Advanced Drawing and Painting
"Each of these
luminous and mysterious images of trees against sky, field, and river evoke a
subtle variation of light and atmosphere. The arrangement of the trees -
whether standing in solitude or in pairs or in large groupings seem at once inevitable
and yet surprising, formal yet accidental. All of these paintings are comprised
from memory, imagination and thumbnail sketches from my beautiful basement
studio in my home in Connecticut. I work on wood board, paper and canvas using
several layers of gesso before priming the surface with cadmium red base, a
quick sketch using charcoal is used to lay out the design then the paint is
applied. I work in layers using thinned down oil color, building on these
layers with glazing techniques the colors are adjusted and brought up to
completion before final coats of varnish are applied. Light has come to play an
important part, and when I look back over this body of work, I feel it speaks
about spiritual places, places that contain a quiet inner light, radiating an
ethereal whisper, the places we see every day."
Your next assignment is to create an acrylic
landscape that experiments with the layering of color to create a luminous
atmosphere. William McCarthy takes photographs and draws thumbnail sketches of landscapes that have an
appealing composition or beautiful lighting. He then goes back to the studio and creates a landscape that may or may
not be representational. Some artists
would prefer only to paint outside looking at the natural world and how the sun
affects it, there are many ways to create a landscape or seascape. You can be inspired by a sunset, but not want to duplicate it. There is no right or wrong way to approach drawing a natural setting it would be ideal to pause the perfect sunset so you can paint what you are seeing, but you can't.
Complete the following value drawing exercises to help you become acquainted with the different types of pencil leads. This exercise will also help you focus on the gentle, mindful touch you need with drawing subtle value changes. Due Monday February 1, counted as a sketchbook assignment to be done outside of class or when you are completed with coursework during class.
