Hawthorne on Painting

[Antonin2]

"The weight and value of a work of art depends wholly on its big simplicity – we begin and end with the careful study of the great spots in relation one to another."

"Put down spots of color and let results take care of themselves. You have got to be able to see these spots come together without outline and let the outline come after."

"It’s all a matter of silhouettes."

"You paint leaves too much and you have too many little lights and shadows. It makes it cheap to have the little darks and lights so marked; trees should be silhouette more. Gather together the big lights and shadows, don’t break them up."

"Don’t do the tree do the spots of color that the tree makes – tell the truth about the relation of one color against another, and it will become a tree or a house if the right color is there, not because of the form."

"Your ability in painting is the way you see things come together – our métier is not paint and brushes, it’s our ability to see."

"Don’t make an outline and fill it in"

"The most important thing is to have something to say – it’s so simple as to be almost idiotic. Look at nature as a silhouette and tell how beautiful it is."

[bigflea]

Here is a class demonstration by Charles Hawthorne, for the outdoor painting class, around 1920's. This kind of demonstration is what came to be called "mudheads". The name refers to the color quality of the head when viewed against a bright outdoor daylight. Someone incorrectly stated the term referred to the use of models from the fishing village. I believe the painting, which is large, is currently in the Provincetown Museum, where Hawthorne ran the Cape Cod School of Art, along with Henry Hensche, who was his student for 10 or so years, and after Hawthorne's sudden death, became director of the school , changing its name to The Cape School of Art, and ran it until 1991.
Ken

[Antonin2]

Thanks for the painting it illustrate perfectly the teachings.

[lovin art]

"Your ability in painting is the way you see things come together – our métier is not paint and brushes, it’s our ability to see."

I totally agree with that ....I'm not so sure about the line part , as all art is made up of line really , sorry but logic does not lie , and someone saying different doesn't compute with me either ... I say paint what you see it's all a bunch a of lines that come together to represent what we see .... And even in paint ...

[Red 9]

Red 9 on painting- There are no rules in art

[bigflea]

Sandra,
Hawthorne was not dismissing line, edge or linear relationships. His point was simpler.
He was trying to get students to see big masses of color, some for sunlight, some for shade. We have all seen the old type of coloring books with black outlines of things, a box of crayons, and the goal of filling in between the lines or outlines with arbitrary colors.
Hawthorne was teaching against that conception, left over from grade school, or from commercial illustration.
Line is fundamental. But so is color and shape. Line supports shape. In other words, line is the edge and the rhythm of a particular form.
But what Hawthorne was suggesting is first establish the large masses of light and shade before getting to the precise edge or contours, or the precise linear relationship between separate objects.
Ken

[Antonin2]

I agree with Ken,
Alexandra if I follow your logic if I create lines I will do a good painting. Well it will just not work as it different values meeting each other that create lines. Lines is just the result of values well done that is it. Line by itself is totally irrelevant. Things are revealed in light. The same object in the morning, in the afternoon and the evening is completely different in terms of values and in facto lines. If you think lines you usually paint the idea of the thing instead of the thing in light. It is not easy to grasp but I feel it the most simple important thing to understand in paint. Hawthorne covers pages with this idea. Really look at great master paintings you will see that they paint thinking shapes of values/colors. It is obvious.
Anther point that Hawthorne was saying is that you should not draw the picture then paint it. Think like you are doing a drawing you are not paint a perfect nose then the eyes ... you make instead the big shape of the face (a circle)then a shape for the torso. you make the general to the specific. Well it is the same with painting but you make shapes of color/values the drawing is continually refined by the shapes of value/colors. Then at the end the drawing is done. It make sense.

[lovin art]

Sorry guys. , can't a girl have her own thoughts here just like you , wooh there I'm not totally disagreeing here , i certainly agree seeing the big mass is great and all , but I'm not convinced that I'm all that wrong either about line , and just for the record I do draw in paint .... And it works just fine ... And it's all me no add drawing underneath ... Sheesh ! Bty I'm smiling here as I write this ...cheers guys

[bigflea]

Sandra, no apology necessary.
To me the Hawthorne edited quotes are difficult to understand in the context since that is what isn't in the little book.
Comes down to how a reader interprets the words on the page. The notes were taken by someone who was assisting a deaf student as far as I know.

But it seems easier to look at Hawthorne's own works to understand his meaning. In the posted image he obviously has line where one form as mass changes to a different form. His works didn't eliminate linear relationships but incorporated them into the composition in the way he was demonstrating.
But there is also a visual element to the idea of line vs. mass. Line or edge is seen by a different type of visual focus, while mass of color is seen by a peripheral glance. If the painter is always working from line or edge divisions they may not be aware of the color mass relationships.
KEn