John Constble

[amanda]

Hi - anyone out there familiar with the work of John Constable. He was the English painter who loved clouds. Anyway - I wanted to share with you how I got to go to the place he actually lived and painted last weekend. It is called Flatford Mill and its a really interesting and beautiful place. Full of history - even had some of his original sketch books - really small too. Here is a link to a couple of sites with info on him for anyone interested.

http://www.personal.u-net.com/~jupiter/constable.htm
http://btr0xw.rz.uni-bayreuth.de/cjackson/constabl/index.html

Enjoy!

[Old Florida]

Hi Amanda, Many thanks for the html's on Constable's paintings which I enjoyed very much. It was interesting to discover he was also a practitioner of placing a "red spot" in most of his landscapes in the thumbprints provided. Cheers, Old Florida

[figgby]

I am a big fan of Constable. he did a lot of painting in Scotland and it is probably my favorite work of his. He also did a painting in 1810 that was a harbinger to the coming of impressionism several decades later. if you are interested, it was a farm scene with the cows wading in the creek. It was a magnificent piece. When I first began painting it was his work I painted a few copies of. Glad you like his work.

[amanda]

Thanks for the replies - I'm glad you are also Constable fans. I do recall the farm scene you mentioned. They had a real size copy of it at Flatford Mill.
Old Florida - Constable also developed a technique for painting trees - I'm not sure but I think it was taken on in Paris - taught in the school there. I'm not surprised to hear about the red dot practise, it does sound like his style.

[tammy]

Wish I could learn his cloud technique!!!!!!
They are wonderful

[KDS]

It is so nice to know that there are others of you here who love the style and techniques of John Constable. I am fascinated as well with the way he expressed the beauty of the simple country scenery around him that he knew so well. He broke away from the "art rules" of his day with a simple vision--to be true to himself, and to paint the world as he saw it. His fascination with light, atmosphere, and the colors and details of nature, leave us with quite a heritage. In his day he was called "common," his work called "mundane," and even "bourgeois," but isn't that the beginning of so many of us? His life gives hope to the ordinary man (or woman)who aspire to paint what we see. To us he would say: "Enjoy and study the familiar world around you, then be true to yourself as you paint to share that world with others." He is a man after my own heart. Happy Painting! http://www.wetcanvas.com/ubb/smile.gif Karen

[kgrimm]

Hey you guys Constable was no ordinary painter! His work was fantastic! It's his subjects that people always complained about. In fact, the English consider Constable and Turner two of the best English landscape painters that have ever lived. The English landscape painters used to "duke it out" with each other all the time at salon competitions. If I can find some of those old stories about them I'll post them. Constable painted with a technique which became known as "Constable snow". He liked to paint tiny bits pure white all across the surface of his landscapes to give them a more "glowing" effect. The strange thing about this is it worked! His work is very impressive in person, not at all like what you see in a book.

[This message has been edited by kgrimm (edited June 14, 2000).]

[KDS]

You are absolutely correct in saying that Constable was no ordinary painter. That is exactly the point. While his English contemporaries were rushing off to the continent, especially Paris and Venice to paint the "glorious" skies and landscapes there, Constable chose to stay at home in his beloved countryside of Suffolk and paint the scenes that he loved and knew so well. He was not an "ordinary" painter, but his work was considered to be of "ordinary and mundane" subject matter, and his lifestyle was labeled "bourgeois" (so said the critics of his time.) Yet his greatness lies not in his ordinary subject matter or in his simple, personal lifestyle, but in the manner in which he portrayed those scenes that he painted. He had a unique style all his own as he painted nature as he saw it--with real colors and brighter greens and brighter underpainteings rather than just the traditional golds, browns and olive greens used by the Old Masters before him. Even though we now appreciate his use of the white flecks that he used for highlights and accents, in his day, these were seen to be very untraditional and undesired. One critic called this idea of using pure white dots eveywhere as "obscene." This concept of painting received much controversy in his day and resulted in his work being frowned upon (not by all, but by many) at his art exhibits in his native country. It was not until he painted the work, "The Haywain" that was immediately accepted in Paris that he began to be acclaimed as a great painter (by the French, not yet by the English). The new French Impressionist painters took great note of his new ideas on brighter landscape colors and the white highlight flecks among other of his ideas. These new concepts had a great impact on their burgeoning style of painting along with Turner's concepts of painting light.
For a greater more detailed study of Constable's life and pictured works, you can refer to the book titled: Constable, published by Thames and Hudsom ltd. London
http://www.wetcanvas.com/ubb/smile.gif Karen




[This message has been edited by KDS (edited June 14, 2000).]