought......hmm

Larry

That is a quandary Larry. I think we all see the difference in our plein air work when it is outside and then brought inside. But what effect does the studio lighting have compared to other lighting. All of our paintings a meant to be viewed indoors, but what kind of lighting will they be seen in.
I read somewhere that the Old Masters' paintings had that very glossy varnish because house were often dimly lit (candles and all). With our nice indoor lighting now, we tend to have softer finishes to our paintings.
At least when I do billboards and murals I can work in the same light the painting will be viewed in.